41 pages • 1 hour read
Natalie Zemon DavisThe Return of Martin Guerre
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1983A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Introduction-Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction Summary
Davis establishes her point of view as historian in the Introduction, explaining her research process and describing the usefulness of primary sources like diaries and letters. She points out one unique challenge she encountered while researching the lives she examines in this book: “the peasants, more than ninety percent of whom could not write in the sixteenth century, have left us few documents of self-revelation” (2). Literary sources about the peasants are also of limited utility, as “they follow the classical rules that make villagers a subject of comedy” (2). Davis explains that court documents and legal records are the most revealing of sources, and in the case of Martin Guerre, two specific texts are of particular usefulness: Arrest Memorable, written in French, by Jean de Coras, who was a judge and court reporter at the trial, and another work written by Guillaume Le Sueur, called Admiranda historia in Latin and known as Histoire Admirable in the French. Davis credits both of these writings as fundamental to her project while she reminds the reader that what she has written is “in part [her] invention, but held tightly in check by the voices of the past” (5).
Chapter 1 Summary: “From Hendaye to Artigat”
In the first chapter, Davis introduces the Daguerre family. In 1527, Sanxi Daguerre and his family left their home in Hendaye, in the Basque region “right on the border between France and Spain” (6), looking to establish a new life in Artigat, a village in the Languedoc region of France. Sanxi’s life in Hendaye was not necessarily a bad one, but he may have moved to escape the pressures of war, plague, and possibly, some family problems: “[w]hatever the cause, Sanxi packed up his belongings and departed with his family and his younger unmarried brother” (7).
Davis explains that Artigat promised the Daguerre family more freedom and a different kind of peasant identity. In Hendaye, “[l]iving between the mountains, the river and the ocean, the villagers herded sheep, fished, and farmed” (7). In Artigat, peasant life was not limited to working the land or the sea; the Daguerres could become merchants or artisans. Peasants could even own property in Artigat, as well as rent it, so Sanxi may have envisioned a future as a landlord.
The Daguerres settled in Artigat and soon adapted to the new language and the new ways of their new home: “To be accepted by the village they had to take on some Languedoc ways. Daguerre became Guerre” (14). Sanxi’s younger brother even changed his name to sound more French and became known as Pierre. Eleven years after their arrival, in 1538, Sanxi’s son Martin was married to Bertrande de Rols, the daughter of a wealthy local family. Both husband and wife were young, perhaps as young as fourteen, but the marriage was promising, and “[a]long with future progeny, goods and exchange of service were surely considerations” (17). The Guerre’s profession was tileworkand Bertrande’s brother may have been considered eligible, so the union was a strong one. Bertrande brought with her a dowry of “household goods and clothes that came with every bride in the region: a bed with feather pillows, sheets of linen and wool, a bedcover, a coffer with lock and key, and two or three dresses of different hues” (17). After their wedding, Martin and Bertrande were escorted home to the house of Sanxi Guerre, where they were given a marriage drink, meant to be an aphrodisiac to help them consummate their marriage.
Introduction-Chapter 1 Analysis
Davis lays a foundation for her role as historian and narrator in the Introduction, citing her sources and explaining her research process. Davis credits Arrest Memorable, published in 1561 by Jean de Coras, as the most comprehensive record of the events explained in The Return of Martin Guerre, and mentions Guillaume Le Sueur’s Historia, published in the same year, as a useful supplement to Coras’s book. Though Davis relies on these historical records for the facts, she weaves a narrative of her own creation throughout the book, bringing those historical facts to life.
Davis’s tone as narrator and storyteller is engaging and conversational, which reveals her personal attachment to the characters and their lives. Early on, she reveals her particular interest in the experience of Bertrande de Rols, the wife of Martin Guerre; in fact, Davis starts the book with the French phrase Femme bonne qui a mauvais mary, a bien souvent le coeur marry (A good wife with a bad husband often has a sorry heart), establishing her commitment to the wife’s story from the very start of the book.
In Chapter One, Davis presents thorough descriptions of the setting, all of which illuminate the culture and conditions of sixteenth-century French peasant life. There is information about the working lives of Basque and French peasants, the threats of warfare and disease to their peaceful lives and communities, and the alluring qualities of Artigat and the surrounding Languedoc region of France, which together function as a backdrop to the story of Martin Guerre.
