“Mark Twain comes furtively like Nicodemus at night with this tribute to one of God’s saints. “It is an extraordinary (and baffling) literary phenomenon that Mark Twain, who was not disposed to see God at work in the melancholy affairs of men, should have been so galvanized by the life and achievement of this young woman that he devoted years of his life to this book about her.” - Thomas Howard, author of Chance or the Dance? “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, author of Mark Twain: The Man and His Work The others needed no preparation and got none.” - Mark Twain 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. “I like Joan of Arc best of all my books and it is the best I know it perfectly well. This is truely history comes alive written at its best."
I was captivated and amazed at this story. This is a moving tale, and if you don't know about Joan of Arc here is a great place to find out. Although what it lacks in humor which prevails in his other works is more than compensated for by the plot. This is a fictionalized story of the life of Joan of Arc. "It's interesting how many fans of Samuel Langhorne Clemens aren't even aware that this book exists. This is a fascinating and remarkably accurate biography of the life and mission of Joan of Arc told by one of this country’s greatest storytellers. He reached his conclusion about Joan’s unique place in history only after studying in detail accounts written by both sides: the French, for whom she raised an army to return the Dauphin to the throne, and the English, who fought the French in the Hundred Year’s War and were ultimately Joan’s executioners. Twain 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. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important but also his best work. Few people know that Mark Twain wrote a major work on Joan of Arc.
0 kommentar(er)
