Joan of Arc by
Helen Castor tells afresh the gripping story of the peasant girl from Domremy who hears voices from God, leads the French army to victory, is burned at the stake for heresy, and eventually becomes a saint. But unlike the traditional narrative, a story already shaped by the knowledge of what Joan would become and told in hindsight, Castor's Joan of Arc: A History takes us back to fifteenth century France and tells the story forwards. Instead of an icon, she gives us a living, breathing woman confronting the challenges of faith and doubt, a roaring girl who, in fighting the English, was also taking sides in a bloody civil war. We meet this extraordinary girl amid the tumultuous events of her extraordinary world where no one--not Joan herself, nor the people around her--princes, bishops, soldiers, or peasants--knew what would happen next.
Joan of Arc by
Around 1412, a baby girl was born in the village of Domremy who would change France forever. A farmer's daughter, she seemed destined for an unremarkable life. But as the dramatic narrative of this World History Biography reveals, Joan's life was anything but ordinary. By the age of 13, she knew her destiny-to drive the English invaders from France. By 17, she had led an army to victory at Orleans. Captured in battle, and too poor to be ransomed, Joan was burned at the stake before her 20th birthday.
JOAN of ARC by
Joan of Arc's life is an exciting and intriguing tale of a girl who heard voices telling her to save France and obeyed them. Following the orders of these voices, she persuaded the crown prince of France to let her lead an army to free the city of Orleans from the English. Immensely successful in that campaign, she and her army fought their way to Rheims, where the crown prince was named king of France. Her real heroism, however, manifested itself in a courtroom where she battled the prejudices of the men who ultimately had her burned at the stake as a heretic. In 1920, 400 years after her execution, the Roman Catholic Church recognized her as a saint. Centuries after her death, the girl who changed the course of the Hundred Years' War continues to fascinate and inspire.
Joan by
Summary: Girl. Warrior. Heretic. Saint? France is mired in a losing war against England. Its people are starving. Its king is in hiding. Yet out of the chaos, an unlikely heroine emerges. Reckless, steel-willed and brilliant, Joan has survived a childhood steeped in both joy and violence to claim an extraordinary and fragile position at the head of the French army. The battlefield and the royal court are full of dangers and Joan finds herself under suspicion from all sides, as well as under threat from her own ambition. A feminist celebration of one remarkable woman who left an indelible mark on history.
Sparrow: the story of Joan of Arc by
While sitting on the riverbank in the ancient French city of Orleans, seventeen-year-old Eloise hears a voice which relates the adventures and struggles of the medieval heroine, Joan of Arc, as she fights to free France by driving out the English.