Il titolo fa riferimento alle due grandi svolte nella vita di François Lecoin, ognuna avvenuta nell'arco di 48h, durante le quali l'uomo cerca di affrancare se stesso e il figlio da una vita di miseria. La disperazione dell'uomo, il suo senso di vuoto e impotenza davanti alle avversità, sono palpabili.

Simenon è uno di quegli scrittori per i quali non si può certo dire che "l'ottimismo è il profumo della vita". ( )

Les quatre jours du pauvre homme is a 1949 non-Maigret story, framed as a tragedy, and describing two 48-hour periods in the life of François Lecoin, whom we first meet engaging in a classic Simenon plot-device, deceiving his wife into believing that he has a regular job when in fact he's been unemployed for months. Debt, drink, despair and disgust with his bourgeois roots have brought him to the bottom of the heap, but a crisis in his life seems to give him the strength of character and resource to make a new start.

Lots of lovely low-life Parisian detail in part one, and in part two we get an interestingly detailed look at the way a dodgy weekly scandal-sheet operates - this obviously must be drawing on Simenon's early journalistic experiences. Another interesting touch is that the Paris police who are the heroes of so many of his books here appear in quite a different light, as unscrupulous and corrupt. So well worth a look, but not really up there with the best of Simenon's fiction. ( )

Désemparé à la mort de sa femme, sans emploi et à bout de ressources, François Lecoin va céder à la tentation du chantage. Un chantage qu'il a l'occasion d'exercer contre son propre frère, le brillant avocat en quête d'une carrière politique. Ainsi s'ouvre pour lui une nouvelle vie, quitte à exercer le pire des métiers : celui qui fait commerce du scandale, de la calomnie et de la diffamation. Jusqu'au moment où ses manoeuvres se retourneront contre lui. C'est l'histoire d'une déchéance morale que nous raconte Georges Simenon dans ce sombre roman, centré sur quatre journées décisives dans la vie de François Lecoin - personnage peu reluisant dont le titre nous rappelle néanmoins ce qu'il est d'abord, et peut-être avant tout : un pauvre homme.