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A Tale of Two Murders: Passion and Power in Seventeenth-Century France
Contributor(s): Farr, James R. (Author)

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 ISBN: 0822334593     ISBN-13: 9780822334590
Publisher: Duke University Press
OUR PRICE: $97.80  

Binding Type: Hardcover - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: September 2005
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Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks

Annotation: "Dazzling beauty, spousal abuse, passionate love, wanton covetousness, lust, conspiracy, poison, murder, vengeance: what an engaging surprise to discover that one of America's foremost scholars of early modern European society, James R. Farr, is also a beguiling storyteller. A riveting drama, his book is at the same time a masterful analysis of emotion and affect, rites and rituals, elite formation and reproduction, family and lineage strategies, gender construction, the discourse and practice of the law, political culture, relations of domination and subordination, the tensions between center and periphery, and the myriad ways in which power worked in seventeenth-century France."--Steven Laurence Kaplan, author of "The Bakers of Paris and the Bread Question, 1700-1775"
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- True Crime | Murder - General
- History | Europe - France
Dewey: 364.152
LCCN: 2004030133
Physical Information: 0.8" H x 6.1" W x 9.3" L (1.05 lbs) 240 pages
Themes:
- Chronological Period - 17th Century
- Cultural Region - French
Features: Bibliography, Illustrated, Index, Maps, Table of Contents
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
As scandalous as any modern-day celebrity murder trial, the "Giroux affair" was a maelstrom of intrigue, encompassing daggers, poison, adultery, archenemies, servants, royalty, and legal proceedings that reached the pinnacle of seventeenth-century French society. In 1638 Philippe Giroux, a judge in the highest royal court of Burgundy, allegedly murdered his equally powerful cousin, Pierre Baillet, and Baillet's valet, Philibert Neugot. The murders were all the more shocking because they were surrounded by accusations (particularly that Giroux had been carrying on a passionate affair with Baillet's wife), conspiracy theories (including allegations that Giroux tried to poison his mother-in-law), and unexplained deaths (Giroux's wife and her physician died under suspicious circumstances). The trial lasted from 1639 until 1643 and came to involve many of the most distinguished and influential men in France, among them the prince of Cond , Henri II Bourbon; the prime minister, Cardinal Richelieu; and King Louis XIII.

James R. Farr reveals the Giroux affair not only as a riveting murder mystery but also as an illuminating point of entry into the dynamics of power, justice, and law in seventeenth-century France. Drawing on the voluminous trial records, Farr uses Giroux's experience in the court system to trace the mechanisms of power--both the formal power vested by law in judicial officials and the informal power exerted by the nobility through patron-client relationships. He does not take a position on Giroux's guilt or innocence. Instead, he allows readers to draw their own conclusions about who did what to whom on that ill-fated evening in 1638.
 
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