Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Volumes 1 & 2
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Volumes 1 & 2
Mark Twain spent twelve years researching and writing this book, and he believed it was his greatest work. That alone should make readers pay attention. Here, the author of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn turns his legendary storytelling gifts toward an unexpected subject: the peasant girl who heard voices, led an army, and changed the course of history. The novel unfolds through the eyes of Louis de Conte, Joan's childhood companion who becomes her page and loyal witness. What results is neither distant biography nor pious legend, but an intimate,燃烧的 portrait of a young woman whose absolute conviction bends kings and soldiers to her will, and whose fate consumes her in the flames of persecution. Twain renders fifteenth-century France with vivid specificity, grounding Joan's supernatural mission in the gritty realities of war, court intrigue, and theological debate. The trial scenes, originally censored by Harper's for being too devastating to serialize, depict with terrible clarity how the powerful destroy what they cannot understand. This is Twain revealed as a writer of深度 and moral seriousness, not merely humor. For anyone who thinks they know Mark Twain, this book offers a profound surprise.
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