Joan of Arc: A History - Hardcover

Castor, Helen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062384392 ISBN 13: 9780062384393

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2015

Synopsis

From the author of the acclaimed She-Wolves, the complex, surprising, and engaging story of one of the most remarkable women of the medieval world--as never told before.

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.

Adding complexity, depth, and fresh insight into Joan's life, and placing her actions in the context of the larger political and religious conflicts of fifteenth century France, Joan of Arc: A History is history at its finest and a surprising new portrait of this remarkable woman.

Joan of Arc: A History features an 8-page color insert.

About this title

Review:

"With the meticulous scholarship that she revealed in SHE-WOLVES, and in the same captivating manner, Helen Castor presents us with a very compelling analysis."--Trevor James, Historical Association / The Historian

"Excellent ... perhaps Castor's greatest achievement is to remind us of just how extraordinary Joan was. "--Literary Review

"[An] illuminating new biography... a clear and elegant account ."--Times Higher Education, Book of the Week

"A triumph - brings the real Joan and her time to dramatic, moving and brilliant life."--Dan Jones, author of The Plantagenets, New York Times bestseller

"Convincing and gripping...a highly satisfying biography...Castor's great coup is in framing this biography within another context...it puts the women back into the story...Castor's book is an important way of returning Joan's 'star' to the realm where it belongs, the human one."--Amanda Foreman, New York Times Book Review

"Castor's research is thorough and her account...always fascinating. Readers interested in history, rather than folklore, will find this detailed framing of Joan's story very rewarding."--Library Journal

"JOAN OF ARC: A HISTORY is popular history at its best: pacy, clear and undergirded with a formidable array of scholarly footnotes. Helen Castor shows how well it can be done."-- Daily Telegraph

"There have been many lives of Joan, and books about her times, some of them excellent. But none is quite like Castor's ... [her] book is a historian's achievement."--The Guardian

"[A] vivid and intelligent biography ... hugely impressive. "-- Sunday Business Post

"Clear and elegant ... an engaging piece of popular scholarship that does not diminish Joan's star, but instead uses its light to illuminate a remarkable age."--Times Higher Education

From the Back Cover:

The acclaimed historian Helen Castor--bestselling author and BBC broadcaster of She-Wolves, the story of England's queens before Elizabeth I--returns with the incredible story of Joan of Arc, as only a biographer of Castor's enormous talents can tell it.

Helen Castor brings us afresh a gripping life of Joan of Arc. Instead of the icon, she gives us a living, breathing young woman, a roaring girl fighting the English and taking sides in a bloody civil war that was tearing apart fifteenth-century France.

Here is a portrait of a nineteen-year-old peasant who hears voices from God; a teenager transformed into a warrior, leading an army to victory in an age that believed women should not fight. And it is also the story behind the myth we all know, a myth that began to take hold at her trial: that of the Maid of Orleans, the savior of France, a young woman burned at the stake as a heretic, a woman who, five hundred years later, would be declared a saint.

Joan and her world are brought vividly to life in this startling new take on the medieval world.

Castor brings us to the heart of the action, to a woman and a country in turmoil, a world where no one, not Joan herself or the people around her--princes, bishops, soldiers, or peasants--knew what would happen next.

Adding complexity, depth, and fresh insight into Joan's life, showing her confronting the challenges of faith and doubt in a superstitious age, Castor's Joan of Arc is a rich history and biography that allows us to better understand this remarkable woman and her world.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0062384392
• ISBN 13: 9780062384393
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 328