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siria 's review for:
The Return of Martin Guerre
by Natalie Zemon Davis
One of the classic works of microhistory, The Return of Martin Guerre tells the story of a sixteenth century French case of fraud and imposture. A young man called Martin Guerre, the only son of Basque parents who had moved eastward into France, is married off to a local girl, Bertrande. After a decade of marriage, he disappears—and after another decade or so, he returns. Martin is welcomed back by Bertrande as her missing husband—but within three years, Martin's father has filed suit, claiming the returned Guerre is a fraud and impostor. (If this story sounds familiar, it was the inspiration for the rather turgid Sommersby with Jodi Foster and Richard Gere.)
As a narrative, it's interesting. The story itself is of course fascinating, and Davis weaves in threads about everyday life in sixteenth century southern France which gives us a more complete picture of the world in which the Guerres lived—a world of trade and crafts, of social pressures and close family ties. That said, I found the standard of writing to be disappointing. There is a lack of literary skill here—Davis' prose is often clunky; there is a liberal use of shallow, pointless rhetorical questions; and there are even one or two points where a lack of citations left me unable to tell whether what Davis was saying was based on historical fact or her own imaginings. Interesting, but flawed.
As a narrative, it's interesting. The story itself is of course fascinating, and Davis weaves in threads about everyday life in sixteenth century southern France which gives us a more complete picture of the world in which the Guerres lived—a world of trade and crafts, of social pressures and close family ties. That said, I found the standard of writing to be disappointing. There is a lack of literary skill here—Davis' prose is often clunky; there is a liberal use of shallow, pointless rhetorical questions; and there are even one or two points where a lack of citations left me unable to tell whether what Davis was saying was based on historical fact or her own imaginings. Interesting, but flawed.