Joan of Arc

About this book

The story of Joan of Arc has fascinated readers for centuries. As a young girl in rural France, Joan heard the voices of Saints Catherine, Margaret, and Michael telling her that the dauphin was God's choice for the throne of France. Unquestioningly, Joan left her family to lead the army of the dauphin against the English and defeated them, thereby putting Charles VII on the throne. From the image of an obscure French peasant girl who led the army of the dauphin, to the icon of a saint burned at the stake by an English-controlled church, Joan has been a blank slate on which thousands have written their obsessions, their fears, and their hopes. In Adams's magisterial translation, Pernoud and Clin clear away the myths, allowing modern readers to see Joan as she was. Adams has added a great deal of material not in the original French edition, including a new preface and additional entries to the glossary, which provides portraits of the important historical figures that affected Joan as well as synopses of the historical occurrences and interpretations of Joan through the ages.