Joan of Arc, Mark Twain, San Francisco, 1896, 1989, Ignatius Press

An historical novel.  Twain thought this was his greatest work.  Supposedly, the events depicted in the book are actual.  Twain added dialog and flesh to the factual skeleton.  The story is told by Joan's personal secretary and childhood friend, Sieur Louis de Conte, from an "unpublished manuscript found in the National Archives of France."  It was very moving.  Joan remained always true to her "voices," (chief among them were St. Michael, the archangel, St. Marguerite and St. Catherine).  She displayed military genius, was the youngest commander in chief of any national army ever (at seventeen), and was treated with treachery by both her enemies, the English, and by her king, Charles VII, and his frivolous and devious court and advisors, and, especially by her chief inquisitor, the evil Bishop Cauchon, whose name sounded very like the French word for pig and whose countenance the locals portrayed on walls attached to that beast's body.

© Lester L. Noll

14-Jan-2001