Joan of Arc by Mark Twain

"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 Kossuth 

The book that I have been reading since I started writing this blog (maybe even before I started) is Joan of Arc.  It took me, I am sheepishly admitting, TWO months to read this book.  I know, I know, that might not be a long time for a busy mom who barely can get her act together each day, so I should seriously cut myself a break.  However, there are some books that feel as though you strap on wings and fly through,  and then there are books that when reading feel like you have strapped on leaden boots and you slowly plod your way through page by page.  Now, that may not sound like a ringing endorsement of a book, but let me just clarify by saying that sometimes books are meant to be savored and Joan of Arc is absolutely one of them.  

First of all, I think many people are not familiar with Joan of Arc's story.  I know I wasn't.  I mean I knew something about her burning at the stake and being a war hero and all, but that is about it.  My husband read this book a few years ago and was completely shocked that I wouldn't have snatched it from his still gripped hands and read it myself.  He couldn't stop reading it, which is about the best recommendation I could ever give a book. I don't know why I didn't want to read it right away...maybe I don't like receiving advice (I HAVE been told that before... those dang advice givers), or maybe I just was reading quicker reads all along and this one felt daunting.  I mean I know next to nothing about French history, French geography or French warfare.  And that was probably the biggest hinderance while reading the book.  It needed a map somewhere in it, and maybe a timeline of the 100 years war also would have been helpful.  But, who am I to criticize the great writer, Mark Twain.

Did you just read that??  Mark Twain, THE Mark Twain wrote this book (there are many other books written about Joan, but this is the one I read) and he considered it his greatest work.  He researched this book for 12 years and wrote it for two.  Sadly, I don't think it got a lot of critical acclaim.  But, for those familiar with Huck Finn, Twain's style is evident in the writing and story telling and it makes it an extremely human story rather than a high brow examination of this great war hero.  The narrator in the story is a fictional page and secretary of Joan's, and his voice is warm and comfortable, like a good friend.  He mixes his admiration for Joan with Huck Finnesque stories of her simple background, her simple life, and her loving friends and family.

If even 10% of the story were accurate about Joan, it still would be absolutely amazing and only explained by Divine intervention.  She was born into poverty, unschooled and unassuming.  She rises from obscurity after hearing "voices" that command her to rise up and lead the army of France to victory over the British and the coronation of its King.  And she is darn good at it, too.  "The veteran captains of the armies of France said she was great in war in all ways, but greatest of all in her genius for posting and handling artillery." (p. 233)  Utterly amazing was her unquestioning confidence in her task and even more amazing was her ability to complete it. The narrator then goes on to ask, 

"Who taught the shepherd girl to do these marvels---she who

could not read, and had had no opportunity to study the com-

plex arts of war?  I do not know any way to solve such a baffling 

riddle as that, there being no precedent for it, nothing in history

to compare it with and examine it by."  (p. 233)

Of  course, no one but Joan believed she could lead an army and more than that, curiously, her detractors thought she was possessed by demons.  She endured time after time examinations in front of the most prestigious church leaders of France who questioned this country bumpkin and initially finding nothing wrong with her, figured they had nothing to lose, let her try to rescue the forlorn France.  And, guess what, she did it.  

"Now came the ignorant country maid out of her remote 

village and confronted this hoary war, this all-consuming

conflagration that had swept the land for three generations.  

Then began the briefest and most amazing campaign that is 

recorded in history.  In seven weeks she hopelessly crippled 

that gigantic war that was ninety-one years old." (p. 252)

And then, (I don't think I am giving anything away here) the King she brought to power and the military she led to victory turned their backs on her.  "And for all reward, the French King, whom she had crowned, stood supine and indifferent, while French priests took the noble child, the most innocent, the most lovely, the most adorable the ages have produced, and burned her alive at the stake." (p. 21)  She was left accused of heresy and sentenced to die.  Joan of Arc never once questioned herself or her objective, she only viewed herself as a willing servant of God, and obedience to his call was all she ever desired.  She says at her trial, "'I was commanded of God, and it was right to go [to the wars]!'" (p. 366)  She remained committed to this call, to the end.

This is a remarkable story of a remarkable person.  We live in a world of self-gratification, and to read of a person who is wholly committed to "other" is refreshing and inspiring.  I found myself thinking about my own motives based solely at times on my own comfort, my own interest, my own desires and here in vivid contrast is a historical figure who defies explanation. To quote again the narrator, who speaks so clearly in Twain's characteristic voice, "I came to comprehend and recognize [Joan of Arc] at last for what she was--the most noble life that was ever born into this world save only One." (p. 28) Enough said.