Saint Joan of Arc

Rating:
Summary: Aging bio of Joan of Arc still worth reading
Review: Joan of Arc (or Jeanne d'Arc, in French) was an interesting person, a female soldier in an age when women didn't fight, a visionary in an age of backwardness, a prophetess who wasn't believed in her day, and a valuable asset for the French nation, betrayed to France's enemies by Frenchmen. This book about her, written in the thirties, covers as much of her life as was known at the time (there haven't been many changes to the record since) in beautiful prose, with sympathy and understanding. Vita Sackville-West was a prominent member of society in Britain, and Catholic, so she understood some of the things that were going on in Joan's head as history unfolded around this strange young woman.

Sackville-West's book is very literary, and if there's one flaw it's that it doesn't show, sufficiently, how successful and revolutionary a soldier Joan was. She was much more aggressive than other French soldiers of the day, who had been conditioned to defend cautiously by the advent of the English longbow. How Joan overcame this isn't discussed (I suspect in part because this remains a mystery of sorts) though the remarkable fact of her becoming a soldier in this era where women didn't fight is commented on at great length. Joan's abilities as a prophet are also examined at great length, and analyzed carefully.

This book is a good starting point for anyone wishing to know more about Joan of Arc. There's nothing on the market since (at least not that I'm aware of) as well-written, and the scholarship is good, as far as it goes.

Rating:
Summary: Shell's first book review
Review: Michell Westrick
March 7, 2003
Book Review of Saint Joan of Arc
I enjoyed the book as far as overall content goes. The author had a lot of information that many people may or may not have known about Joan of Arc. He had also brought up many interesting questions. Many of them were on what her physical appearance was really like and also some of whether God or the Devil sent her.
Unfortunately there were several things I disliked. For one, throughout the whole book he would occasionally slip in his own personal opinion, I didn't like that. Two, in some of the chapters he wouldn't even mention Joan of Arc, or her relevance to the chapter, till the very end. Third, he would have a lot of French words and sentences in the book. He never would write in English what they meant or said. For some people who didn't take French, in school, would become very confused as I did. Fourth, throughout the book, he would jump around in years a lot and I would get confused on which year he was talking about. Lastly, the author would also add in or mention quit a few people. When mentioning them, he wouldn't say, on some cases, their relevancy to Joan of Arc or why they were so important to mention in the first place.
I did enjoy reading about Joan of Arc and her, seemingly, fascinating life. I wish I were able to fully understand it all. As I had said earlier, I feel that if the author had skipped around so much on the dates it would be a little more understandable. There were a couple of parts, in the book, where he mentioned another book for getting his information instead of saying, "through my research." Reading this book makes me want to go out and read other books about Joan of Arc to see if they have the same information or if I would learn something new.

Rating:
Summary: Shell's first book review
Review: Michell Westrick
March 7, 2003
Book Review of Saint Joan of Arc
I enjoyed the book as far as overall content goes. The author had a lot of information that many people may or may not have known about Joan of Arc. He had also brought up many interesting questions. Many of them were on what her physical appearance was really like and also some of whether God or the Devil sent her.
Unfortunately there were several things I disliked. For one, throughout the whole book he would occasionally slip in his own personal opinion, I didn't like that. Two, in some of the chapters he wouldn't even mention Joan of Arc, or her relevance to the chapter, till the very end. Third, he would have a lot of French words and sentences in the book. He never would write in English what they meant or said. For some people who didn't take French, in school, would become very confused as I did. Fourth, throughout the book, he would jump around in years a lot and I would get confused on which year he was talking about. Lastly, the author would also add in or mention quit a few people. When mentioning them, he wouldn't say, on some cases, their relevancy to Joan of Arc or why they were so important to mention in the first place.
I did enjoy reading about Joan of Arc and her, seemingly, fascinating life. I wish I were able to fully understand it all. As I had said earlier, I feel that if the author had skipped around so much on the dates it would be a little more understandable. There were a couple of parts, in the book, where he mentioned another book for getting his information instead of saying, "through my research." Reading this book makes me want to go out and read other books about Joan of Arc to see if they have the same information or if I would learn something new.

Rating:
Summary: Sackville-West's "Saint Joan of Arc"
Review: Prof. Bonnie Wheeler of the International Joan of Arc Society has labeled this book "dead wrong" (a position which she rarely takes), and other researchers, myself included, tend to agree. More precisely: certain subjects are handled in an entirely fraudulent manner, as the author had a talent for misquoting or selectively citing the evidence, misinterpreting the original language to reflect her theories, and taking things out of context in order to make "hints" about Joan which happen to suit the author's inclinations (some of these will be dealt with in detail below). Even worse, more recent (and less honest) authors have taken some of the above innuendoes and extrapolated claims which Vita herself knew better than to make, and this has further muddled the subject.
In fairness, at least the author genuinely read a wide selection of the documents, and was honest enough to refrain from the more outrageous claims. But the numerous distortions in this book include:
- A persistent effort to remake Joan into a large, masculine, "sexually-unappealing" androgyne (in direct contradiction to eyewitness accounts describing her as "beautiful and shapely", "short", with "beautiful eyes", a "sweet girl's voice", etc). The author often manipulates such testimony until it becomes the opposite of what the eyewitnesses actually said. This is especially true with regards to the comments made by some of the men who had served in her army: what these fellows actually said (in summary) is that although they did find her attractive, they were amazed to find that their normal sexual desire (for all women) was suppressed when she was around. At no point did they say that they found her ugly or unappealing (as the author sometimes claims about this testimony), but precisely the reverse. The author admits that this was the case with the testimony from the Duke of Alencon, but characteristically sensationalizes it into something which the Duke never said, and which would be at odds with the other sources who are all agreed that Joan always slept in full clothing when with the army and never "undressed" in front of the troops, for heaven's sake. Alencon never claimed otherwise.
- Worse, the author cites - sometimes out of context - some of the testimony given by a group of women (namely Charlotte Boucher (who had been only 9 years old when she "slept with" Joan at Orleans), Hauviette de Sionne (apparently under 13 at the time), and Marguerite La Touroulde) who described a common medieval practice whereby whenever Joan and the men in her group were billeted for the night in a house in which there weren't enough beds for everyone, they placed Joan with the little girls of the house or the hostess rather than the men (her male bodyguard, Jean d'Aulon, frequently slept in the same room with her, and so the hostess or a little girl was also placed in the room for propriety's sake, and sometimes in the same bed if there weren't enough to go around). The author admits that this was "the custom", and at least never goes so far as to claim that Joan was having sex with these women (which would contradict their own testimony that she was "chaste"), but nevertheless makes enough innuendoes to prompt a few modern playwrights and others to cite this book as alleged "proof" that such was the case. An author should not make careless comments on such a subject when she knows full well what the facts of the matter were.
- Aside from the above, there are frequent misinterpretations: just to pick one random example, the author claims that Martin Ladvenu testified that Joan was raped, which is false: he said that there had been an _attempted_ rape after she agreed to give up her soldiers' clothing (which had "laces and points" by which the pants and tunic could be securely fastened together, thereby providing some protection against such assaults), and Ladvenu cites this attempted assault as one of the reasons she resumed her soldiers' clothing after the above-mentioned incident, to try to prevent another attempt from going even farther.
- There are some anachronisms, such as when the author interprets Joan as a "feminist" while ignoring certain of her recorded statements which sound like precisely the opposite (such as the comment: "I would rather stay home with my poor mother and spin wool [rather than lead an army]", or her statement to Catherine de la Rochelle to "go home to your husband and tend your household", etc). Feminism is a modern movement which really had no counterpart in the 15th century.
On the plus side, however, the author has faithfully mentioned many of the eyewitness accounts which are so often ignored, such as the testimony regarding the other reason for her return to "male clothing" (i.e., Massieu's statement that her guards had finally left her nothing else to wear, as a way to entrap her into a "relapse"); and most of the basic material on other subjects is generally accurate enough and detailed. The writing style is often engaging, and Vita Sackville-West, an aristocrat in early-20th century England, brings an almost Victorian-style flavor to the subject (which is a bit odd, but a welcome departure from most other modern books on this topic). Nevertheless, it's still a little sad to see this book in yet another reprint. Its previous popularity seems to have been due entirely to the fact that it was well-written (if not always factual), and the author did enough research to give it the illusion of being authoritative despite the fact that historians have rejected so many of the author's interpretations. The only accepted authority on Joan during the last half-century was the great French medievalist Regine Pernoud (founder of the Centre Jeanne d'Arc at Orleans, France); two of her books can be purchased here at Amazon.com.

Rating:
Summary: A Dazzling Book!
Review: This book is a beautiful mixture of literature and concise autobiographical information! West truly knows who Joan of Arc was, what Joan did, and how she lived. This book is a masterpiece!

Rating:
Summary: Truely Insightful
Review: This book is a beautiful mixture of rich literature and a concise autobiographical account! West truly knows who Joan of Arc was, how Joan lived, and her life. This book is astounding!