The village of cannibals - Alain Corbin

On 16 August 1870, in a small village in the Dordognes, a young nobleman was tortured for two hours at a local fair, then burned alive in the presence of several hundred people who had accused him of having shouted 'Vive la Republique!' When night fell, the crowd dispersed, boasting that they had 'roasted a Prussian'. Some of them expressed regret at not having inflicted the same punishment on the parish priest.

This lively new book examines the events of that day, together with the circumstances which led up to them, focusing on the behaviour and psychological state of those involved. Corbin discusses the role of rumour in the atrocity, and penetrates the minds of the participants to find out why their suppressed anxiety exploded into an irrepressible rage that nothing short of murder could quell.

Corbin continues by analysing the ritual of the popular execution, the place of the victim and the torturers in the local community, together with the image of the Prussian as a hate–figure.