内容简介
In the tradition of "The Return of Martin Guerre", a dramatictale of false identity, murder, and bigamy that riveted Franceduring the reign of Louis XIV. From MIT historian Jeffrey Ravelcomes a scandalous tale of imposture that sheds new light on Frenchpolitics and culture in the pivotal but underexamined periodleading up to the Enlightenment. In the waning days of theseventeenth century, a French nobleman named Louis de la Pivardièrereturned from the Nine Years War and, for mysterious reasons, gaveup his aristocratic life to marry the daughter of an innkeeper in aremote village. But several years later, struggling financially, hereturned to his first wife in search of money. She turned him away,and he disappeared under mysterious circumstances. This led to amurder investigation and the arrest of Pivardière’s first wife andher alleged lover, a local prior. Stranger yet, Pivardière finallydid come out of hiding but was believed by many to be an impostorconjured up in order to clear the wife of murder charges. The casebecame a cause célèbre across France, obsessing everyone from thepeasantry to the courts, from the Comédie-Fran?aise to Louis XIVhimself. It was finally left to a brilliant young jurist,d’Aguesseau, to separate fact from fiction, and set France on apath to a new and enlightened view of justice. Masterfullyresearched and vividly recounted, "The Would-Be Commoner" chartsthe monumental shift from passion to reason in the twilight yearsof the Sun King.