Her story and her tragic end seemed like a good fable that I wondered about what was fact and fiction. I have always been fascinated by Joan of Arc, a peasant who inspired many soldiers and dressed as a man, defying the conventions of women at that time.
Interweaving folklore and facts, this biography recounts the life of Joan of Arc to show the reader Joan’s accomplishments and controversy.
Joan claims she is the fulfillment of the prophecy that a virgin would restore France. When France was on the verge of losing their nation and suffered under the English invasion, a peasant girl who claimed she heard the voices of the angels and saints to take up arms and help restore the nation by crowning Charles VII in Reims. My review: The story of Joan of Arc is a classic underdog tale. Deftly weaving historical fact, myth, folklore, artistic representations, and centuries of scholarly and critical interpretation into a compelling narrative, she restores Joan of Arc to her rightful position as one of the greatest heroines in all of human history. Was she a divinely inspired saint? A schizophrenic? A demonically possessed heretic, as her persecutors and captors tried to prove?Įvery era must retell and reimagine the Maid of Orleans's extraordinary story in its own way, and in Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured, the superb novelist and memoirist Kathryn Harrison gives us a Joan for our time-a shining exemplar of unshakable faith, extraordinary courage, and self-confidence during a brutally rigged ecclesiastical inquisition and in the face of her death by burning. Synopsis: The profoundly inspiring and fully documented saga of Joan of Arc, the young peasant girl whose "voices" moved her to rally the French nation and a reluctant king against British invaders in 1428, has fascinated artistic figures as diverse as William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Voltaire, George Bernard Shaw, Bertolt Brecht, Carl Dreyer, and Robert Bresson. Source:Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review
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