It was Twain's last completed novel, and one of his least known. Having worked through the other two of his historical romances, 'The Prince And The Pauper' and 'A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court', I was expecting this to be more of the same despite some anonymous endorsement having sustained itself in my mind over the last few years. Actually, 'Joan' is the best of the three and the least satirical. It's a mini-masterpiece of storytelling, to tell this story with its well known and very unhappy ending, and not have it be a ridiculously overbearing tragedy. Somehow, up until the very end, you do bear some hope, even when said hope is dashed repeatedly and viciously by Joan's enemies in the latter stages. Apparently, the story of Joan of Arc wasn't all that well known outside of France at the time. Fascinating...
In the spirit of full disclosure, it did take several sessions, over more than a year to finish 'Joan Of Arc'. While it is certainly the best of the three romances, I could never quite shake the ominous dread of Joan's fate, despite the excellence of Twain's prose. As a fictional recreation of a historical story, researched while he was in France, it is very entertaining. Is it accurate? Well, we'll never know, but it has the ring of authenticity. The personal recollections of the title refer to the narrator of the story, which is told from his point of view as one of Joan's childhood friends and constant companions in this fictional universe. It's a clever conceit, which allows some distance from the story while providing some emotional context.
It's still difficult to believe that a young lady of seventeen years of age could have risen to command the defeated armies of France and reversed the near total dominion of the English, in the year of 1430 AD. 1430! How on Earth is it possible that it was allowed by the Powers That Be of the time? How? In the long term, it wasn't allowed, of course. Twain makes it credible, as one of the best writers of his age. Imagine Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne and even more all being active writers at the same time! It's unimaginable in this day and age! Unimaginable! How marvelous it must have been to read those stories as they were coming out, how fascinating and illuminating. It's still hard to believe that there was such a golden age, such a fountain, of humorous and inventive literature. Do we have anyone writing with such style now? (If so, please make a recommendation below.)
'Joan of Arc' may be be one of the longer Twain works, but it's also one of his most mature and least cynical. I wish he could have used such a light and unbarbed touch on 'The Prince And The Pauper' or 'A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court'. Is it recommendable? That's the hard question to answer. It's a high quality work, excellently written, but I did read it in four blocks over more than a year, successfully putting it down in the pile over and over again. Was that the book's fault, my own distractions taking over, or was it beyond all control? Perhaps the final clue is that I am glad to have read it, unlike '1984', 'A Brave New World' and 'The Glass Bead Game', which admitted don't exist in the same category. This is a proper classic, and those are just doom-laden heartbreakers in a different sphere.
Yes, it is recommended.
O.
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