A Tale of Two Murders – Passion and Power in Seventeenth–Century France

"James R. Farr has produced a terrific work of historical research, a book that offers both compelling narrative and suggestive analyses. A Tale of Two Murders addresses basic questions about how early modern society functioned, and it should interest specialists and non-specialists alike."--Jonathan Dewald, author of Aristocratic Experience and the Origins of Modern Culture: France, 1570-1715 "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 "This riveting read provides an interesting insight into the dynamics of power and how justice was done in 17th-century French society."--FRANCE MAGAZINE, February 2006 "A Tale of Two Murders is ... riveting and readable, equally appropriate for an audience of university students or general readers."--Brian Sandberg, Renaissance Quarterly

James R. Farr

"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"