Description
Book SynopsisThe clever peasant Arnaud du Tilh had almost won his case when a man with a wooden leg swaggered into the French courtroom, denounced du Tilh, and reestablished his claim to the identity, property, and wife of Martin Guerre. This book, by the noted historian who served as a consultant for the film, adds new dimensions to this famous legend.
Trade ReviewA fascinating reconstruction of a famous incident of impostorship and love in sixteenth-century rural France. Davis delicately deploys historical fact to suggest what is singular about the modern individual. -- Todd Gitlin * The Nation *
Natalie Zemon Davis…has scoured the legal and notarial records of south-western France to recreate for the reader not merely a highly entertaining story but a vivid picture of the world which fashioned its principal characters. Her observations on property rights, inheritance, customs, family relationships and the mechanisms of the law are welded together by a rare blend of historical craft and imagination… Professor Davis’s ability to combine lively narrative, wit, historical reflection and psychological analysis will ensure for this book a wide audience. It is truly captivating story with which to pass a rainy weekend; it is also a brilliantly professional reconstruction of the rural world of sixteenth-century France, which will both stimulate and inform for many years to come. -- David Parker * Times Literary Supplement *
In her intelligent and subtle analysis, the story gives an inside view of an otherwise little-known world, the private lives of peasants… Natalie Davis has also collaborated on an excellent film of the story (produced in France) as well as writing this book… One can only admire Natalie Davis for the major work of historical reconstruction she has performed without any kind of ideological bias… About Martin Guerre, I would say, without hesitation, the movie was great, but Natalie Davis’s book is even greater. -- Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie * New York Review of Books *
Davis combines a veteran researcher’s expertise with a lay reader’s curiosity and an easygoing style. She draws on sophisticated…work in land tenure, legal rights, and demography to reinterpret a ‘prodigious history’ among the French peasantry… Davis’s book combines ingredients essential to good social history—painstaking historical research and a vividly empathetic imagination. The result of this happy combination is that character emerges in context… Davis’s book balances possibility and constraint, character and situation. It puts people back into history but doesn’t take the social and political forces out of it. The universal is there in particular, and it makes you think not only about their choices then, but about ours now. -- Pat Aufderheide * Village Voice *
Written in a lively prose style that is accessible without ever being simplistic.
The Return of Martin Guerre may be the most vivid, informative and entertaining history writing since Barbara Tuchman’s
A Distant Mirror…a rich and colorful picture of life, love and justice in 16th-century France. -- Robert C. Cumbow * Seattle Times *
The fullest account to date of this extraordinary tale. Davis has constructed a fine piece of social history, a look into the lives of 16th-century peasants who left no records because they could neither read nor write. -- Jean Strouse * Newsweek *
A fascinating anecdote, with enough colorful background, psychological complexity, and unsolved mysteries to delight any intelligent audience. * Kirkus Reviews *
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. From Hendaye to Artigat 2. The Discontented Peasant 3. The Honor of Bertrande de Rols 4. The Masks of Arnaud du Tilh 5. The Invented Marriage 6. Quarrels 7. The Trial at Rieux 8. The Trial at Toulouse 9. The Return of Martin Guerre 10. The Storyteller 11. Histoire prodigieuse, Histoire tragique 12. Of the Lame Epilogue Selected Bibliography of Writings on Martin Guerre Notes Index Illustrations First edition of Coras, Arrest Memorable (1561). Bibliotheque Nationale. First page of the Arrest Memorable (1561). Bibliotheque Mazarine. The routes of Martin Guerre. Whimsical soldiers, ca. 1545. Archives departementales de l'Ariege, 5E6220. Peasants dance. Bibliotheque Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes. A rural couple. Bibliotheque Nationale. Confrontation between accused and witness. Harvard Law School Library, Treasure Room. First pictorial representation of the case. Bibliotheque Mazarine, Paris. Jean de Coras. Bibliotheque Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes. A case of remarkable resemblance. University of Pennsylvania, Furness Memorial Library, Special Collections, Van Pelt Library. Punishment arrives on a wooden leg. Princeton University Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.
