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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
i loved this for class! really showed me an intro to microhistory and how historians can piece together accounts to a novel! shows creativity
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-paced
an excellent and extraordinary depiction of tragedy that instead of occurring in our heads, occurred in the historical record. davis has an expectional way of grabbing the audience by their hearts and minds through the story of martin guerre. this story is not only about the trickery that unfolded but the life of peasants, religion, marriage, and the culture of sixteenth century france.
informative
medium-paced
A 16th century story of imposture. After Martin Guerre had left his Gascon town without a word for eight years, a man returns saying he is Martin. He is accepted by Martin's family, including Martin's wife, who has two children by him. Three years this Martin finds himself accused as an imposture by this same family, taking him to court. Remarkably he has the court convinced he is truly Martin, until the real, lost, Martin shows up in court after his 11 years absence. In an era when imprisonment was only of necessity, and not an available punishment, the imposture is executed; and the case makes history for complications in marriage, inheritance, identity, and in the nature of truth itself.
A truly fascinating story. This book feels more like a textbook than a historical novel. Still, it's a fascinating look at peasant life in 16th century France.
informative
slow-paced
Recommended by a friend but posited much more like a psychological thriller / mystery premise than a historical retelling (this man that just returned from war says he's my husband and knows all these facts about his life, but doesn't look like him), but I'm not a quitter when it's the first book of the year. As another reviewer noted, it's a great microhistory from the perspective of providing relevant background for context of the original work/its time, including an index with references, and analyzing not just the topic but also the first authors on the topic and any biases which may have affected the text. It was engaging enough for a casual reader like myself with no background on the topic for those reasons, so three stars it is!
Summary: A quick (125pg) snapshot of a small French village's infamous case of identity theft in the 16th century that attempts to summarize both the original proceedings and provide a commentary on the original narrators/authors. Davis attempts to bring a fresh perspective to the legal case of Martin Guerre's identity (and whether an imposter had been living his life) through quoted historical collections, some of which add greater context around life & social norms in 16th century France than just reading the "official" accounting.
If I may, reader, go off...
The meat of this story, the question of how to prove identity in a time of low evidence (or more particularly, little trusted evidence) has an intriguing allegory to the public court of opinion in modern times, with the flourishment of generative AI and easily manipulated images, text, and audio-visual content. When one can easily create a doppelgänger video with relatively accurate voiceover from a public figure that has spent the majority of their relevant time in internet-connected spaces (thus allowing for a large body of content to be analyzed and potentially plagiarized from as a manner of assuming mannerisms of the individual in question), can you trust anything not seen in-person? And then the running additional layers of the text carrying the overarching religious themes between rising Protestants and Catholics, mirroring the widening gaps between the “left” and “right” wings throughout global politics (and how the meanings of even what a “moderate liberal” or “conservative Christian” translate to differ by region)… interesting to take within the context of today’s world. Oh, and the academic disputes on which texts are “accurate enough” to use when building the narratives of this particular story, with some authors arguing only certain pieces by figures of authority (i.e. courts run by the church) can be used as fact versus the stories captured from other stories — really brings the parallels home!
The quote from Coras in regards to his Altercacion translation of a dialogue between Hadrian and Epictetus is especially applicable when considering recent political candidates largely held in contempt of court and public opinion for the lies they have spread: “And in truth there is nothing between men more detestable than feigning and dissimulating, though our century is so unfortunate that in every estate, he who knows best how to refine his lies, his pretenses and his hypocrisy is often the most revered.”
Summary: A quick (125pg) snapshot of a small French village's infamous case of identity theft in the 16th century that attempts to summarize both the original proceedings and provide a commentary on the original narrators/authors. Davis attempts to bring a fresh perspective to the legal case of Martin Guerre's identity (and whether an imposter had been living his life) through quoted historical collections, some of which add greater context around life & social norms in 16th century France than just reading the "official" accounting.
If I may, reader, go off...
The quote from Coras in regards to his Altercacion translation of a dialogue between Hadrian and Epictetus is especially applicable when considering recent political candidates largely held in contempt of court and public opinion for the lies they have spread: “And in truth there is nothing between men more detestable than feigning and dissimulating, though our century is so unfortunate that in every estate, he who knows best how to refine his lies, his pretenses and his hypocrisy is often the most revered.”
informative
fast-paced
Review is for audiobook. I was expecting some type of historical fiction or novel based on the event, and it turned out to be more like an academic report. However, it was a very interesting episode to learn about, and there were a lot of cultural implications of what happened that gave me a lot to think about. Just wasn’t what I was expecting, and the author veered off on tangents quite a bit.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
medium-paced