Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain (fiction book recommendations txt) đź“•
Description
The essential facts regarding Joan of Arc are well known. A young teenage girl hears voices that tell her she will deliver France from England’s oppression during the Hundred Years War. She manages to take her message to the dauphin, who after some persuasion places her at the head of his army. That army promptly lifts the siege of Orléans, throws the English out of the Loire valley, hands them another significant defeat at Patay, and marches all the way to Reims, where the dauphin is crowned King Charles VII. After an ill-advised and short-lived truce, Joan is captured by the Burgundians—French nobility who have aligned themselves with the English—and they try her for heresy and burn her at the stake.
Twain first became fascinated with Joan as a teenager. When he finally decided to write a book about her, he researched it for a dozen years and spent two more years writing it. It was, in his words, “the best of all my books,” and became his last finished novel. Although a work of fiction, Twain’s research was time well spent: the known facts of Joan’s life, and especially the trial, are very accurate in their depiction. To tell Joan’s story, Twain invented a memoirist, Louis de Conte, a fictionalized version of her real-life page, Louis de Contes. Twain has the fictional de Conte grow up with Joan, and so he is able to tell her story from her early childhood all the way through the trial and execution. The result is the story of one of the great women in history told by one of history’s great storytellers.
Read free book «Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain (fiction book recommendations txt) 📕» - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Mark Twain
Read book online «Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain (fiction book recommendations txt) 📕». Author - Mark Twain
By Mark Twain.
Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Epigraph Bibliography Translator’s Preface A Peculiarity of Joan of Arc’s History The Sieur Louis de Conte to His Great-Great-Grand Nephews and Nieces Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc Book I: In Domremy I: When Wolves Ran Free in Paris II: The Fairy Tree of Domremy III: All Aflame with Love of France IV: Joan Tames the Mad Man V: Domremy Pillaged and Burned VI: Joan and Archangel Michael VII: She Delivers the Divine Command VIII: Why the Scorners Relented Book II: In Court and Camp I: Joan Says Goodbye II: The Governor Speeds Joan III: The Paladin Groans and Boasts IV: Joan Leads Us Through the Enemy V: We Pierce the Last Ambuscades VI: Joan Convinces the King VII: Our Paladin in His Glory VIII: Joan Persuades Her Inquisitors IX: She Is Made General-in-Chief X: The Maid’s Sword and Banner XI: The War March Is Begun XII: Joan Puts Heart in Her Army XIII: Checked by the Folly of the Wise XIV: What the English Answered XV: My Exquisite Poem Goes to Smash XVI: The Finding of the Dwarf XVII: Sweet Fruit of Bitter Truth XVIII: Joan’s First Battlefield XIX: We Burst in Upon Ghosts XX: Joan Makes Cowards Brave Victors XXI: She Gently Reproves Her Dear Friend XXII: The Fate of France Decided XXIII: Joan Inspires the Tawdry King XXIV: Tinsel Trappings of Nobility XXV: At Last—Forward! XXVI: The Last Doubts Scattered XXVII: How Joan Took Jargeau XXVIII: Joan Foretells Her Doom XXIX: Fierce Talbot Reconsiders XXX: The Red Field of Patay XXXI: France Begins to Live Again XXXII: The Joyous News Flies Fast XXXIII: Joan’s Five Great Deeds XXXIV: The Jests of the Burgundians XXXV: The Heir of France Is Crowned XXXVI: Joan Hears News from Home XXXVII: Again to Arms XXXVIII: The King Cries “Forward!” XXXIX: We Win, but the King Balks XL: Treachery Conquers Joan XLI: The Maid Will March No More Book III: Trial and Martyrdom I: The Maid in Chains II: Joan Sold to the English III: Weaving the Net About Her IV: All Ready to Condemn V: Fifty Experts Against a Novice VI: The Maid Baffles Her Persecutors VII: Craft That Was in Vain VIII: Joan Tells of Her Visions IX: Her Sure Deliverance Foretold X: The Inquisitors at Their Wits’ End XI: The Court Reorganized for Assassination XII: Joan’s Masterstroke Diverted XIII: The Third Trial Fails XIV: Joan Struggles with Her Twelve Lies XV: Undaunted by Threat of Burning XVI: Joan Stands Defiant Before the Rack XVII: Supreme in Direst Peril XVIII: Condemned Yet Unafraid XIX: Our Last Hopes of Rescue Fail XX: The Betrayal XXI: Respited Only for Torture XXII: Joan Gives the Fatal Answer XXIII: The Time Is at Hand XXIV: Joan the Martyr Conclusion Endnotes Colophon Uncopyright ImprintThis ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.
This particular ebook is based on a transcription produced for Project Gutenberg and on digital scans available at the Internet Archive.
The writing and artwork within are believed to be in the U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks releases this ebook edition under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. For full license information, see the Uncopyright at the end of this ebook.
Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces ebook editions of public domain literature using modern typography, technology, and editorial standards, and distributes them free of cost. You can download this and other ebooks carefully produced for true book lovers at standardebooks.org.
Consider this unique and imposing distinction. Since the writing of human history began, Joan of Arc is the only person, of either sex, who has ever held supreme command of the military forces of a nation at the age of seventeen.
Louis KossuthAuthorities examined in verification of the truthfulness of this narrative:
J. E. J. Quicherat, Condamnation et Réhabilitation de Jeanne d’Arc.
J. Fabre, Procès de Condamnation de Jeanne d’Arc.
H. A. Wallon, Jeanne d’Arc.
M. Sepet, Jeanne d’Arc.
J. Michelet, Jeanne d’Arc.
Berriat de Saint-Prix, La Famille de Jeanne d’Arc.
La Comtesse A. de Chabannes, La Vierge Lorraine.
Monseigneur Ricard, Jeanne d’Arc la Vénérable.
Lord Ronald Gower, F.S.A., Joan of Arc.
John O’Hagan, Joan of Arc.
Janet Tuckey, Joan of Arc the Maid.
Translator’s PrefaceTo arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man’s character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours. Judged by the standards of one century, the noblest characters of an earlier one lose much of their luster; judged by the standards of today, there is probably no illustrious man of four or five centuries ago whose character could meet the test at all points. But the character of Joan of Arc is unique. It can be measured by the standards of all times without misgiving or apprehension as to the result. Judged by any of them, it is still flawless, it is still ideally perfect; it still occupies the loftiest place possible to human attainment, a loftier one than has been reached by any other mere mortal.
When we reflect that her century was the brutalest,
Comments (0)