Joan of Arc - Twain

I’ve always been a little intrigued by Joan of Arc.  Her name is common, household in fact,  but had you asked me what she really did, I would have drawn a  blank.  She is a true enigma being only remembered as a martyr and the heretic who was burnt at the stake during the middle ages...perhaps a bit more as there has been a movie or two produced surrounding generally accepted versions of her life.  If you are a Catholic, you might also know she was made a Saint...but that’s only recent history...the past 100 years anyway.  Almost 500 years passed since she was burned alive, at seventeen in 1431, until she was made a Saint by the Catholic Church in 1921.

One man, an atheist, became infatuated with Joan of Arc in the decades preceding her Sainthood.  A writer named Samuel Clemens, who wrote American novels for a living under the pen name, Mark Twain (ever heard of him?) became her historian and avid champion.   Did you know he considered his biography of Joan of Arc to be his most important work?  I didn’t...not until I read his book. Few do. And as this is only one more of eleven book reviews posted on Amazon, I find it almost an honor to have read the book and be writing one today. It also feels like I’ve slipped into a time warp.  Certainly this book was reviewed in newspapers after it was first published in 1896, but now, 116 years later, to see only 11 reviews for this book is quite telling.  When compared to 655 and 765 reviews for Huck-Finn and Tom Sawyer respectively, one could say this book hasn’t been read at all, it’s brand new, by one of the greatest writers the United States has ever produced.  Even Twain’s memoir of Ulysses S. Grant, with Ulysses S Grant, enjoys 100 reviews on Amazon. This further attests to the truth and legacy of Joan of Arc as being both enigmatic and perhaps far stranger than fiction.

Without any of this knowledge I ventured into Joan of Arc, with my vague impressions and intrigue from the past and the recommendation of a trusted friend.  It is indeed one of the most important books on selflessness, honesty, courage, virtue, and unbridled patriotism ever written.  Joan of Arc embodied them all.  I’ll would explain but Mark Twain has done a better job in his book.

Twain writes about specific things from Joan’s childhood. It’s not just that she successfully convinced the priest in her village that he was wrong to have banished the fairies, she convinced him that it was wrong to judge the fairies as evil without direct knowledge of their sin.  It’s not just that she stood brave while the other children scattered in the face a maniac with an ax, it’s that she had befriended the axe man when he had been outcast from society.  It’s not that she argued against the adults that a homeless man deserved to be feed, it’s that while the adults were arguing and finally decided feeding the homeless man was the right thing to do, Joan had already finished feeding him.

And it goes on into her life as she understood her purpose and needed the assistance of very powerful men to achieve her vision. 

It’s not that she convinced the feeble aire to the French throne that she should be allowed to command his army in order to cast out the foreign occupation, it’s that she convinced a council of learned scholars and theologians that her motives were pure.

It’s not that she was placed in command of the French army, at 17, it’s that the vastly experienced and senior general’s under her command quickly learned to trust her purpose and leadership.

It’s not that she knew she could lift the siege of Orleans within days,  it’s that she lead an army of men and a country of citizens to know that they could lift the oppression and occupation of the the 100 years war.

And after she was captured by her enemies and place on trial for her life, come some of the most captivating moments in this book, and her life,

It’s not that she was left alone to defend herself against all charges, it’s that she won every single argument never blaming how she was forsaken by those she saved.

It’s not that she was dealt every treacherous and despicable trick the most evil of human minds could produce against her, it’s that she stayed strong in character and held fast to her own values, never herself being reduced to the same elements of evil...which...since she was on trial as a heretic would seemingly have been her nature.

Finally, it’s not that she asked for the cross that was given to her, to be held higher so she could see it through the flames as she was burnt alive, it’s that the one who gave her the cross, her enemy on the battlefield, was himself believing in her extraordinary and righteous nature.

There is more...much more...to be experienced through the gifts of a writer like Mark Twain.  The mysteries of Joan of Arc are no longer mysteries. They are factual accounts, on the record, in the record,  and for the record. Faithfully place there by a great writer...I will call him Samuel Clemens.  Because surely if I were to call him Mark Twain others would have read his book.