Joan of Arc

I read this book during college in the ‘90s after finding it in the stacks on a search for a forgotten topic. Having been raised Catholic, I knew all the major saints stories including Joan of Arc who I considered one of the cool ones. Most of the stories I read came from saint’s cards or booklets from the church. When I saw Twain’s book, I felt shock at his writing her story and, along with a large dictionary, read the book in a couple of days.

I recently reread the book to determine if my impressions of it would remain. While it’s not a perfect book, his scholarship and details create images of the places and people that evoke an emotional response. His descriptions of how she understands her voices helps to understand her. It show more also helps to understand how those voices drove her to such an incredible leadership position at that time and in that place. Twain keeps her fury through the book, which is remarkable considering when he was writing.

I wondered why Twain wrote this book. What compelled him to write a somber book about a furious Catholic girl who died as a heretic? To me, in the pre-Internet era, Twain’s obsession with Joan of Arc was a big riddle. While he had published two books set in midieval Europe, this book differed considerably in tone and topic. Twain wrote it as personal recollections sourced from the trial transcripts and a history of France. I read the story through my feminist lenses as a strong, resolute woman who never backs down even in the face of an incredibly painful and public death.

In a strange coincidence, a local call-in radio show was hosting a Twain scholar not too long after I read the book. He said he did not expect a question about that book. I didn’t expect him to tell me that Twain viewed Joan differently than I did. In Twain’s narrative, Joan’s virtue, her youth and subsequent purity, appealed to Twain and in later years he would rail against those who portrayed her as a stout, almost masculine figure. He said that Twain was in a period in which he increasingly valued innocence and came to saw it embodied in young women.

I still find the book remarkable no matter the intent of the author. We see our historical “heroes” as we want to see them. Twain valued her for her purity in the face of unrelenting suffering. I value her for her integrity and incredible courage. It’s a remarkable book. show less

I'm not one to applaud a heedless devotion to faith and country, but I do love Joan of Arc and I like that while Twain usually satirizes these traits in society, he glorifies them in the Maid. If her conviction to God and France were not complete, she would not have achieved her goals. Throughout the trial portion of the telling, I was repeatedly convinced that she would overcome her accusers and prevail, until I of course remembered that I already knew the ending, which never failed to upset me.

She was an unschooled country peasant that lifted the fortunes of her uncrowned King and nation on her shoulders, but when she needed them was abandoned. Joan of Arc stands alone among Mark Twain’s bibliography as a historical novel about the one person in history he admires above all others.

Twain’s account of Joan of Arc’s life is written from the perspective of a fictional version of Joan’s former secretary and page Sieur Louis de Conte written at the end of his life to his great-nephews and nieces. The first part of the book focuses on her life in the village of Domremy, essentially where all but the last two years of her life occurred, and the beginning of her visions then quest to fulfill the commission she received. The show more second part is her successful meeting with the King, formal acknowledgement of the Church that she wasn’t a witch, then her year-long military campaign—with numerous breaks due to political interference and foot dragging by Charles VII—that saw her mission completed, and finally her capture by the Burgundians. The final part of the book was of her year in captivity and the long grueling “legal” process that the English-paid French clergy put her through to murder her as a heretic. The final chapter is of Conte giving a brief account of the feckless Charles VII waiting over two decades to Rehabilitate his benefactor after allowing her to be murdered by not paying her ransom all those years before.

This was a labor of love for Twain to write and it was easy to tell given how professionally researched it was in every detail. While many 20th-Century critics and other Twain admirers don’t like this book because it’s not “classic” Twain because of his praise of Joan given that she’s French, Catholic, and a martyr when he disliked or hated all three; they didn’t seem to understand his hero worship of this teenage girl who put a nation on her shoulders to resurrect its existence. Yet, while this was a straight historical novel there are touches of Twain especially in Conte’s “relating” the adventures of the Domremy boys when they were not in Joan’s presence, especially Paladin.

Joan of Arc is not the typical Mark Twain work, but that doesn’t mean one can not appreciate it for well, if not professionally, researched historical novel that it is. show less

This isn't so much a critical review of the life of Joan of Arc as it is an ode of love. It seems clear that Mark Twain and his narrator are both in love with her. However, the constant praise of her makes her into a rather one dimensional marble goddess rather than fleshing out an entirely intriguing human being. It's an interesting approach, in that the book is narrated by a childhood friend who becomes her clerk and is at her side through the efforts to be taken seriously by the French authorities and then the successful battles. He also manages to wangle himself a place as a clerk at her trial and execution. It is told in retrospect, as an old man recounting his experiences some 60 years ago, so there is always a sense that the end show more is known by both the narrator and the reader. Which is a neat way of getting round the fact that we do know the end - there can be little suspense from that point of view.
It is somewhat long and feels padded by the way he can't praise Joan with one word, he uses half a page. Each and every time at it becomes just a little wearisome. The early years are where she appears to have the most life and sparkle, and seems like a human being.
Some people don;t come out of this very well - the french King she expands so much effort to crown is a weasly little man who doesn't deserve to be favoured by Joan or God. And the bishop (French - which i didn't realise) who stage manages her trial might well sue for defamation at every turn. In that sense it is a bit pantomimic - all black and white, very little in the way of shades of grey. But I suppose that contrast is what makes it dramatic. Stops, abruptly, at her execution. Oddly enough, the English don;t come out of this all badly. they're portrayed as a fairly honourable foe, and while they do execute Joan, they don;t actually try her - that's performed by the French clergy (well at least those under English rule) and they get the bad press they seem to deserve.
As a history, the facts are in the right order and it works. As a piece of biography, I'm not sure you end up learning much more about the person - it's all about the legend. show less

I had a difficult time reading this book but was determined to finish it to learn more about Joan of Arc. She began life as a small farmer's girl and went on to lead the French Army to take back France from the British. I enjoyed learning about her. If everything she did in this historical fiction is true, she was amazing. It was worth reading but hard to get through.

I pulled this book off the library shelf when I was younger, because I'd always liked Joan of Arc. With amazement, I read about Joan's early life in her own words, telling about her family, the children she played with, and how she began hearing the voice of God. it was so beautifully written! I was hearing the story from Joan herself, and it was incredibly moving. About halfway through the novel, I happened to notice that it had been written by Mark Twain. That scoundrel! He played a practical joke on me, and I fell for it. But by then, I was hearing the voice of Joan herself, and that never changed. I never doubted for a minute that it was Joan's true story. An unforgettable, hugely enjoyable book.

This was an appealing, but flawed in style, historical novel denoting the history of Joan of Arc. There was intrigue, danger, excitement, and interesting events happening here. Yet, the writing was stiff and forced in this one, much more so than in other Twain works. Nonetheless, I do believe it's worth reading, for there are pearls in here to gander at.

3.25 stars.