French crime fiction: from Vidocq to Vargas

Course programme

Friday 8 April 2016

Please plan to arrive between 16:30 and 18:30. You can meet other course members in the bar which opens at 18:15. Tea and coffee making facilities are available in the study bedrooms.

19:00 Dinner
20:30 Session 1: The earliest 'crime' stories, serials, and international exchanges. Vidocq, from Les Mémoires (1828), 'Jean Monette'; Maurice LeBlanc, Arsène Lupin (extract from The Blonde Lady); Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain, Fantomas; Dickens, 'Hunted Down' (for comparison).
22:00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion

Saturday 9 April 2016

07:30 Breakfast
09:00 Georges Simenon, My Friend Maigret (Mon Ami Maigret)
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Le ‘Néopolar’ of the 1970s and French history. Didier Daeninckx, Murder in Memoriam (Meurtres pour mémoire)
12:30 Free
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Free
16:00 Tea
16:30 Oeuf dur or politically-committed? Dominique Manotti, Lorraine Connection
18:30 Dinner
20:00 Historical Fiction: Jean-François Parot, The Phantom of the rue Royale
21:30 Terrace bar open for informal discussion

Sunday 10 April 2016

07:30 Breakfast
09:00 Eco-thriller Pierre Lemaître, The Great Swindle
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Like nothing else Fred Vargas, Dog will have his Day [Un Peu plus loin sur la droite]
12:30 Free
12:45 Lunch

The course will disperse after lunch.