"I like the Joan of Arc best of all my books; & it is the best; I know it perfectly well" --Mark Twain
Very few people know that Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote a major work on Jeanne d'Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important but also his best work.
He spent twelve years in research and many months in France doing archival work and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell. He reached his conclusion about Jeanne's unique place in history only after studying in detail accounts written by both sides, the French and the English.
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Because of Mark Twain's antipathy to institutional religion, one might expect an anti-Catholic bias toward Jeanne or at least toward the bishops and theologians who condemned her.
Instead one finds a remarkably accurate biography of the life and mission of Jeanne d'Arc told by one of the worlds greatest storytellers.
The very fact that Mark Twain wrote this book and wrote it the way he did is a powerful testimony to the attractive power of the Catholic
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Overview
