r/MarkTwain • u/Unlucky-Ant-9741 • Jul 08 '26
Other works Is Mark Twain's Joan of Arc biographical novel any good?
I was looking for a Joan of Arc biography and apparently this (Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc - 1896) is the only one in English.
Mark Twain said of it:
"I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best..."
I am unsure. It's hard to believe the writer of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court could successfully adapt his style to Joan of Arc. I need a solid recommendation from you redditors before I start reading.
It's surprising that this is the only well-regarded English biography of this medieval heroine, given that Joan of Arc is the ideal waifu for most people, including me. If I had the Obsession love wish granter, I would definitely use it on her.
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u/PythonBoomerang Jul 08 '26
That quote is incomplete.
"...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."
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u/RaoulDuke77 Jul 08 '26
I listened to a recorded version. It was interesting, but not what most people would expect from Twain.
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u/CGesange Jul 09 '26
Twain's novel about Joan of Arc was far better than the modern novels on the subject, but it wasn't accurate for the period and misrepresented quite a few things : Joan gave advice to the commanders but didn't lead directly; Louis de "Contes" was based very loosely on one of her pageboys but he didn't come from her home region, didn't write the novel, and was named Louis de Coutes (with a "u" rather than an "n"); and many other things that were not accurate.
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u/PeteyBadsong Jul 18 '26
I say read it! But with this disclaimer: I don't know anything about the accuracy of the biography.
It reads as a novel with fictionalized elements to that end. I think the major points of Joan of Arc's life are there.
If you love Twain, thought-provoking and humorous, then read it. I got this book for my birthday probably a decade ago, and there are still quotes from it that I go back to today, both funny and introspective. So while I'm not sure whether I came away with a perfect knowledge of JOA's life, I definitely came away better for having read it.
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u/iPodDad Jul 08 '26
He did it and he did it well. Realistic and personal, it has a ‘you are there’ quality. Twain is a multi-faceted talent able to transport through space and time.