This innovative study of the lives of ordinary people peasants, fishermen, textile workers in nineteenth-century France demonstrates how folklore collections can be used to shed new light on the socially marginalized. David Hopkin explores the ways in which people used traditional genres such as stories, songs and riddles to highlight problems in their daily lives and give vent to their desires without undermining the two key institutions of their social world the family and the community. The book addresses recognized problems in social history such as the division of power within the...