The Wife of Martin Guerre, Rogan

I'm very glad I finished this book before class, it was great. I felt it read like a very 'old' story in that the characters were developed very flatly. The descriptive passages felt very old as well, they were primarily devoted to describing the passage of the seasons, but I really liked them as well–– I came out of this novella with a decent understanding of what life was like in France in the 16th century. I found this story very relatable, despite the fact that it was written about a life so different than mind, where children are married at eleven.

One passage I particularly liked was the passage about housekeeper, killing doves––

"The dish, already filled with blood, darker than that which was falling into it, spilled over slightly, and a barred gray cat, creeping cautiously near, elongated, its belly close to the ground, put out a rasping pale tongue and licked the blood. The housekeeper, after a little, pushed it away with the side of her foot. A pile of soft grey-feathered bodies already lay beside her on the bench. The living dove turned its head this way and that, struggled a little, clasping a pale cold claw over the hand that held it, and relaxed, although still turning its head..."

I thought this passage was lights out writing. This is probably the most vividly descriptive passage in the entire story. The fact Lewis waited so long in the story to write like this makes it stand out all the more. Bertrande is doubting herself here, doubting her decision to persecute the impostor, and she is only just beginning to acknowledge that even if she wins the case in court, there will be no perfect resolution. Bertrande sees the harm that must be done either way, that the impostor has been a good man, excluding his initial deception, and that his death will not be a simple victory or return to the goodness of the past. It is in this passage, this moment if descriptive language that we see a kind of resignation on the part of the dove, even as it seems to still be invested in surviving. Bertrande can be read in the same way.
This passage is also noteworthy in that I think it foreshadows the execution du Tilh. We never see the execution, there is remarkably little violence in this story for all its war and deception. Instead, we have this dark, brooding passage about dying, bleeding doves. Again, I thought this passage was killer, as was the novella.