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Monsieur Pamplemousse

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Aristide Pamplemousse is the central figure in a series of eighteen comic novels by Michael Bond, published between 1983 and 2015. Pamplemousse is a fictional former detective of the Sûreté nationale, now employed as an inspector for a French restaurant guide. He and his faithful, intelligent bloodhound, Pommes Frites, become involved with, investigate, and solve crime mysteries. In addition to the crimes, the novels are full of culinary detail and descriptions of haute cuisine dishes, in between farcical bedroom-comedy situations in which Monsieur Pamplemousse becomes (mostly) innocently caught up. In the words of The Times, the series is an "engaging mix of farce, detection and cuisine".[1]

Background

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By the early 1980s Michael Bond was internationally known as an author of children's stories. His Paddington Bear series, begun 25 years earlier, had been translated into nearly 20 languages, and adapted for stage and screen.[2] His first book for adults, Monsieur Pamplemousse, was published in 1983. It featured Aristide Pamplemousse, a former detective in the Sûreté nationale. The character is at the centre of 17 further Monsieur Pamplemousse novels published over more than two decades, nearly to the end of the author's life; Bond, a Francophile, was inspired while dining in a French restaurant to write about a French detective who became a restaurant critic.[3] A Times article revealed that Bond wrote the novels in Montmartre, where he had an apartment.[4]

Main characters

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By the time of his first appearance Pamplemousse has been obliged to retire early from the police service, having been found in compromising – though in fact perfectly innocent – circumstances with fifteen chorus girls at the Folies Bergère. Since then he has been an undercover inspector for France's oldest and most prestigious restaurant guide, known simply as Le Guide, a rival of the Michelin and Gault Millau guides.[5]

Le Guide − wholly fictitious unlike its supposed rivals − is based in the seventh arrondissement of Paris, near Les Invalides.[6] Its Director, Henri Leclercq,[7] lives in some style in a large house on the fringe of Paris, and is something of a snob, adding a q to the surname Leclerc, to make it more distinguished.[8] Many of the novels begin with a request from the Director to Pamplemousse to undertake some extracurricular activity − for the benefit of Leclercq, Le Guide or even La France − from which extravagant complications ensue.[9]

The Director's discreet but influential secretary is an important player at Le Guide, but the dominant female figure in the organisation is the formidable Madame Grante, in charge of Le Guide's finances; Pamplemousse is in recurrent conflict with her over the magnitude of his expenses claims.[10] Despite her forbidding exterior, the widowed Madame Grante is sufficiently susceptible to male charms that in Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates she has to be rescued from a scheming abductor by Pamplemousse and Pommes Frites.[11]

Pamplemousse and his wife, Doucette – for whom his affectionate pet-name is "Couscous" – live in an apartment in a block of flats in the Rue Girardon, in the Grandes-Carrières district of Montmartre, between the Cimetière de Montmartre and Sacre Coeur.[12] Madame Pamplemousse is tolerant of her husband's perplexing goings-on, although irritated by his untidiness, muddy shoes and stray hairs.[13] She is a good cook, unlike her sister Agathe, whose attempts at tripe à la mode de Caen are for Pamplemousse "a sure recipe for indigestion".[14] His favourite restaurant is Le Maquis, a bistro, in the Rue Caulaincourt (a real restaurant).[15][16]

The bloodhound Pommes Frites is, like Monsieur Pamplemousse, retired from the police. He had been on attachment to the eighteenth arrondissement, where Monsieur Pamplemousse lives, when he was made redundant following a government cut-back, and the Pamplemousses rescued him from being sent to a dogs' home.[13] Pamplemousse takes him walking in the Parc Monceau.[17] Madame Pamplemousse is as exasperated by the dog's tendency to shed hairs throughout the apartment as she is by her husband's similar failing.[18] Pommes Frites has a nose and palate of great discernment, and is permitted to sit under his master's table in most restaurants. On inspections for Le Guide the two journey all around France in Pamplemousse's old Citroën Deux Chevaux, described by an acquaintance as looking like "a roll-top desk on wheels".[19]

An occasional colleague in Pamplemousse's investigations is an Englishman, Mr Pickering of Burgess Hill, whom Le Guide retains as an adviser "on account of his vast and expert knowledge of wine … a fountain of information, as indeed he was on many other things".[20]

Plots

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The publisher's summary of Monsieur Pamplemousse Afloat gives an example of a typical plot involving Pamplemousse and Pommes Frites:

When the Director of Le Guide offers a holiday on the Canal de Bourgogne, Monsieur Pamplemousse is unaware that there are strings attached – several, in fact. Things are not quite as peaceful as they seem among the vineyards of Burgundy, and family rivalries and resentments from long past culminate in a series of strange occurrences. … Before the holiday is over the crime-solving duo will have to cope with the perils of portholes, a dead parrot, missing undergarments, the advances of a Marilyn Monroe lookalike, and an assassin disguised as a nun.[21]

In Monsieur Pamplemousse on the Spot, Pamplemousse is staying at Les Cinq Parfaits, a world-renowned hotel-restaurant on the shores of Lac Leman. One of the proprietors disappears; Pamplemousse comes to the rescue "and in no time at all is up to his eyeballs in trouble – especially when he encounters Fräulein Brünnhilde, gym-mistress at a nearby girls' finishing school, and proud possessor of two magnificently large and undeniably desirable balcons".[22]

For Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Cure, the Director sends Pamplemousse to sample a de luxe health farm. In addition to detesting the spartan regime, Pamplemousse begins to suspect something more sinister behind the establishment, with a hearse in daily attendance, and he exposes a cocaine smuggling operation.[23] In Monsieur Pamplemousse on Probation, after the hero's unfortunate collision with a Mother Superior is caught on camera he is sent out of the reach of publicity to report on a chef currently in line for Le Guide's top award, and "opens a can of worms which threatens the very sanctity of France's premier gastronomic bible".[24]

The novels include details of the classic French dishes tasted by Pamplemousse, and on occasion by Pommes Frites, whose palate is put to the test in Monsieur Pamplemousse and the French Solution, in which his skills are shown off in a blind tasting where he distinguishes top quality poulet de Bresse, agneau des Pyrénées and Charolais beef from inferior competitors.[25] Pamplemousse and his dog also sample and opine on wine throughout the series.[26]

Critical response

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In 1986 The Guardian referred to "Michael Bond's marvellous Monsieur Pamplemousse" comparing him with another fictional French detective, Inspector Clouseau.[27] Another reviewer in the same year wrote of Monsieur Pamplemousse on the Spot:

The hero of this richly-flavoured mystère gastronomlque has the sort of job lots of foodies would love – an inspector for a gourmet guide. But Pamplemousse never lets the case stand in the way of a gourmet experience, resulting in a nicely-cooked comic novel served with some rich sauce. But Monsieur Pamplemousse is no lemon (citrus fruit joke) and has more than a nose for wine. He is a detective of no mean quality. Accompanied by his dog Pommes Frittes – a hound given to raiding gourmet dustbins with spectacular results in canine flatulence – our hero sets off to find a missing chef.[28]

In the Irish Independent Ruth Dudley Edwards felt that Bond had not fully made the leap from children's fiction to its adult counterpart, "much knowledgeable carry-on about food and wine and jolly sex scenes notwithstanding".[29] The Observer praised "four-star moments among the custard pies".[30] In The Times Marcel Berlins wrote of an "engaging mix of farce, detection and cuisine", but thought Pommes Frites featured too prominently in Monsieur Pamplemousse on the Spot: "next time, grapefruit without chips, please".[1]

Adaptations

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The BBC broadcast a serial reading from Monsieur Pamplemousse on the Spot in 1986 and a three-part dramatisation of Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates in 1995, starring Gorden Kaye as the title character. This version was rebroadcast in 2004, 2006 and 2007.[31] The BBC has recorded audio book versions, narrated by Bill Wallis, of Monsieur Pamplemousse and the French Solution, Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Militant Midwives and Monsieur Pamplemousse Hits the Headlines.[32]

Monsieur Pamplemousse novels

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Year Title Publisher
(all London)
ISBN
1983 Monsieur Pamplemousse Hodder and Stoughton ISBN 0-340-33142-9
1984 Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Secret Mission Hodder and Stoughton ISBN 0-340-36034-8
1986 Monsieur Pamplemousse on the Spot Hodder and Stoughton ISBN 0-340-37364-4
1987 Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Cure Hodder and Stoughton ISBN 0-340-40331-4
1988 Monsieur Pamplemousse Aloft Hodder and Stoughton ISBN 0-449-90455-5
1990 Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates Hodder and Stoughton ISBN 0-340-51341-1
1991 Monsieur Pamplemousse Rests His Case Headline ISBN 0-449-90639-6
1991 Monsieur Pamplemousse Stands Firm Headline ISBN 0-7472-3849-9
1992 Monsieur Pamplemousse on Location Headline ISBN 0-7472-0673-2
1993 Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Train Headline ISBN 0-7472-0935-9
1999 Monsieur Pamplemousse Afloat Allison and Busby ISBN 0-7490-0347-2
2000 Monsieur Pamplemousse on Probation Allison and Busby ISBN 0-7490-0463-0
2001 Monsieur Pamplemousse on Vacation Allison and Busby ISBN 0-7490-0532-7
2003 Monsieur Pamplemousse Hits the Headlines Allison and Busby ISBN 0-7490-0622-6
2006 Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Militant Midwives Allison and Busby ISBN 0-7490-8277-1
2007 Monsieur Pamplemousse and the French Solution Allison and Busby ISBN 978-0-7490-8022-8
2011 Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Carbon Footprint Allison and Busby ISBN 978-0-7490-0908-3
2014 Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Tangled Web Allison and Busby ISBN 978-0-7490-1626-5

Collections

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All published by Allison and Busby, London

Year Title ISBN Contains
1998 Monsieur Pamplemousse Omnibus
Volume One
ISBN 0-7490-0352-9 Monsieur Pamplemousse
Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Secret Mission
Monsieur Pamplemousse on the Spot
1999 Monsieur Pamplemousse Omnibus
Volume Two
ISBN 0-7490-0442-8 Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Cure
Monsieur Pamplemousse Aloft
Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates
Monsieur Pamplemousse Rests his Case
1999 Monsieur Pamplemousse Omnibus
Volume Three
ISBN 0-7490-0442-8 Monsieur Pamplemousse Stands Firm
Monsieur Pamplemousse on Location
Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Train

References

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  1. ^ a b Berlins, Marcel. "Crime", The Times, 23 January 1986, p. 15
  2. ^ Bisp, Sandra. "Paddington – the bear facts", Liverpool Echo, 9 October 1982, p. 6
  3. ^ "Obituary: Michael Bond", BBC News, 28 June 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2022
  4. ^ Bond, Michael. "Paddington, Paris and me", The Times, 4 April 2015, p. 173
  5. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse, pp. 6 and 18
  6. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Militant Midwives, pp. 37–38
  7. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse on Vacation, p. 1
  8. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Carbon Footprint, p. 16
  9. ^ For example, the opening chapters of Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Cure, Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Carbon Footprint, Monsieur Pamplemousse Aloft, and Monsieur Pamplemousse Rests his Case
  10. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Cure, p. 9
  11. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates, Chapters 9 and 10
  12. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse Rests His Case, pp. 192–193
  13. ^ a b Monsieur Pamplemousse, p. 97
  14. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse Investigates, p. 173
  15. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Train, Chaper 2
  16. ^ Le Bistrot du Maquis. Retrieved 23 September 2022
  17. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse on Location, pp. 1–2
  18. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse, pp. 96–97
  19. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse and the Carbon Footprint, p. 104
  20. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse on the Spot, p. 101
  21. ^ " Monsieur Pamplemousse Afloat", Google Books. Retrieved 24 September 2022
  22. ^ "Monsieur Pamplemousse on the Spot", Google Books. Retrieved 24 September 2022
  23. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse Takes the Cure, pp. 47, 67 and 151
  24. ^ "Monsieur Pamplemousse on Probation", Google Books. Retrieved 24 September 2022
  25. ^ Monsieur Pamplemousse and the French solution, pp. 235–240
  26. ^ Douglas, Ellie. "Michael Bond: Top wine quotes from the Monsieur Pamplemousse stories", Decanter, 28 June 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2022
  27. ^ "Between trifle and truffle", The Guardian, 27 January 1989, p. 27
  28. ^ Simpson, Alistair. "This sauce is not too rich", Aberdeen Evening Express, 12 April 1986, p. 18
  29. ^ Dudley Edwards, Ruth. "It's simply criminal", Irish Independent, 10 October 1987, p. 10
  30. ^ "Something to chew on", The Observer, 10 March 1985, p. 24
  31. ^ "Monsieur Pamplemousse", BBC Genome. Retrieved 24 September
  32. ^ WorldCat OCLC 459794506, OCLC 271771218 and OCLC 225852007. Retrieved 24 September 2022