Rating: 
Summary: Great Book--- Mark Twain at his best!
Review: I have read most of Mark Twain's books and what a great surprise I had when I started reading this book. Joan of Arc, as Mark Twain once said, is his best book. It's amazing how he could write the facts with such richness without losing the pace of the story.
Fast reading and moving...
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring...couldn't put it down
Review: I just had to read an account of Joan's life after seeing the made-for-t.v. version in early 1999. I was reading the book from a Catholic perspective, looking for inspiration in the life of a person deemed a saint in the eyes of the Church. The book was a jewel...Twain wrote this with an eloquent style and portrayed Joan as a gentle, humble, obedient girl. It inpired me not only on account of Joan's holiness but also because this reads like a fairy tale...isn't it amazing that God can do such a thing as raise up an illiterate farm girl to lead an army! (And be successful militarilly!) An awesome story and an awesome read!
Rating: 
Summary: The only book I've never been able to finish
Review: I love Joan of Arc along with all history. Readers, your probably reading this review in hopes to learn if this book is good or not, and your probably a medieval buff like me. I can tell you stait forth right now: this isn't the way to learn about Joan of Arc and this would easily top those Benzodiazepines that you've got sitting up in your prescription medicine cabinet. Mark Twain was singing you a lulaby the entire time as you read on and on about undescricptive sieges against the bastilles and boring, tedious dialouges between characters that never even existed (seriously, who's the Dwarf? I sure have never heard of him). Nevertheless, it is in some ways interesting to see a different side of Mark Twain. But yet I can't disagree with how the reviewers in his time were abstruse about this totally new genre of writting he'd attempted in the novel and that it just didn't click with Mr. Twain (the article on the back doesn't lie). I'm on page 233 and ladies and gentlemen, I aint budgin'. Moreover, readers, I just would like to say to you that the only reason I've given this 2 stars is because Mark Twain spent what, 12 or so years researching Joan of Arc's biography just for this, a handful of other small workings, and his love for her as a person? It's so manifest that he'd surely loathe me deeply from reading this and feel as if he'd wasted his life. Sorry little guy but I think i'll gladly go with the encyclopedia. This book's really a tossup. This review's really a tossup. I don't care if this helps you or not, I just want you to know that beginning or hopeful medieval buffs don't have to like everything medieval, just go with your mind, frustration is only a discourage to it.
Rating:
Summary: The only book I've never been able to finish
Review: I love Joan of Arc along with all history. Readers, your probably reading this review in hopes to learn if this book is good or not, and your probably a medieval buff like me. I can tell you stait forth right now: this isn't the way to learn about Joan of Arc and this would easily top those Benzodiazepines that you've got sitting up in your prescription medicine cabinet. Mark Twain was singing you a lulaby the entire time as you read on and on about undescricptive sieges against the bastilles and boring, tedious dialouges between characters that never even existed (seriously, who's the Dwarf? I sure have never heard of him). Nevertheless, it is in some ways interesting to see a different side of Mark Twain. But yet I can't disagree with how the reviewers in his time were abstruse about this totally new genre of writting he'd attempted in the novel and that it just didn't click with Mr. Twain (the article on the back doesn't lie). I'm on page 233 and ladies and gentlemen, I aint budgin'. Moreover, readers, I just would like to say to you that the only reason I've given this 2 stars is because Mark Twain spent what, 12 or so years researching Joan of Arc's biography just for this, a handful of other small workings, and his love for her as a person? It's so manifest that he'd surely loathe me deeply from reading this and feel as if he'd wasted his life. Sorry little guy but I think i'll gladly go with the encyclopedia. This book's really a tossup. This review's really a tossup. I don't care if this helps you or not, I just want you to know that beginning or hopeful medieval buffs don't have to like everything medieval, just go with your mind, frustration is only a discourage to it.
Rating:
Summary: Mark Twain's Joan of Arc -- as persuasive as it gets
Review: I picked up an old copy of this book several years ago. I am not a religious person, and do not believe in things mystical. However, Twain's Joan of Arc may be the closest thing I've ever read that could persuade me to think otherwise. After reading that book, I picked up many other books on Joan of Arc and about that period (near the end of the Hundred Years War). I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in that period, as well as an interest in Joan of Arc. Heck, anyone who can read should read it. Except for traces of Twainisms, one would not recognize this book as a work by Mark Twain.
Rating:
Summary: One more reason to love Mark Twain
Review: I read a number of biographies of Joan of Arc when I was a child, but I never read a novel based on her life.This was amazingly well done, but then again, it was Mark Twain who wrote it. I would expect nothing less from him. The story was very easy to follow, and very believeable. Twain gives us a glimpse of what the daily life of Joan of Arc might have been like. We see her in her vulnerability and in her strength, as the complex individual she must have been. I really enjoyed this story and I'm looking forward to my own children reading it someday.
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Summary: The inspiring and poignant tale of a lasting heroine.
Review: I read Twain's Joan of Arc simply because it was included in a collection with 2 of my perennial favorites: The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I loved Joan of Arc also. But it is a very different cup of tea. Nowhere else does Mark Twain rein in his irreverent spirit as in this work! He allows his sense of humor to emerge only in the stories of Joan's peripheral friends and fellow villagers (the Paladin, most notably, and even the narrator in the story of the love poem.) The sense of the author's genuine respect and admiration for his amazing heroine permeates the book. The story of Joan of Arc, always a moving tale, takes on greater weight when a man like Mark Twain - a worldly, cultured, highly intelligent, and totally irreverent man - not only gives 12 years of grueling research to it, but then produces a book that is so unequivocally respectful and devoted. Such a picture he draws! THIS is a character to excite anyone's admiration, and to inspire us all to give our best selves. And throughout the tale, while one recognizes that it is indeed a "story", it rings convincingly true. No matter what construction a religious or non-religious reader may put on the happenings of Joan of Arc's story, it is still a story of an enduringly noble character and amazing intellect. A woman who stood - and still stands - above the remainder of her species. This is an inspiring and uplifting piece of work.
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Summary: The author reveals a secret about the book!
Review: I will reveal some little known facts about the authors of this book-both Mark Twain and Patrice Selene. The story of the great French heroine Joan of Arc had inspired me, Patrice Selene, for many years before I was asked to retell Mark Twain's classic story. It was an enormous challenge to condense his book "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc" from approximately 500 pages to a 110-page story...narrated by a Jack Russell terrier in the guise of Joan's friend and page! (He's that fine pup named Wishbone who hosts his own TV show and has introduced children to classic literature for many years.) I was also inspired by Samuel Langhorne Clemens (known to most people by the pseudonym Mark Twain) who penned this classic work of historical fiction on Joan of Arc's life. But "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc" does not list Mark Twain as the author of the book; neither is the name Samuel Langhorne Clemens listed! Who, then, wrote it? SLC, of course. No, not S. L. Clemens, but Sieur Louis de Conte-the name that was in fact listed in 1896 as the author of "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc." The same SLC that wrote "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and many other great books! For Joan's story, Samuel Langhorne Clemens (aka Mark Twain) chose another pen name-Sieur Louis de Conte. As in his choice of the pseudonym Mark Twain, Clemens has hidden some playful clues-this time to the reasons for choosing the name "Sieur Louis de Conte" for his book on Joan of Arc. For one, the real Joan of Arc did have a page named Louis. It seems that is why SLC (S. L. Clemens) chose Louis (S.L. Conte) as the narrator of his long book. And secondly, Conte, Louis's surname in the story, is the French word (conte) for "tale" (as in the phrase "conte de fées," or "fairytale"). So, Twain has Louis telling a tale, or "Louis's Tale" (Louis de Conte). While Joan of Arc is not a fairytale, there is quite a long tale to tell of all the storytellers' true names. For I too, as storyteller for the storyteller SLC, took on a nom de plume (French for "pen name" or pseudonym). In a playful nod to Mark Twain, I wrote as Patrice Selene. And my true initials (PS) also mime my true name, Patrice Silverstein. Do you know why S. L. Clemens chose the pseudonym "mark twain"? Look for more clues to SLC's playful ways with names when you read the book. I hope you enjoy your journey with Joan as much as I have. Patrice (Selene) Silverstein
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Summary: the most life changing book I have ever read!!!
Review: I would just like to say that this book is truly remarkable, and deserves a lot more credit than that which it is receiving. It is incredibly well written, and the subject could not be more interesting. I will admit to being absolutely exalted over her victories, and crying bitterly over her wrongs and death. I am not very religious, so don't think that by saying this I am trying to win you over to Joan's faith. That isn't it at all. But anyone who hasn't read this books misses out on a wonderful new way to look at life, and everything good and wholesome that it contains!
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Summary: I am compelled to profess her innocence to everyone!
Review: If I ever questioned the myth about Joan of Arc, replies to me would be, "she was some young French girl who fought battles for France and was accused of being a witch, so they burned her!" As ignorant as it sounds this is true. I am so glad I found this book, by accident, I was browsing. Seeing the title I thought now Mark Twain, I'm sure he will tell me the story beautifully. The fact that he spent 12 years in research impresses me, she is a marvelous human being to provoke that kind of loyalty from a celebrated novelist and storyteller.
I was so engrossed in the book I finished it in three days, taking only breaks to go to work, ect. I had a hard time putting it down. The book is filled with emotion, action, drama; so many levels of entertainment.
I feel blessed learning about the work that God performed through his faithful Joan of Arc; there are very little historical stories like this after the Bible that I am aware of. I have traveled through her childhood, her military genius, and her endurance of persecution that I can only relate to what Jesus endured encountering the religious Pharisees and Pontius Pilate-amazing simularities in their responses to questioning, both being accused of Satanic activity. If anyone makes a comment regarding Joan of Arc, I am now beyond informed and able to tell of her life and death completely, as if I were by her side. Thanks Mark Twain, I understand why you devoted so much time in your research of this remarkable young woman of God
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