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The Would-Be Commoner: A Tale of Deception, Mur... by Ravel, Jeffrey S. Hardback

FREE US DELIVERY | ISBN: 0618197311 | Quality Books
World of Books USA
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eBay item number:305804663588
Last updated on Dec 02, 2025 15:29:01 PSTView all revisionsView all revisions

Item specifics

Condition
Very Good: A book that does not look new and has been read but is in excellent condition. No obvious ...
ISBN
0618197311
EAN
9780618197316
Date of Publication
2008-07-01
Publication Name
N/A
Type
Hardback
Release Title
The Would-Be Commoner: A Tale of Deception, Murder, and Justic...
Artist
Ravel, Jeffrey S.
Brand
N/A
Colour
N/A
Book Title
Would-Be Commoner : a Tale of Deception, Murder, and Justice in Seventeenth-Century France
Publisher
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Item Length
8.2 in
Publication Year
2008
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Illustrator
Yes
Item Height
0.9 in
Author
Jeffrey S. Ravel
Genre
Law, History
Topic
Europe / Western, Legal History
Item Weight
15.5 Oz
Item Width
5.5 in
Number of Pages
320 Pages
Category

About this product

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
ISBN-10
0618197311
ISBN-13
9780618197316
eBay Product ID (ePID)
63461559

Product Key Features

Book Title
Would-Be Commoner : a Tale of Deception, Murder, and Justice in Seventeenth-Century France
Number of Pages
320 Pages
Language
English
Publication Year
2008
Topic
Europe / Western, Legal History
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
Law, History
Author
Jeffrey S. Ravel
Format
Hardcover

Dimensions

Item Height
0.9 in
Item Weight
15.5 Oz
Item Length
8.2 in
Item Width
5.5 in

Additional Product Features

Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2008-003848
Reviews
"Ravel (History/MIT) grapples skillfully with a slippery cause célcbre involving imposture and bigamy in the closing years of Louis XIV's reign...A surprisingly light-footed look at fundamental questions of authority and identity." Kirkus Reviews "this outstanding book makes a worthy addition to the cultural and social history of the Old Regime and is warmly recommended" Library Journal, "Ravel (History/MIT) grapples skillfully with a slippery cause clcbre involving imposture and bigamy in the closing years of Louis XIVe(tm)s reign...A surprisingly light-footed look at fundamental questions of authority and identity." Kirkus Reviews "this outstanding book makes a worthy addition to the cultural and social history of the Old Regime and is warmly recommended" Library Journal, Ravel (History/MIT) grapples skillfully with a slippery cause célèbre involving imposture and bigamy in the closing years of Louis XIV's reign...A surprisingly light-footed look at fundamental questions of authority and identity., this outstanding book makes a worthy addition to the cultural and social history of the Old Regime and is warmly recommended
TitleLeading
The
Dewey Edition
22
Dewey Decimal
345.44/36102523
Table Of Content
Contents Illustrations and Maps ix Acknowledgments xi Prologue: The Mystery of Louis de la Pivardicre xv Becoming a Gentleman 1 The Murder Narrative 30 Preliminary Judgment 64 Nobleman, Commoner, or Impostor? 93 Stage Plays 122 Judicial Doubt 146 Interrogation 164 Verdicts 189 Epilogue: Rewriting a Cause Célcbre 214 Notes 235 Selected Bibliography 268 Index 271
Synopsis
In the tradition of The Return of Martin Guerre, a dramatic tale of false identity, murder, and bigamy that riveted France during the reign of Louis XIV From the historian Jeffrey Ravel comes a scandalous tale of imposture that sheds new light on French politics and culture in the pivotal but underexamined period leading up to the Enlightenment. In the waning days of the seventeenth century, a French nobleman named Louis de la Pivardicre returned from the Nine Years War and, for mysterious reasons, gave up his aristocratic life to marry the daughter of an innkeeper in a remote village. But several years later, struggling financially, he returned to his first wife in search of money. She turned him away, and he disappeared under mysterious circumstances. This led to a murder investigation and the arrest of Pivardicre's firstwife and her alleged lover, a local prior. Stranger yet, Pivardicre finally did come out of hiding but was believed by many to be an impostor conjured up in order to clear the wife of murder charges. The case became a cause célcbre across France, an obsession among everyone from the peasantry to the courts, from the Comédie-Française to Louis XIV himself. It was finally left to a brilliant young jurist, Henri-François d'Aguesseau, to separate fact from fiction and set France on a path to a new and enlightened view of justice. Masterfully researched and vividly recounted, The Would-Be Commoner charts the monumental shift from passion to reason in the twilight years of the Sun King., In the tradition of The Return of Martin Guerre, a dramatic tale of false identity, murder, and bigamy that riveted France during the reign of Louis XIV From the historian Jeffrey Ravel comes a scandalous tale of imposture that sheds new light on French politics and culture in the pivotal but underexamined period leading up to the Enlightenment. In the waning days of the seventeenth century, a French nobleman named Louis de la Pivardicre returned from the Nine Years War and, for mysterious reasons, gave up his aristocratic life to marry the daughter of an innkeeper in a remote village. But several years later, struggling financially, he returned to his first wife in search of money. She turned him away, and he disappeared under mysterious circumstances. This led to a murder investigation and the arrest of Pivardicre's first wife and her alleged lover, a local prior. Stranger yet, Pivardicre finally did come out of hiding but was believed by many to be an impostor conjured up in order to clear the wife of murder charges. The case became a cause célcbre across France, an obsession among everyone from the peasantry to the courts, from the Comédie-Française to Louis XIV himself. It was finally left to a brilliant young jurist, Henri-François d'Aguesseau, to separate fact from fiction and set France on a path to a new and enlightened view of justice. Masterfully researched and vividly recounted, The Would-Be Commoner charts the monumental shift from passion to reason in the twilight years of the Sun King.
LC Classification Number
KJV130.C464R38 2008

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