The Return of Martin Guerre

By: Natalie Zemon Davis

Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen

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. Natalie Zemon Davis reconstructs the lives of ordinary people, in a sparkling way that reveals the hidden attachments and sensibilities of nonliterate 16th-century villagers.

We learn what happens when common people get involved in the workings of the criminal courts in the ancient 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 a remarkable psychological narrative about where self-fashioning stops and lying begins.

©1983 The President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2018 Tantor

A must listen! Incredible account of peasant life

Narration was perfect. Natalie Zemon Davis is a master storyteller and historian of 16th century France!!!

Interesting account of a famous impostureship

In the 16th century Arnaud du Tilh posed as a lost teenage groom, Martin Guerre (Guerre went to war & disappeared) and took up with Guerre's wife--who fell in love with du Tilh.
Fascinating.

Very Very Good

highly recommend. the reader has a very nice voice. the storytelling style was easily digestible. the story itself is absolutely bonkers. made even more bonkers by the fact that it's based in reality and was a real court case.

Intriguing court documents

a great story written by a historian, that brings in new historicism to the story of Martin Guerre.

Enthralling

The author, a celebrated historian who died in 2023, at 94, appropriately hedges her narrative, due to gaps in records (e.g., including “she must have . . .”), But this is, nonetheless, an enthralling work. Highly recommended.