BWB REMEMBERS THE BOOKS OF OUR CHILDHOOD (3 OF 3)
The third and final part in our Children’s Book Week series on the books that BWB employees remember from their childhood. Don’t forget...
by Natalie Zemon Davis
Hello, I'm an eBook! ATTENTION: This item is an eBook. It can be read on iOS, Android, MAC and PC's with a supported eReader. It is not a physical book. eBooks are available via download immediately after you've checked out.
Shipped from other seller
Condition:
Bay City Books CA, USA
Goodwill Discount Books NV, USA
HPB-045 OH, USA
HPB-003 TX, USA
Hawking Books CA, USA
HPB-043 TX, USA
Borgasorus Books, Inc. MO, USA
HPB-087 IL, USA
HPB-017 TX, USA
Textbooksrus OH, USA
Vashon Island Books WA, USA
Powell's Books OR, USA
A Novel Idea Bookstore FL, USA
HPB-103 WI, USA
HPB-085 TX, USA
HPB-031 IA, USA
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.
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.
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 "ancien regime," 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.
Deftly written to please both the general public and specialists, "The Return of Martin Guerre" 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.
Limited Time Only!
Today only, save 40% on 5 or more used books from the Bargain Bin. Shop Now »
We match every book you purchase with a book donation. Learn more »
Gift Certificate = Happy Friend + Books donated to families in need Make Someone Happy »