Village Notables in Nineteenth-Century France: Priests, Mayors, Schoolmasters

Local priests, mayors, and schoolmasters have often been portrayed by French novelists as objects of ridicule. In reality, however, the village notables gave norms to the villagers in their communities and personified the community's values. The influence of village notables and the values they preached and personified ensure their importance in any view of French rural history. Their world was already in transition towards ...