The life of an unknown : the rediscovered world of a clog maker in nineteenth-century France / Alain Corbin ; translated by Arthur Goldhammer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Corbin, Alain.

Series:

European perspectives

Standardized Title:

Monde retrouvé de Louis-François Pinagot. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Pinagot, Louis-François, 1798-1876.

Pinagot, Louis-François.

Woodworkers--France--Origny-le-Butin Region--Biography.

Woodworkers.

Country life--France--Origny-le-Butin Region--History--19th century.

Country life.

History.

Origny-le-Butin Region (France)--History.

Origny-le-Butin Region (France).

France--Origny-le-Butin Region.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiii, 271 pages : maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2001]

Language Note:

Translated from the French.

Summary:

Alain Corbin embarks on a journey that is part history and part metaphysics: recreating the life and world of a man about whom nothing is known except for his entries in the civil registries and historical knowledge about the times in which he lived. Risen from death and utter obscurity is Louis-Francois Pinagot, a forester and clog maker who lived during the heart of the nineteenth century -- the age of Romanticism, of Hugo and Berlioz -- from the Napoleonic Wars to the Third Republic.

The result is a fascinating picture of the way people lived along the forest's edge during this tumultuous and eventful time in the history of France -- and of the world. How did the residents of this unique community live and work together? How did life in the village differ from life in the forest? How did the church and various governments of France affect the everyday lives of these people, and of Pinagot in particular? With The Life of an Unknown, Alain Corbin presents a full record of a life, comprised of supposition, with room for each reader to insert his or her own imaginings onto the scene.

Ambitious in its aims and exquisite in its execution, The Life of an Unknown is nothing short of a bold and successful attempt by a master to correct historians' all-too-common neglect of those relegated to oblivion with the passage of time.

Contents:

Prelude: Investigating the Torpor of an Ordinary Existence vii

Chapter 1 A Lifespace 1

Chapter 2 "The Low Multitudes" 21

Chapter 3 Elective Affinities and Kinship Relations 37

Chapter 4 The Language of the Illiterate 53

Chapter 5 The Clog Makers, the Spinners, and the Glove Makers 71

Chapter 6 The Pleasure of "Arrangements" 95

Chapter 7 The Past Decomposed 127

Chapter 8 Invasions 145

Chapter 9 "The Audacity of the Poor" 163

Chapter 10 The Parishioner, the Guardsman, and the Voter 179.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 213-[248]) and index.

ISBN:

0231118406

0231118414

OCLC:

45620811