A review by alexisdpatt
Joan of Arc: A History by Helen Castor

challenging informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

4.0

“Joan of Arc: A History” by Helen Castor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Joan of Arc” chronicles the life of Saint Joan in the 15th century as she lead the French Army into battle against the English, only to be taken prisoner, put on trial and burnt at the stake as a heretic. 

Castor takes a different approach in telling Joan’s story by using the first third to cover the the ground work as to WHY Joan would even be in this predicament. I always knew it was part of the 100 years war but I never realized that France was thrown into civil war after the death of Charles the Mad in 1422. So by laying out the foundations of Joan’s cause, it helps to elevate and understand her story as to why she got involved. 

Castor notes that by doing this, she tells Joan’s life backwards. We start with her entrance into Orléans, her campaign and her arrest. It’s only when we go through her trial that we learn her backstory before she joined the army. It’s kinda laid out as if we are the English and we are learning about her in real time. It’s a very interesting way to set it up. 

I would like to note that reading about religion in a pre reformation context is wild to me. We forget just how faithful men and women of the medieval period were (not to say that those during the reformation weren’t but that’s analyzed through politics rather than religious doctrine). To deal with a religious trial of believing that angles and saints spoke to someone is incredibly fascinating and hard to understand. 

So either for the religious aspects or for the political jargon at the offset, this book can be very difficult to sit through. I definitely had trouble focusing from time to time, but I and happy in my decision to DNF Kristyn Harris’s “Joan of Arc: A Transfigured Life” because at least with Castor, I wasn’t being presented with an overdramatize account.