Jeanne d'Arc, Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
772K words
Chapters
78

Tags

English Originals Historical FiguresMilitary Historical ReappraisalFrench HistoryHundred Years WarLegendary LivesMilitary CommandersSaintly FigureHeroismPower Of FaithMartyrdomFemale Perspective

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Jeanne d'Arc, Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France by T. Douglas MurrayAuthor: ,Language: English, Class: DC: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: France, Andorra, Monaco, Release Date: Jun 25, 2018

Editor's review

This book centers on Joan of Arc, bringing together English-language materials to recount her career from the Maid of Orleans to the deliverer of France; it is a historical work that combines biographical sources with narrative. Unlike literary biographies of Joan, it is closer to a documentary compilation: the editor, T. Douglas Murray, presents the relevant records in English, allowing readers to see the basic outline of Joan's image in the sources. Its value lies in gathering scattered accounts so that readers can compare the sequence of events and understand Joan's place in the Hundred Years' War and her later shaping in memory. The language is English, the style is somewhat old, and the narrative pace is not especially brisk, but the material is solid, making it suitable as a foundational text for thematic reading on Joan. It can be used as supplementary material for history courses or as preparation for biographical writing; it is most rewarding when read alongside background on medieval French history. The electronic edition facilitates searching for names, places, and key events, making it suitable for repeated verification.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. First review the background of the Hundred Years' War, then enter the text; the actions of the figures will be easier to understand
  2. Read in stages by event, such as the Siege of Orleans, the trial, and the martyrdom, building a timeline section by section
  3. When encountering old-fashioned English, read for the general meaning of a paragraph first rather than checking every word
  4. After reading, compare with other biographies of Joan to see how source accounts differ from later narratives

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Is this book a novel or historical material? It is a biographical work combining historical materials and narrative, not a novel. The text presents Joan-related records in English in a somewhat old style, focusing on deeds and documentary leads rather than fictional plot or psychological description.
Can someone without a background in medieval history understand it? It can be read, but readers are advised to first understand the basic outline of the Hundred Years' War and the political environment in which Joan lived. Otherwise, personal names, place names, and factional relations can be confusing. Reading with a concise chronology of medieval French history will help considerably.
How difficult is the English? The text is in English and was written early, so its sentence structures and vocabulary have an old-fashioned flavor, making it somewhat harder than modern popular history. Readers with university-level English reading ability who are willing to slow down can manage, consulting reference works for key terms when necessary.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.