Joan of Arc and Mark Twain

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.

— Mark Twain

Liz reminded me yesterday that I had not yet done this month's blog and so here it is; I am sorry for taking so long. I admit that I am still mulling it all over. Why was Mark Twain so obsessed with Joan? Why did he work for over 14 years on this book? How did he land on the odd device of using her secretary to tell the story? And how did we end up with such a wish-mash of vintage Twain telling stories and Joan's biography?

It is interesting to note that when this book appeared, in 1896, Joan's story was not well known. She was beatified in 1909 and canonized in 1920. This book was early in raising her story to prominence.

Needless to say, while most of us liked the book, the reviews were a bit mixed. The narrative moved slowly. Mark Twain was certainly having lots of fun writing this book as some of the passages were obviously diversions and were quite funny. The sections describing the Palatin's exaggerations for example were Twain getting carried away. The contrast to the more somber descriptions of Joan's life made those passages even more interesting for me, as it was Joan I wanted to hear more about.

Joan is indeed a riveting character and all she accomplished, with so little preparation and at such a young age is incredible. Each person who came in contact with her, save her judges at her trial, was entranced with her intelligence, humility and amazing confidence. Twain certainly adored her and his resulting descriptions were rapt with admiration. She certainly seemed to have everything Twain admired - beauty, strength, inner fortitude and intellect, all while being a sweet, innocent young girl, too modest to wear women's clothing while in the presence of rough soldiers.

Needless to say, Twain and Joan did not seem a perfect match. Here is an interesting article on why he was so obsessed:

http://www.theawl.com/2012/04/the-riddle-of-mark-twains-passion-for-joan-of-arc

Within this article is the interesting admission that Twain "collects pets" of the young girl aged 10 to 16 variety. While there doesn't seem to be anything salacious about these relationships, it is still rather odd.

Regardless, I agreed with the narrator at the end of the book. Joan of Arc is certainly one of the most extraordinary people the world has ever produced.

And so we leave, once again, the 100 Years War and go on to our next book which brings us again to the world of Merlin and Arthur, a time also long ago and far away, but this time fiction. We will meet at Ashley's for The Once and Future King by T.H. White. It has been decades since I last read this, and I am looking forward to it!

Looking ahead, we are considering movie night for May, again at Mary's (thank you Mary!) to watch the Adventures of Tom Jones. That date is May 16. June will be at Lynn's, June 20.

See you all then! Please note the new email list, some people have updated their contact info. Happy reading!