Mark Twain is best known for his witty novels of the south, like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. What many people don’t know about him is that he nurtured a lifelong fascination for Saint Joan of Arc, which compelled him to write a serious novel about her life and accomplishments. He spent over a decade researching every historical record kept on the saint, which resulted in a beautiful and spellbinding story about her life, from her childhood to the moment she was burned at the stake. 

Though The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc is a biographical account, it reads like a myth or a fairytale. Twain brilliantly weaves a supernatural epic that takes on a transcendent form. This brilliant novel paints a picture of God’s unfailing love for His people, and shows how even the most unlikely character can play an important role in His Story.

Worried that his reputation for being a humorist and raconteur would detract from the impact of Joan of Arc, Twain initially insisted that the novel be published anonymously. To this day, it remains one of his most obscure works, with most people having no clue that he wrote it. Nevertheless, it can be argued that it is his most powerful work.

Of the novel, Twain said, “I like Joan of Arc best of all my books, and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none.”

“The contrast between [Joan] and her century is the contrast between day and night. She was truthful when lying was the common speech of men; she was honest when honesty became a lost virtue; she was a keeper of promises when keeping a promise was expected of no one; she gave her great mind to great thoughts when other great minds wasted themselves upon petty fancies or poor ambitions … she was of a dauntless courage when hope and courage had perished in the hearts of her nation. … She was perhaps the only entirely unselfish person whose name has a place in profane history. No vestige or suggestion of self-seeking can be found in any word or deed of hers.”