Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured

by Kathryn Harrison

The profoundly inspiring and fully documented saga of Joan of Arc, the young peasant girl whose "voices" moved her to rally the French nation and a reluctant king against British invaders in 1428, has fascinated artistic figures as diverse as William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Voltaire, George Bernard Shaw, Bertolt Brecht, Carl Dreyer, and Robert Bresson. Was she a divinely inspired saint? A schizophrenic? A demonically possessed heretic, as her persecutors and captors tried to prove?

Every era must retell and reimagine the Maid of Orleans's extraordinary story in its own way, and in Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured, the superb novelist and memoirist Kathryn Harrison gives us a Joan for our time—a shining exemplar of unshakable faith, extraordinary courage, and self-confidence during a brutally rigged ecclesiastical inquisition and in the face of her death by burning. Deftly weaving historical fact, myth, folklore, artistic representations, and centuries of scholarly and critical interpretation into a compelling narrative, she restores Joan of Arc to her rightful position as one of the greatest heroines in all of human history.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, France, Religion, Audiobook, Medieval

382 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2014

About the author

Kathryn Harrison is the author of the novels Envy, The Seal Wife, The Binding Chair, Poison, Exposure, and Thicker Than Water.

She has also written memoirs, The Kiss and The Mother Knot, a travel memoir, The Road to Santiago, a biography, Saint Therese of Lisieux, and a collection of personal essays, Seeking Rapture.

Ms. Harrison is a frequent reviewer for The New York Times Book Review; her essays, which have been included in many anthologies, have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, Salon, and other publications.

She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison, and their children.

Reviews

[Jaylia3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this just told the story of Joan of Arc, the peasant girl who heard the voices of dead saints, led an army to support an uncertain king, was burned at the stake as a man-dressing sorceress, and later became canonized as a saint, that would be enough to make Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured a truly interesting book, but there is more to this biography than a detailed recitation of facts about her life. Along with relevant historical background author Kathryn Harrison also includes how each stage of Joan’s crusade to serve God and save France has been portrayed in popular myth, theatrical plays, cinematic film, and various works of visual art. Because of this expanded scope the book presents a larger picture of political history, and the history of culture, religion, common attitudes, and underlying beliefs than Joan’s tale alone would tell.

The writing is a smooth weaving of history, biography, legend, and reflection, and along the way Harrison corrects some common misperceptions about Joan, for instance she wasn’t quite the simple peasant many people then thought and still think she was. Harrison deftly compares Joan’s speeches, actions, and short life with those of Jesus, both to show how well versed in the Bible Joan herself must have been and to help explain why her story resonated so much with the highly religious people of her time. It’s an astounding story, well told, both inspiring and tragic.

[Anna C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love free books. They rank, along with chocolate and fast WiFi, in my favorite things ever. I typically score them through Goodreads Giveaways, but when Kathryn Harrison did a book talk in my town, a combination of luck, connections, and a malfunctioning cash register let me pluck up a copy for free. I was unhealthily excited about it and spent the next few hours telling everyone about my free- and now autographed- Joan of Arc biography.

Unfortunately, the excitement soon wore off. "A Life Transfigured" is a dull read. Joan's incredible story drowns under a mass of poorly explained detail. I had to keep a map up of France on my laptop, as Harrison namedrops countless towns liberated by Joan but provided no geographical information. By reading the SparkNotes version of the Henry VI plays, I was able to pin down the major English figures, but even the French players were dropped into the story with insufficient introduction.

Most unfortunate is Harrison's tendency to analyze artistic and cinematic depictions of Joan in the pseudo-academic, symbolic, mildly laughable style of a hipster undergraduate in a seminar class. If Harrison is to be believed, every sword, lance, banner, spear, arrow, pen, etc that ever appears in the Joan of Arc oeuvre is a phallic symbol denoting her insecurity in the hyper-masculine world. Kathryn, sometimes a sword is just a sword.

This may be a critique of popular histories in general, but I sometimes wonder why these books are even written. Harrison is not a historian, but a writer- she has uncovered no new information or advanced no new theses. She read hundreds of biographies of Joan, pulled out the bits she liked, and synthesized her own. Thus, though "A Life Transfigured" is certainly an easy way to learn about Joan's life, it is no different than the hundreds of biographies already written.

"A Life Transfigured" would have been relevant, for me, if Harrison stopped analyzing Joan of Arc movies and actually analyzed the girl herself. Throughout "A Life Transfigured," the author presents countless events that, in an age that has lost faith in miracles, seem impossible. Joan's voices seem like the obvious first example, along with her success in winning a military command. How did Joan become an expert in riding and swordplay in a matter of weeks? How does one explain the numerous medical impossibilities- Joan fell seven stories from her prison tower and was apparently unharmed; after hundreds of hours on horseback, Joan was still found to be, ahem, intact. There are also fantastic but well-documented side stories surrounding Joan's legend; during her execution, her heart remained unscorched, and numerous witnesses had visions of a white dove and words written in fire above her pyre. Harrison presents these impossibilities and promptly abandons them. Aside from the artistic analysis, there is no commentary in the entire book. Dates and places and trivial bits of information are doubtless important for a history book, but sometimes the facts need something beneath them.

When I met Harrison, she was interviewed by a very famous author of popular history. This man can teach book reviewers something about subtlety. He had read "A Life Transfigured" in preparation for his interview and disliked it. However, whenever he raised his critiques, he shrouded them to look like compliments. For example, the biography is filled with literally thousands of quotes, usually from literature about Joan, not primary source documents. This author thought the constant citations gave the book a disjointed, even "schizophrenic" quality; after raising this point, he complimented Harrison for using these quotes to mirror the disembodied voices Joan heard throughout her life. He also thought it was a poor biography that made no effort to explore the thoughts, emotions, or inner life of its subject- again, he noted this while praising Harrison for abandoning the girl for the political currents of the time. After each "compliment," after each innocent interview question that dredged up the flaws in Harrison's writing and research process, there was the sly half wink at the audience. You, sir, are an inspiration to us all.

[Krystel · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was pretty much a mess - the narrative was very difficult to follow, and there seemed to be as many quotations from plays and films about Joan as there were from actual historical sources. I quit after a few chapters.

[Sabrina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stopped reading after the first 30 pages.

This author clearly has personal issues with Christianity and God. It makes it unlikely that she would be able to have any insight or even try to write a book about a person who had such a deep faith in God.

"Judeo-Christian tradition...it is an apologia for misogyny."

"By attacking his creation so indiscriminately and catastrophically, God had lost a little power of his persuasion..."

It goes on like this, describing Jesus birth, and comparing him to pagan gods. Fine to write a book about that, if you choose, but not sure what place it has in a bio of Joan of Arc.

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

For someone so blatantly atheist and anti-Christianity to write a biography of Joan of Arc and for it to be lauded as a "GOOD" biography of Joan of Arc is laughable. It's like she is trying throughout the book to separate Joan from the idea of her as a "saint" and instead paint her as a woman of her time and try to present her through the lens of today's culture - to imply that today she wouldn't be hearing voices or even religious. But to ignore Joan's vision and her staunch faith is to completely misunderstand this figure.

She attacks Christianity viciously throughout the book. This woman would be better be served by writing a book called "why I hate God and Christianity" and sharing it with her fellow converts instead of destroying the mystique and beauty of such an important woman in history.

[Armand · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own and have read many books on Joan of Arc. She is one of my favorite historical figures and her story is compelling. This book is easier to follow and better narrated than most of the other works I've read and it presents 'The Maid of Orleans" story in a clear, concise, understandable narrative. I highly recommend it.

[Erik B.K.K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rife with comparisons to Jesus and quoted verbatim parts of the New Testament, and dispersed with long, boring descriptions of fictitious scenes and quotes from the numerous Jeannes/Joans of Arc from movies and novels, which should have been left out since I had to leaf back quite a couple of times to find out if it was something Jeanne d'Arc had really said or if it was fiction. Confusing and annoying, they make up at least 1.4th of this book. Took me out of the story constantly. Also, Harrison makes a stab at symbolism. Every leg in the art depictions of Jeanne a phallus, every besagew a nipple, even the sword hung at Jeanne's hips as any sword would do surely a substitute for Jeanne's imaginary penis (quote "tilted at the familiar suggestive angle"). Freud would be proud, as would (past or contemporary) critics of Jeanne claiming she was a lesbian with penis envy, or not a real woman because courage, military tact and cunning only comes from having a penis.

BUT, Harrison knows how to describe Jeanne's life vividly and compellingly. Jeanne becomes a real person, not the caricature hysterical or hallucinating zealot. I must admit, even I used to think Jeanne was probably just a fanatic Christian girl easily goaded by the French nobles and advisors of King Charles, an illiterate, dumb girl who came at the right timing, was used as pawn and then discarded. That's how successful the centuries long misogynist slander of her character has been. Turns out she was just as smart as them, if not smarter. Quick to learn, a natural at horse riding and strategizing an military expeditions, keen and quick of wits and a master at rhetorics. Not once she let her enemies outsmart her verbally. She remained steadfast until the end. Honestly, I think she was highly gifted. Her seeing and speaking with angels does not disprove that and doesn't prove she was mad. She lived in a highly religious and superstitious time and place, when people believed angels, devils and witches to be real and tangible, when every disaster was thought to be punishment by God and every day, task and thought was dictated by the Church and Scripture.

To finish, an excerpt I found moving and beautiful:


Joan had never seen a beach before; she’d never seen the sea. She hadn’t seen any body of water wider than a river, its right bank visible from its left. At Le Crotoy, only the marsh grass underfoot was familiar, footprints filling rapidly with water. But look west, where the sun set, and the grass disappeared, and the land as well. The bay of the Somme spread out flat, shallows and sandbars sliding almost imperceptibly into the sea, a desolate scene in December, as there was no water deep enough for a port of any kind. If she admitted its beauty, she must have seen its menace as well. The land on which she stood ran out; there was no more. (...) (Joan watched) through bars to see how it was that sometimes there was no line drawn between sky and water, and the water wasn’t any color at all, none she could name. If she was lucky, she saw a sunset pave the sea with fire, a straight path burning like a fuse toward another day’s end."

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

“… many historians consider [Joan’s] the first great witchcraft trial, catalytic in its effects across Europe, as high-profile political inquisitions like Joan’s yielded to those of countless unknown and mostly destitute women who lived outside the cold shoulder of society. Some were midwives, some were prostitutes, some were mentally ill or unfortunate enough to have been raped and ruined for decent society; all made the wrong enemy. None had the protection of father, uncle, brother, or son. Like Joan, they were judged by slander and called whores, filth, the devil’s handmaidens. Society had arrived at a kind of democracy, if not one that suggested the ethical evolution of the species: it was the right of every citizen to watch a witch burn, in person, for himself. The widespread demand for live performances of atrocities and live sacrifices—scapegoats on which to pin their accusers’ sufferings—meant witches were found everywhere.”

[Sydney · Rating 5 out of 5]

she is so…!!!

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as part of a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

The story of Joan of Arc has always fascinated me, especially as Feminist and an Atheist, and I have experienced any number of fictionalized accounts of her life. I was very excited to read a biography based in research and fact as opposed to the romanticized stories I have previously experienced. Kathryn Harrison's book is definitely that. In fact, that's pretty much all it is: an endless litany of facts with nothing that even pretends to be literature. I found it nearly impossible to read because there was nothing interesting in the language and I felt like I was back in school reading a dry history book. I could barely get through 2 pages without falling asleep.

If I found it to be so boring, why 3 stars? Well, it does have a lot of really interesting and well researched information. While it was presented poorly, I did learn a great deal of new information about Joan of Arc, the Hundred Years War, and the general political climate of the world during Joan's life time. I did find the title to be a bit misleading. With a subtitle like "A Life Transfigured" I had hoped for some new perspective or idea about Joan's character, motives, or something. If there was some sort of academic thesis presented, I missed it when I nodded off from boredom.

[Carolina Casas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author seemed more offended by contemporary and posthumous chroniclers who didn't write their chronicles not that long of a period after Joan was burned at the stake, describe her as a woman who reluctantly took up on the sign of the cross to liberate France from those pesky invaders (aka the English). To loosely quote one of the medical sources she cites in regards to Joan's visions, history can't be rewritten or reinterpreted but merely told. How is told however, seems to be a larger investment than recording it for future generations. Ironically, in being so critical of the past, Joan's own words and actions and how she chose others to view them, she is doing the same thing as the diabolical Terrorist Church Militant - the main antagonist of this book.
There was valuable information gathered from archeological and the aforementioned records (which include mystical experienced that were written down by other mystics such as Margery Kempe) of the late medieval era which nearly merits this four out of five stars but this is completely overshadowed by the author's personal grievances.

[Carole P. Roman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovingly documented biography of Joan of Arc. From the very first chapter Kathryn Harrison debunks myths and demystifies Joan's life by describing 15th century France and how external events shaped the Maid of Orleans's outlook. I was surprised to learn of Joan's not so humble, but rather middle class background. Harrison weaves a intricate tapestry of her life, by blending in the religious, political, and social aspects. Each chapter builds the outline of a quiet girl until she matures into an extraordinary figure prepared to sacrifice anything for her calling. Harrison captures the astounding courage and determination of a teenager willing to risk everything, from her very life to her immortal soul by breaking every social and religious code. She also discusses the many ways Joan has been portrayed throughout history, her narrative exposing the difference between fiction and fantasy. Fascinating and compelling, it a stunning study of a extraordinary teenager who bucked authority and stayed true to her heart.

[Avani · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too heavily focused on analysis of phallic imagery and literary analysis of recent fictional representations of Joan's story for my liking. It took a lot of effort to sift out the extras and get down to Joan's story itself. Not recommended for beginners who are only passingly familiar with Joan of Arc's story.

[Sarah Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the Audiobook so I imagine that heightened my enjoyment of it. Its dense, and you kind of have to accept that you may not be able to follow along with all of the geographical history but I think both the author and the voice actor do a great job of telling her story and making it interesting and relevant.

[Care · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.
While enjoyable, the author relied so heavily upon novel and film adaptations that it became so distracting from the actual primary sources. While she made distinctions, still her plot was largely based on comparing the different versions of her fictionalized life and I didn't care for that.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the usual biography. She interspersed scriptural scenes from the life of Jesus and accurate and inaccurate portrayals of Joan from movies. Made for interesting reading, if not a little chaotic— almost like it’s a script for a documentary. Wouldn’t be a bad idea.

[Sarah-Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kathryn Harrison’s Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured is the best biography I’ve read in quite some time—probably the best one I’ve read in years.

I’m one of those non-Catholic girls who grew up reading lives of the saints and fantasizing about converting (at least while I was still in junior high). My first encounter with Saint Joan took place in the gift shop at Holy Hill, a large Catholic church near my mother’s childhood home that was a destination for Catholics and non-Catholics alike because of the views its tower gave of the surrounding countryside. I picked up a comic-book version of Joan’s life, read it in the car on the way home, and was hooked.

Harrison’s book is very much unlike that first version I read, which was pure hagiography. I may be wrong, but I suspect Harrison has been interested in Joan for quite some time. She’s thought about Joan, looked at her from this angle and that, pondered the way she’s been received by different generations.

In fact, Harrison’s book is something like four books in one (or perhaps the best pages of four different biographies excised and stitch together within a new cover. There’s the straightforward biography; the discussion of the way Joan’s life has been interpreted in the arts (theatre, film, painting); the consideration of Joan in the notions of gender prevalent in her own time; and a very interesting comparison of Joan with Christ. Early on she tells readers:

The life of Joan of Arc is as impossible as that of only one other, who also heard God speak: Jesus of Nazareth, prince of paradox as much as peace, a god who suffered and died a mortal… a messenger of forgiveness and love who came bearing a sword, inspiring millennia of judgement and violence…. More than any other Catholic martyr, Joan of Arc’s career aligns with Christ’s.

Harrison goes on to list some of these similarities in the opening of her book—a birth prophesied, an ability to command the natural elements and foresee the future, a body transfigured—and returns to these regularly throughout the book. (I’m hoping the above quote gives you a taste of her compelling prose style as well as one of her primary tropes.)

Harrison ends the first chapter with a penetrating observation: “It seems Joan of Arc will never be laid to rest. Is this because the stories we understand are the stories we forget?” Not only is Joan remembered, every generation wrestles to understand its own version of Joan. Shaw presents her as a religious reformer (despite her devotion to the religious practices of her own time). Brecht told her story twice; she becomes a hero of the working class in his Saint Joan of the Stockyards. In discussing these works, Harrison illustrates how tempting it is to hold up the mirror of Joan’s life and to see one’s own time.

In her own time, Joan was a heretic simply because she donned men’s clothes: a fact that was overlooked during her early victories, but made much of when leaders of church and government found it useful to have her toppled from her pedestal. Although witch burnings had occurred before her execution by fire, Harrison see Joan’s death as a turning point in European history: “Her trial, its verdict, and the publication of her example united for the three centuries’ worth of zealous, often hysterical, witch hunts amounting to the theatrically cruel execution of as many as a hundred thousand women.”

Harrison is a perceptive, eclectic thinker, and being able to savor four hundred pages of her research and reflections on Joan of Arc is an exceptional treat. Although the year’s not quite yet over, I feel confident that Harrison’s Joan of Arc will be the best biography we see this year.

[Crystal Hurd · Rating 1 out of 5]

My goodness. Where was the editor for this book? I work as an editor for a reputable academic journal, and I couldn't read this muddled biography. There are so many interrupting commas, so much unnecessary editorializing, so much Kathryn Harrison that I lost Joan of Arc in the process. Too much flourish, but no substance. I've never seen a work of research that darts around its topic like a bee in a spring garden. Harrison can't say anything plainly but shackles her sentences with interrupters and a jumble of dates and quotes. And Harrison CLEARLY had an axe to grind against God and historical Christianity, the aim and motivator of the very woman she claims to capture. Consider this quote:

"A solitary Job might bow his head under the caprices of a deity with a penchant for testing the faith of his followers, but an entire society steeped in the shame and fear of having fallen not only from grace but from so far beyond the care of God as to have become a target of his indefinite wrath could imagine only one means of salvation: the emergence of an unpolluted intercessor" (11)

And that's one of the only sentences in the book that contains a solitary comma (*gasp*). Thank God for that colon...

Seriously, too many interruptions make this book a chore to read. Again I cry, "Where doth the editor be?"

DNF'D this book and will be selling it to a used bookstore, where I will hopefully find a clear and concise (and trustworthy) bio of Joan.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received Joan of Arc as part of a Goodreads giveaway.

This biography emphasizes Joan's roughly three years at the head of French forces, a period from roughly 1428 to 1431, as well as her capture, torture, trial, and execution in the first half of the latter year.

Joan of Arc as a historic figure has always intrigued me. On the one hand, as someone who is happily not religious, her life and mission exhibits elements of religious extremism (and possible mental illness) that is a bit troubling. On the other, the fact that a young girl from fairly humble origins could rise to lead a French army and restore a country's hope at a time when neither women nor the poor had anything in the way of rights, opportunities, and resources is truly fascinating. As I said, this is mostly a testament to her military exploits, so there isn't much on her early life, which I would loved to have learned more about. There are also several references to later manifestations of Joan's story--histories, films, etc. While it's interesting to see how she has been enshrined in popular memory, especially from the viewpoint of a casual reader, it's not necessarily the most academic of approaches. Still, a well-written biography, especially from a military history perspective.

[Myke Cole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into this book with high hopes, which sadly weren't realized. This isn't a seriously scholarly monograph, and the author relies more on flourishes of prose than new and cogent analysis of primary sources. Harrison's past as a fiction writer distracts rather than enhances, as she chases down tangents and speculates on irrelevancies that don't advance the narrative. She can't seem to decide if this is a work of pop culture (it acts as a survey of modern works inspired by Joan, focusing largely on film) or a serious history, and it winds up failing at both.

Joan's transfiguration likewise fails to be a unifying narrative structure for the research. Joan is a saint. Of course her life is transfigured. If the book's goal is to be a religious polemic, then it fails to manage reader expectations in this regard. If it is intended to be a story from Joan's perspective, giving real credence to her divine vision, then I missed that as well.

In the end, I gathered a few facts about Joan's life and legacy, which would have been better served by reading the trial transcripts themselves. The book overall feels incoherent, like Harrison badly wanted to write about Joan, but didn't figure out what it was she wanted to say before putting pen to paper.

[Valentina Rosewood · Rating 4 out of 5]

// trigger warnings : war, threats of rape, descriptions of torture

the author does *not* like jesus. i would not recommend this book to Christian readers. the author compares and contrasts Joan of arc with him throughout the book which I thought was intriguing.

I’ve highlighted quite a few parts throughout this book and it was informative.

I recommend getting the e-book version as it’s easier to look up the definition of words. Words I had to look up were things like hagriography, crenellated, caprices and schism.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The trial records of Joan of Arc make her life and thoughts a matter of historical common knowledge. The author of this book set the facts into the literary and artistic interpretations Joan has inspired, the myth and saint mixed into the history.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not what I was looking for. Wanted a historical perspective of Joan of Arc, but the author blended historical sources with fictional, plus her own editorializing so much that it all became a muddle that I did not have the energy to wade through.

[Bern · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a doozy for me to review, because what it did well it really did wonderfully. What it did badly, well, Harrison is not one for half measures.

Let's start with the good. I really like the idea of a biography of Jeanne d'Arc that focuses not on the regular, frankly historiographically boring, debates of 'were her voices real' and 'was Jeanne proto-Protestant' (no to the last). These are not questions I think we can answers in any way. We might as well ask if God is real. Instead Harrison focuses on how people saw Jeanne d'Arc then, and how they continue to interpret her through history. This is much more interesting. It acknowledges that in some ways Jeanne's story is fundamentally connected with her miraculousness. The way she has inspired people is central to who she was and who she continues to be. There is no point in asking whether Jeanne was mentally ill or not. What matters is what she did and what others saw in her. This is what history is about. And to see a pop biography so centrally tied to this sort of discussion is frankly really wonderful.

Okay, then why is this getting three stars? Because oh my God (ha) the deicide. The Christian antisemitism of it all. No, Harrison, the Jews did not kill Jesus. Can we stop saying the Jews killed Jesus? Can we stop pretending that Jesus' stunt in the Temple was cleansing the Temple of greedy people? Can we have any understanding of Jewish religious life, of the fact that vendors allowed Jewish people to make sure their sacrifices held up to strict rules of cleanliness that were incredibly difficult to follow on pilgrimage? Can we please be normal about Jews for five minutes?

And lest anyone act as if this is not something with real consequences, the accusation of deicide has resulted in the deaths of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of Jews. Just look at the 1190 massacre of Jews in York. Look at the ramping up of antisemitic violence around Passion Week. As a Catholic, I am begging us to abjure this interpretation of the death of Jesus. Please.

So, yeah. Mixed bag. There was some other antisemitic stuff peppered throughout, and morally I cannot really bring myself to rate this any higher. However, this book is still a really good study of the transfiguring of Jeanne as she lived and after she died. It's a pity that Harrison so polluted her book. Otherwise I would recommend it to everyone to understand the pull that Jeanne has on us, now as then.

[Kirby Rock · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I learned a lot from this book, but it was pretty bland. Before reading it, I was under the impression that Joan of Arc was kind of a proto-feminist icon-- which is not exactly the case. She was extremely brave and determined and I see why she's a French hero, but she was also a religious zealot with an "I'm not like other girls" message, who touted her virginity as a source of power and superiority, who prided herself on the fact that she never got her period (a sign of.... I don't know, womanly weakness?), who capitalized on a generations-old prophecy that a virgin from Lorraine would save France. Whatever, she didn't deserve to be burned at the stake, and this is not a review of Joan of Arc as a person; it's a review of the book. Which I found boring.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to an audio version, which was done well. It started feeling a little long toward the end.

However, I did enjoy a book about Joan of Arc that wasn't strictly from a religious point of view, but instead examined how myth and symbolism has been used in the telling of her story. Joan was examined as both a religious and political figure, her actions informed by inspiration from her god and wanting to be a successful commander. It was a book about the nuance of Joan of Arc, and it was done well.

[Trevor]

This was neat! A lot of the negative reviews complain about Harrison's anti-church sentiment, which is silly. They also lament her fixation on the metaphors about menstruation and phallic symbols and stuff, and also all the quoting from plays and movies, but I think that's a large part of the point of the book. It's not just about Joan's life, it's also about the perception of her throughout history, and how she has been "transfigured" into this larger than life symbol. My only complaint is that the voices the audiobook reader did for all the quotations were silly.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good documentary about Joan of Arc. Harrison compares the life of Joan of Arc--a young girl who helped save France from the English--to that of Jesus. Both had followers who believed in them and others who thought they were blasphemous. "Joan of Arc was beautified on April 18, 1909, and canonized on May 16, 1920" (Harrison 320). Saint Joan of Arc lived from 1412 to 1431, when she was burned at the stake at the young age of nineteen.

[Tamera · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not finish this one. ICK! Bad writing, bad attitude, bad information!

[Amanda]

Despite reading several reviews that warned me this would be full of cringey analysis, I gave it a try anyway. Couldn't get more than a few pages in before I quit.