The Story of Joan of Arc

Publisher Marketing: This is a concise but comprehensive biography of Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc is one of the most famous women in history: a French folk legend, a Catholic saint, and a military heroine. Yet almost nothing is truly known about the Maid of Orleans besides her ultimate fate, being burned at the stake when she was still a teenager. The Hundred Years War between France and England was one of the great wars of the feudal ages, a conflict literally spanning a century in which an untold number of men on each side died. That makes it all more amazing that a teenaged peasant girl came to the front lines. Claiming God instructed her to save France from England, she convinced the uncrowned Charles to send her to the siege of Orleans, and she subsequently led the French army to a string of important victories that made it possible for Charles VII to be coronated as the King of France. Joan then exited the stage almost as quickly as she entered it, being captured by the Burgundians and handed over to the English to be put to death for heresy. Over the centuries, the memory of Joan of Arc has been firmly embedded in French lore, where she is still constantly invoked, and she remains a staple of world history and pop culture. While she is constantly portrayed in film and art, scholars debate the accuracy of historical accounts about her, and her legend and mythology hang above all of it. Contributor Bio:  Lang, Andrew Andrew Lang (March, 31, 1844 - July 20, 1912) was a Scottish writer and literary critic who is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. Lang's academic interests extended beyond the literary and he was a noted contributor to the fields of anthropology, folklore, psychical research, history, and classic scholarship, as well as the inspiration for the University of St. Andrew's Andrew Lang Lectures. A prolific author, Lang published more than 100 works during his career, including twelve fairy books, in which he compiled folk and fairy tales from around the world. Lang's Lilac Fairy and Red Fairy books are credited with influencing J. R. R. Tolkien, who commented on the importance of fairy stories in the modern world in his 1939 Andrew Lang Lecture "On Fairy-Stories."