Joan of Arc: 4 (Wishbone classics) - Softcover

Jacks, Marie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061064181 ISBN 13: 9780061064180

Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books, 1996

Synopsis

When a peasant girl named Joan leads the French in a battle against brutal English invaders, powerful men convince her followers that she is not a hero but instead a witch who must be destroyed, and she must fight the battle for her life alone. Original.

About this title

From the Author

The author reveals a secret about the book!
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

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0061064181
• ISBN 13: 9780061064180
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 10