Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Volumes 1 & 2

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Mark Twain 1895
English
  • 00 - Vol. I, Book I, In Domremy - Preface
  • 01 - When Wolves Ran Free in Paris
  • 02 - The Fairy Tree of Domremy
  • 03 - All Aflame with Love of France
  • 04 - Joan Tames the Mad Man
  • 05 - Domremy Pillaged and Burned
  • 06 - Joan and Archangel Michael
  • 07 - She Delivers the Divine Command
  • 08 - Why the Scorners Relented
  • 09 - Book II-IN COURT AND CAMP - Joan Says Good-By
  • 10 - The Governor Speeds Joan
  • 11 - The Paladin Groans and Boasts
  • 12 - Joan Leads Us Through the Enemy
  • 13 - We Pierce the Last Ambuscades
  • 14 - Joan Convinces the King
  • 15 - Our Paladin in His Glory
  • 16 - Joan Persuades the Inquisitors
  • 17 - She Is Made General-in-Chief
  • 18 - The Maid's Sword and Banner
  • 19 - The War March Is Begun
  • 20 - Joan Puts Heart in Her Army
  • 21 - Checked by the Folly of the Wise
  • 22 - What the English Answered
  • 23 - My Exquisite Poem Goes to Smash
  • 24 - The Finding of the Dwarf
  • 25 - Sweet Fruit of Bitter Truth
  • 26 - Joan's First Battle-Field
  • 27 - We Burst In Upon Ghosts
  • 28 - Joan Makes Cowards Brave Victors
  • 29 - She Gently Reproves Her Dear Friend
  • 30 - The Fate of France Decided
  • 31 - Joan Inspires the Tawdry King
  • 32 - Tinsel Trappings of Nobility
  • 33 - At Last--Forward!
  • 34 - The Last Doubts Scattered
  • 35 - How Joan Took Jargeau
  • 36 - Joan Foretells Her Doom
  • 37 - Fierce Talbot Reconsiders
  • 38 - The Red Field of Patay
  • 39 - France Begins to Live Again
  • 40 - The Joyous News Flies Fast
  • 41 - Joan's Five Great Deeds
  • 42 - The Jests of the Burgundians
  • 43 - The Heir of France is Crowned
  • 44 - Joan Hears News from Home
  • 45 - Again to Arms
  • 46 - The King Cries "Forward!"
  • 47 - We Win, but the King Balks
  • 48 - Treachery Conquers Joan
  • 49 - The Maid Will March No More
  • 50 - The Maid in Chains
  • 51 - Joan Sold to the English
  • 52 - Weaving the Net About Her
  • 53 - All Ready to Condemn
  • 54 - Fifty Experts Against a Novice
  • 55 - The Maid Baffles Her Persecutors
  • 56 - Craft That Was in Vain
  • 57 - Joan Tells of Her Visions
  • 58 - Her Sure Deliverance Foretold
  • 59 - The Inquisitors at Their Wit's End
  • 60 - The Court Reorganized for Assassination
  • 61 - Joan's Master-Stroke Diverted
  • 62 - The Third Trial Fails
  • 63 - Joan Struggles with Her Twelve Lies
  • 64 - Undaunted by Threat of Burning
  • 65 - Joan Stands Defiant Before the Rack
  • 66 - Supreme in Direst Peril
  • 67 - Condemned Yet Unafraid
  • 68 - Our Last Hopes of Rescue Fail
  • 69 - The Betrayal
  • 70 - Respited Only for Torture
  • 71 - Joan Gives the Fatal Answer
  • 72 - The Time Is at Hand
  • 73 - Joan the Martyr
  • 74 - Conclusion
Mark Twain's work on Joan of Arc is titled in full "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte." De Conte is identified as Joan's page and secretary. For those who've always wanted to "get behind" the Joan of Arc story and to better understand just what happened, Twain's narrative makes the story personal and very accessible.

The work is fictionally presented as a translation from the manuscript by Jean Francois Alden, or, in the words of the published book, "Freely Translated out of the Ancient French into Modern English from the Original Unpublished Manuscript in the National Archives of France."

It was originally published as a serialization in Harper's Magazine beginning in 1895 and later published in book form in 1896. However the Harper's editors decided to cut 12 chapters that describe much of Joan's Great Trial, saying the chapters were not suitable for serialization since, "They will not bear mutilation or interruption, but must be read as a whole, as one reads a drama." This recording contains the complete text!

De Conte is a fictionalized version of Joan of Arc's page Louis de Contes, and provides narrative unity to the story. He is presented as an individual who was with Joan during the three major phases of her life - as a youth in Domremy, as the commander of Charles' army on military campaign, and as a defendant at the trial in Rouen. The book is presented as a translation by Alden of de Conte's memoirs, written in his later years for the benefit of his descendants.

Twain based his descriptions of Joan of Arc on his daughter, Susy Clemens, as he remembered her at the age of seventeen.

Twain said, "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." (Summary by Wikipedia and John Greenman)

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