The Return of Martin Guerre

The Return of Martin Guerre Historian Natalie Zemon Davis wrote an informative novel about the lives of peasants in the sixteenth century. Entitled The Return of Martin Guerre, Davis tells a true story about a law suit against a man claiming to be someone he is not. She familiarizes the reader with peasantry, laws, and moral attitudes of the time. The story begins in 1527 with a family move from the French Basque country to the …showed first 75 words of 827 total…

…showed last 75 words of 827 total…of “imposture and false supposition of name and of adultery” (86), a serious crime in that day, penalized by physical punishment or death. Arnaud received the latter. The story of Martin Guerre has be told and retold throughout French history. Natalie Zemon Davis cleverly told the history of small town French peasants in her version of the story through collected data and journals form the sixteenth-century. Her method of teaching history is creative and very interesting.