An Infinite History: The Story of a Family in France over Three Centuries
Written by Emma Rothschild
Narrated by Eve Matheson
2/5
()
About this audiobook
This audiobook narrated by Eve Matheson tells the story of social change in France through the experiences of a single extended family across five generations
Marie Aymard was an illiterate widow who lived in the provincial town of Angoulême in southwestern France, a place where seemingly nothing ever happened. Yet, in 1764, she made her fleeting mark on the historical record through two documents: a power of attorney in connection with the property of her late husband, a carpenter on the island of Grenada, and a prenuptial contract for her daughter, signed by eighty-three people in Angoulême. Who was Marie Aymard? Who were all these people? And why were they together on a dark afternoon in December 1764? Beginning with these questions, An Infinite History offers a panoramic look at an extended family over five generations. Through ninety-eight connected stories about inquisitive, sociable individuals, ending with Marie Aymard’s great-great granddaughter in 1906, Emma Rothschild unfurls an innovative modern history of social and family networks, emigration, immobility, the French revolution, and the transformation of nineteenth-century economic life.
Rothschild spins a vast narrative resembling a period novel, one that looks at a large, obscure family, of whom almost no private letters survive, whose members traveled to Syria, Mexico, and Tahiti, and whose destinies were profoundly unequal, from a seamstress living in poverty in Paris to her third cousin, the Cardinal of Algiers. Rothschild not only draws on discoveries in local archives but also uses new technologies, including the visualization of social networks, large-scale searches, and groundbreaking methods of genealogical research.
An Infinite History demonstrates how the ordinary lives of one family over three centuries can constitute a remarkable record of deep social and economic changes.
Related to An Infinite History
Related audiobooks
The Burgundians: A Vanished Empire: A History of 1111 Years and One Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Two Houses, Two Kingdoms: A History of France and England, 1100-1300 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Betrayal of the Duchess: The Scandal That Unmade the Bourbon Monarchy and Made France Modern Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChaucer: A European Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When Women Ruled the World: Making the Renaissance in Europe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fortune's Many Houses: A Victorian Visionary, a Noble Scottish Family, and a Lost Inheritance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Francis I: The Maker of Modern France Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inheritance: The Lost History of Mary Davies: A Story of Property, Marriage and Madness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Princes of the Renaissance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Emperor: A New Life of Charles V Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hundred Years War: A People's History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Emperor Charlemagne Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Palaces of Revolution: Life, Death and Art at the Stuart Court Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Queen: The Life & Tragedy of the Prince Regent's Daughter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Royal Bastards: Illegitimate Children of the British Royal Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scourge of Henry VIII: The Life of Marie de Guise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As Gods Among Men: A History of the Rich in the West Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPax Britannica Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Merchant Kings: When Companies Ruled the World, 1600-1900 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bonnie Prince Charlie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Patriot or Traitor: The Life and Death of Sir Walter Ralegh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How the Old World Ended: The Anglo-Dutch-American Revolution 1500-1800 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Providence Lost: The Rise and Fall of Cromwell's Protectorate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
European History For You
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Hideous Progeny: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The War on the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History that Inspired Game of Thrones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: with Pearl and Sir Orfeo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Royal Witches: Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century England Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of American Cemeteries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Teutonic Knights: A Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Templars: The History and the Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reformation: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for An Infinite History
1 rating0 reviews