Mark Twain, author of "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc"-- his last finished novel---considered it to be his best and most important work, a view not shared by critics then or since. Author George Bernard Shaw, accuses Twain of being "infatuated" with Joan of Arc. Shaw says that Twain "romanticizes" the story of Joan, reproducing a legend that the English conducted a trial deliberately rigged to find Joan guilty of witchcraft and heresy. Recent scholarship of the trial transcripts, however, suggests that Twain's belief may have been closer to the truth than Shaw was willing to accept. ("Joan of Arc: Her Story," by Regine Pérnoud and Marie-Véronique Clin, translated by Jeremy Duquesnay Adams, published by St. Martin's Griffin (New York, 1999) ISBN 0-312-22730-2)
Speaking of his own work, Twain is reported to have said "I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing."
Mr. Twain has an official website that can be found at the following link: Mark Twain
Read the book in its entirety at the following link:
Joan of Arc
I hope you enjoy this work.
