A free-verse novel about the life of Joan of Arc, a peasant girl who felt called upon by God to save France during the Hundred Years' War, defying gender convention in the process.

Inspiring story of a 15th-century farm girl who answered a divine call to drive the English from France. The miraculous story of the Maid of Orleans unfolds from her early childhood and the touching story of the "Voices," to the battles she led and the splendid march to Rheims.

A fully documented, inspiring portrait of the 15th-century peasant-turned-saint draws on historical facts, folklore and centuries of critical interpretation to evaluate the questions attributed to her character.

Baron Gilles de Rais, Marshall of France, Joan of Arc's close companion on the battlefield, one of the wealthiest and most respected men in France, became a notorious serial killer, nicknamed Bluebeard, who performed bizarre sexual rituals, brutal mutilations and murders on hundreds of children. How and why did this happen? Was it the barbarity of war that turned this celebrated hero into a monster?--Publisher.

"It is as if Chen has crept inside a statue and breathed a soul into it, re-creating Joan of Arc as a woman for our time."--Hilary Mantel, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Booker Prize winner Wolf Hall "This is not your grandmother's St. Joan .. If every generation gets the Joan it deserves, ours could do worse than an ass-kicking, avenging angel fighting simply for the right to fight."--The New York Times Book Review 1412. France is mired...

Few people know that Mark Twain wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important, but also his best work. Twain spent twelve years in research and many months in France doing archival work, and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell. He reached his conclusion about Joan's unique place in history only after studying in detail accounts written by both sides:...

A biography of the fifteenth-century peasant girl who led a French army to victory against the English and was burned at the stake for witchcraft.