false 333301 6 <p> The Inventive Peasant Arnaud du Tilh had almost persuaded the learned judges at the Parlement of Toulouse, when on a summer's day in 1560 a man swaggered into the court on a wooden leg, denounced Arnaud, and reestablished his claim to the identity, property, and wife of Martin Guerre. The astonishing case captured the imagination of the Continent. Told and retold over the centuries, the story of Martin Guerre became a legend, still remembered in the Pyrenean village where the impostor was executed more than 400 years ago. </p><p> Now a noted historian, who served as consultant for a new French film on Martin Guerre, has searched archives and lawbooks to add new dimensions to a tale already abundant in mysteries: we are led to ponder how a common man could become an impostor in the sixteenth century, why Bertrande de Rols, an honorable peasant woman, would accept such a man as her husband, and why lawyers, poets, and men of letters like Montaigne became so fascinated with the episode. </p><p> Natalie Zemon Davis reconstructs the lives of ordinary people, in a sparkling way that reveals the hidden attachments and sensibilities of nonliterate sixteenth-century villagers. Here we see men and women trying to fashion their identities within a world of traditional ideas about property and family and of changing ideas about religion. We learn what happens when common people get involved in the workings of the criminal courts in the <i>ancien régime</i>, and how judges struggle to decide who a man was in the days before fingerprints and photographs. We sense the secret affinity between the eloquent men of law and the honey-tongued village impostor, a rare identification across class lines. </p><p> Deftly written to please both the general public and specialists, <i>The Return of Martin Guerre</i> will interest those who want to know more about ordinary families and especially women of the past, and about the creation of literary legends. It is also a remarkable psychological narrative about where self-fashioning stops and lying begins. </p> 328642 1982 The Return of Martin Guerre total:298|5:59|4:96|3:109|2:27|1:7| 298 1067 392 31 4 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 04 13:18:50 -0700 2007 Mon Dec 03 04:56:56 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu May 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 20:56:26 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 21:12:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 02 20:18:20 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 02 20:29:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sun Jun 24 11:27:02 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 24 11:34:06 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 22 06:29:48 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 06:32:41 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Jun 25 19:12:36 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 26 08:41:15 -0700 2009 1 4 0 false false Thu Oct 08 11:29:57 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 24 21:06:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Sep 20 17:05:18 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 20 17:06:25 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Nov 04 20:02:44 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 20:03:42 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sun Oct 18 08:42:38 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 08:43:41 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu May 28 21:07:33 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 21:08:40 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Wed Sep 16 08:22:16 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 08:23:17 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Oct 21 04:35:55 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 21 05:56:24 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Oct 25 08:39:07 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 08:39:33 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Mar 31 05:03:38 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 05:07:29 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Apr 26 05:22:05 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 14 10:52:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 10 09:52:57 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 17 11:38:51 -0700 2007 literary skill and imagination. Davis poses rhetorical questions that frequently lack intellectual maturit...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun May 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 14 12:36:44 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 12:08:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Jan 22 15:25:43 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 22 15:33:18 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Fri Jan 25 19:59:06 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 25 20:03:26 -0800 2008 more...]]>