Joan of Arc
Very few people know that Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important but also his best work. He spent twelve years in research and many months in France doing archival work and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell. He reached his conclusion about Joan's unique place in history only after studying in detail accounts written by both sides, the French and the English.
Because of Mark Twain's antipathy to institutional religion, one might expect an anti-Catholic bias toward Joan or at least toward the bishops and theologians who condemned her. Instead one finds a remarkably accurate biography of the life and mission of Joan of Arc told by one of this country's greatest storytellers. The very fact that Mark Twain wrote this book and wrote it the way he did is a powerful testimony to the attractive power of the Catholic Church's saints. This is a book that really will inform and inspire.
“ I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none.”
— Mark Twain
“Mark Twain comes furtively like Nicodemus at night with this tribute to one of God’s saints. In doing so he tells a secret about himself. It is as though the man in a white suit and a cloud of cigar smoke thought there just might be a place where people in white robes stand in clouds of incense.”
— Fr. George Rutler, Author, The Cure d’Ars Today
"Twain's understanding of history and Joan's place in it accounts for his regarding his book Joan of Arc as worth all of his other books together."
— Edward Wagenknecht, The Man and His Work
"Joan of Arc is the lone example that history affords of an actual, real embodiment of all the virtues demonstrated by Huck and Jim and of all that Twain felt to be noble in man, Joan is the ideal toward which mankind strives. Twain had to tell her story because she is the sole concrete argument against the pessimistic doctrines of his deterministic philosophy."
— Robert Wiggins, Mark Twain: Jackleg Novelist
Read more about Mark Twain's favorite novel, Joan of Arc, by clicking here.
You must Log In to add this item to your cart.
Joan of Arc
Very few people know that Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important but also his best work. He spent twelve years in research and many months in France doing archival work and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell. He reached his conclusion about Joan's unique place in history only after studying in detail accounts written by both sides, the French and the English.
Because of Mark Twain's antipathy to institutional religion, one might expect an anti-Catholic bias toward Joan or at least toward the bishops and theologians who condemned her. Instead one finds a remarkably accurate biography of the life and mission of Joan of Arc told by one of this country's greatest storytellers. The very fact that Mark Twain wrote this book and wrote it the way he did is a powerful testimony to the attractive power of the Catholic Church's saints. This is a book that really will inform and inspire.
“ I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none.”
— Mark Twain
“Mark Twain comes furtively like Nicodemus at night with this tribute to one of God’s saints. In doing so he tells a secret about himself. It is as though the man in a white suit and a cloud of cigar smoke thought there just might be a place where people in white robes stand in clouds of incense.”
— Fr. George Rutler, Author, The Cure d’Ars Today
"Twain's understanding of history and Joan's place in it accounts for his regarding his book Joan of Arc as worth all of his other books together."
— Edward Wagenknecht, The Man and His Work
"Joan of Arc is the lone example that history affords of an actual, real embodiment of all the virtues demonstrated by Huck and Jim and of all that Twain felt to be noble in man, Joan is the ideal toward which mankind strives. Twain had to tell her story because she is the sole concrete argument against the pessimistic doctrines of his deterministic philosophy."
— Robert Wiggins, Mark Twain: Jackleg Novelist
Read more about Mark Twain's favorite novel, Joan of Arc, by clicking here.
You must Log In to add this item to your cart.
Ratings & Reviews
No reviews yet
Related Products
Follow a courageous young peasant girl as she stands her ground for what she knows is true.
This is the true story of Saint Joan of Arc, who led the French army to a major victory in 1429.
The young heroine’s purity, courage, and devotion shine forth on every page in beautiful prose and charming illustrations.
This latest book by the internationally acclaimed investigative journalism team is their most intriguing work to date. Best-selling books by Go?rny and Rosikon have been translated into eight languages, including five richly illustrated investigative works published by Ignatius Press.
For this new work they had access to one of the most guarded institutions in the world - the Vatican Secret Archives.The authors tell of its turbulent history and its unique documents, familiarizing us with the real stories behind the most controversial events in the Church’s history including: the Knights Templar trial, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Galileo Galilei trial, Pius XII's atti- tude towards the Holocaust, and much more.
In addition to preliminary archival research, they travelled to several countries, visiting places described in the documents, and met with numerous historians and experts. This brilliantly written book, illustrated with stunning photographs, is the result of several years' work. It is highly recommended reading for all those interested in historical riddles concerning events of major importance.
Based on extensive factual material, the book debunks numerous unjust stereotypes, black legends and distortions that have accumulated over the centuries about Catholicism.
From one of the most highly acclaimed novelists of the twentieth century—"a truly remarkable book" (The New York Times),an epic—almost mythic—story of a single human life lived simply in the silence of the southwestern desert.
In 1851 Father Jean Marie Latour comes to serve as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. What he finds is a vast territory of red hills and tortuous arroyos, American by law but Mexican and Indian in custom and belief. In the almost forty years that follow, Latour spreads his faith in the only way he knows—gently, all the while contending with an unforgiving landscape, derelict and sometimes openly rebellious priests, and his own loneliness. Out of these events, Cather gives us an indelible vision of life unfolding in a place where time itself seems suspended.
