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Martin Guerre
fictional character
Martin Guerre, fictional character in Janet Lewis’s novel The Wife of Martin Guerre (1941), based on a 16th-century villager from Gascony who, after a decade of marriage to Bertrande de Rols, vanishes. About eight years later, Arnaud du Thil, a man resembling Guerre, arrives and is accepted by Guerre’s wife and many of the townspeople as the missing man. A claim surfaces that the real Guerre is in Flanders and a trial ensues. During the trial the real Guerre returns, and subsequently the impostor is executed. The historical Guerre and his impostor have been the subject of many works, fictional ...(100 of 203 words)