natalie davis the return of martin guerre

But unlike Coras and all other subsequent narrators (save for F. Davis builds her story around the Arrest Memorable by Jean de Coras, the judge who condemned du Tilh. He was on the verge of exoneration when the real Martin Guerre appeared on the scene and sealed his fate (death on a gibbet across from the Guerre house).

But after three or four years as a happy husband and respected citizen, Martin Arnaud was accused of being a fraud in a suit to which Bertrande was a party. About eight years later a brilliant impostor named Arnaud du Tilh with a reasonable resemblance to Martin Guerre showed up in Artigat and was received by everyone (including Bertrande de Vols) with open arms. Not long after that he fell out with his father (committing the unpardonable act, for a Basque, of stealing grain from the older man) and then suddenly disappeared. After more than eight years of impotence, Martin succeeded in consummating the marriage and begetting a son. Both bride and groom were well-to-do and very young, perhaps 12 and 14 respectively. Martin Guerre was a peasant of Basque origins who married Bertrande de Vols in the village of Artigat in 1538. That work in turn drove her to do the minute, exacting research that resulted in this fine little book. Davis is a Princeton historian who collaborated with scenarist Jean-Claude CarriÃ¨re and director Daniel Vigne on the just-released Retour de Martin Guerre. A scholarly speculative reconstruction of a celebrated episode from 16th-century Languedoc that shapes a mass of dusty archival records into a relaxed, fast-paced, and charming narrative.

Natalie davis the return of martin guerre