Joan of Arc - by Helen Castor (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published in England in 2014 by Faber and Faber.

Book 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.

From the Back Cover

Helen Castor brings us afresh a riveting 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.

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.

Review Quotes

"Gripping...Written to the impeccable standards of her award-winning bestseller, SHE-WOLVES, Castor's meticulous untangling of six centuries' worth of incredibly complex and contradictory detail into elegant prose is a thing of wonder...Castor doesn't make history fun or cool in JOAN OF ARC. She makes it shockingly, poignantly, irresistibly real." - BookReporter
"In Castor's hands [Joan's] voice comes across in a truly vibrant way that illuminates her personality as few others have managed...eye-opening, engaging, and overall, excellent non-fiction...Castor's outstanding ability to convey the important events and people that made up the political landscape make this one a winner." - BookBrowse
"...quite intriguing. This book is a great historical read." - Manhattan Book Review
"A book that shows vividly what Joan meant to those in her own time, politically and militarily...fascinating" - The New Yorker
"Enlightening ... [an] elegant and vivid account." - The Times (London)
"An amazing read...This is a true story from the histories and journals of the times that reads like fiction...one of the best histories I have encountered." - Blogcritics (Leslie Wright)
"Castor brings keenly observed historical details to the grandeur and drama of the political and religious turmoil of medieval Europe and an extraordinary young woman." - Booklist
"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
"Castor's account is filled with gruesome murders, even more gruesome accidents, and layers of intrigue that make Game of Thrones look like child's play...enjoyable...never dull, thanks to Castor's knack for weaving in salacious bits, usually involving a particularly unfortunate death." - Daily Beast
"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
"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
"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
"Excellent ... perhaps Castor's greatest achievement is to remind us of just how extraordinary Joan was. " - Literary Review
"Compelling ... [Castor] succeeds triumphantly in rescuing [Joan] from the various straitjackets in which she has been confined ... a fascinating and privileged insight." - Sunday Times (London)
"An elegant, subtle biography of great historical integrity and sensitive understanding. Castor lets the humanity of Joan's story shine through." - Kate Mosse, Evening Standard (London)
"A fascinating biography ... truly thrilling." - Daily Mail (London), Book of the Week
"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
"Castor creates a strong introduction to the courageous girl who swore she heard saints' voices, but also to the nation-rending struggle for power so fiercely waged that only that singular, obsessive teenager could finally save France...Recreates the heady atmosphere of the period." - Publishers Weekly
"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
"An unorthodox yet erudite and elegant biography of this 'massive star.'" - Kirkus Reviews
"[An] excellent retelling of the strange tale of the Maid from Domrémy...JOAN OF ARC: A HISTORY is popular history at its best" - Daily Telegraph (London)
"The real Joan of Arc was a more flawed, more human and more tragic figure than her name suggests, and in this sober, serious and compelling account Helen Castor, the author of SHE-WOLVES, a history of England's fierce early queens, succeeds triumphantly in rescuing her from the various straitjackets...a fascinating and privileged insight." - Sunday Times (London)
"[An] illuminating new biography... a clear and elegant account ." - Times Higher Education, Book of the Week
"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