Joan of Arc

de Lucien Fabré · Publicada por primera vez en 1954

Ever since 1431, when she died a Rouen, there has existed an insatiable curiosity about the rough, uneducated seventeen year-old girl who joked with soldiers; bolstered the confidence of a sagging king; instilled in battle-weary commanders the spirit of victory, and in two tremendous years made a nation where none had been. Lucien Fabre, in this brilliant biography, breathes vivid life into the facts of Joan's career. He discusses with new knowledge and psychological insight those matters, which have fascinated and perplexed biographers for centuries - Joan's dramatic trial and death, the strange voices she heard and her visions, her relationship with the tragic figure of Charles VII, her undoubted military genius. He related in detail Joan's extraordinary feats in battle, her capture by the Burgundians and subsequent sale to the British, her imprisonment at Rouen, and her ultimate condemnation as a heretic, engineered by Pierre Cauchon, the Bishop of Beauvais. Lucien Fabre weaves the faces of Joan's life, from the farm to the stake, into the pattern of English-French-Burgundian politics in such a way as to make crystal-clear the relationship of historical events to those of Joan's own life. The author's attitude is one of strong religious enthusiasm. In his own words, he approached his task with "enduring patience, complete good faith, and immense love." Joan of Arc is the end result of Fabre's lifelong study of the subject. The book's dramatic style and the detailed accuracy of its facts should make this fascinating biography the definitive one-volume work on the Maid of Orleans.