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Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to The Wife of Martin Guerre. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. This compelling story of Bertrande de The Wife of Martin Guerre is a rich novella with the timeless power of a fable. It was based on a famous story of a court case in midth century France. Janet Lewis depicts a distant time and a traditional, rural culture based on a highly ordered patriarchal structure. When "Martin Guerre" returns from a quest after eight years, the family embraces him, This compelling story of Bertrande de Rols is a rich novella with the timeless power of a fable. When "Martin Guerre" returns from a quest after eight years, the family embraces him, and Bertrande is The Wife of Martin Guerre up in the relief at the apparent return to the security of the old order. But Martin has changed, and Bertrande threatens the established order with her defiant quest for the truth. Once the accusation of false identity is laid formally and the trial process begins. Many witnesses are called. Bertrande is pressured to withdraw, and she herself is reluctant to see "Martin" executed. Finally, the real, The Wife of Martin Guerre Martin stumbles into the The Wife of Martin Guerre and is instantly recognized. He shows no mercy to Bertrande for The Wife of Martin Guerre herself to be deceived. The real facts emerge, but the fate of Bertrande and Martin remains open-ended. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published July 1st by Swallow Press first published More Details Original Title. Cases of Circumstantial Evidence. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions The Wife of Martin Guerre The Wife of Martin Guerreplease sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The The Wife of Martin Guerre of Martin Guerre. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The Wife of Martin Guerre. It is based on a startling court case in 16th century France, that has been told and adapted many times since, including the film starring Jodie Foster and Richard Gere, Sommersbywhich set it in the US Civil War. It's quite fun to watch them back to back though it's many years since I did. Martin and Bertrande are married young. Shortly after their son, Sanxi, is born, Martin goes away to avoid a dispute with his father, telling Bertrande he will be back in a week or so. Years pass. Martin returns, a changed man — changed for the better. Everyone loves him, including Bertrande - more than ever. Another child is born, and Bertrande begins to fear he is an imposter, and thus that she is an adulteress, destined for eternal damnation. For a while. What Would You Do? The story is about truth, identity, and loyalty. There is courtroom drama. But the real interest is whether and why someone could get away with such a deceit, and if so, why others might go along with it. Even if she were certain the man is an imposter, what to do, given that she has a child by each man, has come to love the new Martin, and that the estate and all its servants and workers depend on him? There is no right answer. The language is slightly old-fashioned, without being obscure. When he entered a room that displeasure entered with him. The copper vessels winked and blazed. View all 57 comments. This novella by Janet Lewis pre-dated them both by more than 40 years, but I only discovered it through the review written by my GR Friend Laura Whichello — so many thanks to Laura. The story is based on a real-life case from the 16th century. Martin Guerre, a somewhat morose year-old, disappears one day from his village in south west France, abandoning his wife, Bertrande de Rols, and their son, Sanxi. He returns 8 years later, having lived as a soldier. He claims the property that belonged to his deceased parents and moves back in with his wife, with whom he soon has another child. He is a kind and patient man, and an excellent father to his young son, who The Wife of Martin Guerre comes to hero-worship The Wife of Martin Guerre. He is attentive to his wife and often gives a word of praise to a servant for a job well-done, something his old self would never have granted. You might have thought Bertrande would have been happy about taking delivery of The Wife of Martin Guerre improved model, instead of which she begins to suspect him of being an imposter. My enjoyment of the book was slightly lessened by the fact I knew the story so well, but The Wife of Martin Guerre so I found this a well-written tale. In the novel she is portrayed as suffering religious guilt over the idea she may be living in sin with a man who is not her lawfully wedded spouse. I understand of course that she would have resented the feeling she was being deceived. I remember some of what was said about her in that book, but not of all it. I think in the end this is a novel about actions and consequences, for all those who were involved in this strangest of stories. A solid 4-star rating from me. View all 17 comments. Dec 31, Nicholas rated it it The Wife of Martin Guerre amazing Shelves: favorites. The Wife Of Martin Guerre is without question one of my favourite works in the English language or any language for that matter. My love affair with this book is an interesting one, I was introduced to it in VCE Literature, where I was required The Wife of Martin Guerre read it several times before we had finished studying it. The first time I read it I despised it, the second time I was bored by it, the third time I began to enjoy it, the forth, I fell in love with it. There is no question that this is a dense novell The Wife Of Martin Guerre is without question one of my favourite works in the English language or any language for that matter. There is no question that this is a dense novella, and it requires an effort on the readers part to push past its surface into its wondrous depths, but it contains a beauty that is unparalleled. View 1 comment. Aug 13, Laura Whichello rated it it was amazing. What a curious tale! The story of Betrand de Rols the titular wife of Martin Guerre is based on true events, which fascinated de Rols's contemporaries as much as it does us now. Why did Guerre stay away from his wife and estate so long? Where has he been? Is it truly Guerre who has returned into Betrand's life, and how far will Betrand go to uncover the truth? Being a novella, its impressive that such depth was revealed in such a short amount of space. Lewis' writing is The Wife of Martin Guerre satisfying What a curious tale! Lewis' writing is particularly satisfying - each word seems carefully selected, to impart as much information about the narrative events as about Betrand's inner life in only a single paragraph. We get to know Betrand's mind and heart so well, so intimately, that I felt genuine The Wife of Martin Guerre for the events that befall both the fictional and the real woman. If a writer can do that in fewer than a hundred pages then I'm duly impressed! View all 3 comments. I reread this fine novella after a hiatus of about ten years, having read it several times before. It's a deceptively slim and simple book which presents a host of ideas relevant to modern times. Lewis was a poet and it shows - her imagery is always effortless and at times stunning. Unfortunately, although I was considering assigning the novel for a college reading class, I decided that it really was "beyond" the average student and that I'd better choose another work. The Review: The Wife of Martin Guerre by Janet Lewis | Brick

The Ghost of Monsieur Scarronpublished incompletes a trilogy reissued by Swallow Press in Reading her is an encounter with essential, difficult, and mostly irresolvable questions in a state of wonder at their articulation. It roughs you up. I knew about and read Winters during my graduate work in English in the nineties and early aughts. Having now read two of The Wife of Martin Guerre novels and a number of poems, this shocks me. She has, in that way, always gotten her due. Lewis wrote the libretto for the opera based on Martin Guerre in The emotional and philosophical atmosphere of the novel persists and is of rare complexity. She had not known until the evening before that a marriage had been arranged. That morning she had knelt with Martin before his father and then had walked with him across the snow, dressed bravely in a new red cape and attended by many friends and relatives and by the sound of violins, to the church of Artigues where the marriage ceremony had been completed. She had found it quite as serious an affair as The Wife of Martin Guerre communion. The wedding party scene following is remarkably warm and vivid. Though they depend on unquestioned authority, these joys and securities are considerable, for the most part, for everyone in the novel. She is accepted and grows to love the beauty, peace, and safety of the farm. Their child, Sanxi, is born, and adored. But here we go again:. People so reasonable, so devoted, so strongly loving and hard working should have been exempt, one feels, from the vagaries of a malicious fate. Nevertheless, the very virtues of their way of life gave rise to a small incident, and from that incident developed the whole train of misfortune which singled out Bertrande de Rols from the peace and obscurity of her tradition. The novel, in this way, is pitiless. Uncompromising, yes; but not at all rigid. A lushness thrives in its economy. But Lewis, fully in control, does not allow us to linger where our narrative sensibilities might desire to or be accustomed to. Here are Bertrande and Martin at the happiest time in their marriage. Across the valley and on the higher slopes, the beech and oak woods were tinged with gold and russet, and higher still a blue haze seemed to be gathering, like threads of smoke. Leaf, earth, and wine in the still sunlight gave forth the odors of their substances; the air The Wife of Martin Guerre full of autumn fragrance. Martin, when he had finished his lunch, wrapped the fragments of bread and cheese and put them in his wallet. He returned the earthen wine jug to the hands of his wife and said:. Wary The Wife of Martin Guerre self-reflexive, even self-protective, we bystanders find ourselves implicated. Our investment exceeds curiosity. Things get personal. Bertrande is not convinced this Martin is the man he says he is. Acknowledging this, Bertrande lays her suspicions aside for a while and allows herself passion and happiness. She and the new Martin have a child. But there is more at stake for Bertrande than her own happiness, more even than the happiness of her children, the family, the community. There is The Wife of Martin Guerre truth, and the coterminous health of her immortal Catholic soul. Although this Martin bears the scars of the old, possesses secrets The Wife of Martin Guerre knowledge only Martin owns, and is therefore compelling in his arguments of authenticity, Bertrande sickens with resentment and guilt. The village priest, who loves and trusts the returned Martin, will not acknowledge she has committed The Wife of Martin Guerre mortal sin of adultery, much less absolve her. She declines further and is thought mad. The woman deemed mad for insisting things are not as they seem is a time-honoured theme. The only reason to suspect the returned man is not Martin Guerre is that he is vastly improved. People can change. If this man is not Martin, however, he is a criminal, an imposter, a liar. Are we crazy to even think about letting this slide? But is happiness based on a lie not still happiness? Does a choice even exist for Bertrande in her time and place? As much as it is about the identity of the returned man, Martin Guerre is also about the value of truth and its categories. Are there truths more valuable than facts? Is the value of a truth independent of the harm it does? Is it independent of changing beliefs and codes of behaviour? Though we may not believe there is an immortal soul to be damned or that stability subject to a tradition of unchallenged authority is worth preserving, Bertrande de Rols would have felt these things as truths. The perspective of dramatic irony does not offer a clear view. New evidence appears in the unlikeable form of a soldier from Rochefort, who hopes to cadge some room and board from his war buddy, Martin Guerre. The soldier from Rochefort disappears into the countryside, having left Bertrande fuel for her fire. The novel ups the ante in the second and third acts with the lure of the true-crime procedural. Readers feeling their allegiances form and shift might question, and not idly, what predisposes their ideas of a best outcome. The mind encounters this monster everywhere it turns. Insofar as a person is seeking solidarity, she does not ask about The Wife of Martin Guerre relation between the practices of the chosen community and something outside that community. Insofar as she seeks objectivity, she distances herself from the actual persons around her not by thinking of herself as a member of some other real or imaginary group, but rather by attaching herself to something which can be described without reference to any particular human beings. Bertrande is caught between the solidarity of the farm, family, and community—her felt responsibility for their well-being, a pragmatism represented not in the least in her year of happiness with the man returned—and an objective appeal to an authority above any actual person subject to it. Tradition, law, God. For the truth, that none of us believe, you would destroy us all. We shall never be happy again. There are few novels with an ending as hard and bitter as this one. In Martin Guerrepride. He was for her that day a tradition more potent than the church. And also destroys it. Swift and subtle The The Wife of Martin Guerre shuttle Crosses the The Wife of Martin Guerre And fills the loom, Leaving for range Of choice or change No room, no room. Her language here, as in her prose, is practical and capacious. It can be difficult for me, anyway to describe qualities of language without sounding like a parody of a sommelier. And one so The Wife of Martin Guerre cool, besides. As a poet, Lewis is often categorized as an imagist. Why not? What does it matter? A volume of selected poems, The Living Optionwas published in the U. Born and raisied in Saskatchewan, she lives in The Wife of Martin Guerre. But here we go again: People so reasonable, so devoted, so strongly loving and hard working should have been exempt, one feels, from the vagaries of a malicious fate. Brick 98 Posted on December 14, The Wife of Martin Guerre by Janet Lewis - English Works

The Wife of Martin Guerre first published is a short novel by American writer Janet Lewis based on the story of Martin Guerrethe 16th-century French peasant who apparently returned home to his wife after a long absence but was later revealed to be an impostor. The novel has its origins in research Lewis made into trials based on circumstantial evidence, after reading in-depth about famous trials turning on circumstantial evidence, which prompted her to write a pamphlet describing the risks The Wife of Martin Guerre using it. The novel tells the tale from the point of view of Bertrande, Martin's wife, and turns on the compelling moral problem presented to her when a man—possibly an impostor —takes the place of her husband. The first Martin is a hard, unkind person who appears not to love her whilst the second Martin is the opposite. What should she do? At the end of the novel, her husband, the real Martin, returns, and Bertrande has to make her moral decision: does she reveal that it is not the same man, thus subjecting herself to a lifetime of misery, or does she continue the lie? She chooses the truth, yet the The Wife of Martin Guerre Martin Guerre rejects her, saying, "Dry your tears, Madame. They cannot, and they ought not, move my pity. The example of my sisters and my uncle can be no excuse for you, Madame, who knew me better than any living soul. The The Wife of Martin Guerre into which you plunged could only have been caused by willful blindness. You, and you only, Madame, are answerable for the dishonor which has befallen me" Lewis, p. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Categories : American novels American historical novels Novels set in France Biographical novels Fiction set in the 16th century Biographical novel stubs s historical novel stubs. Hidden categories: Articles needing additional references from September All articles needing additional The Wife of Martin Guerre All stub articles. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. This article about a biographical novel of the s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.