Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Volumes 1 & 2
Mark Twain
Read by John Greenman
Mark Twain's work on Joan of Arc is titled in full "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte." De Conte is identified as Joan's page and secretary. For those who've always wanted to "get behind" the Joan of Arc story and to better understand just what happened, Twain's narrative makes the story personal and very accessible.
The work is fictionally presented as a translation from the manuscript by Jean Francois Alden, or, in the words of the published book, "Freely Translated out of the Ancient French into Modern English from the Original Unpublished Manuscript in the National Archives of France."
It was originally published as a serialization in Harper's Magazine beginning in 1895 and later published in book form in 1896. However the Harper's editors decided to cut 12 chapters that describe much of Joan's Great Trial, saying the chapters were not suitable for serialization since, "They will not bear mutilation or interruption, but must be read as a whole, as one reads a drama." This recording contains the complete text!
De Conte is a fictionalized version of Joan of Arc's page Louis de Contes, and provides narrative unity to the story. He is presented as an individual who was with Joan during the three major phases of her life - as a youth in Domremy, as the commander of Charles' army on military campaign, and as a defendant at the trial in Rouen. The book is presented as a translation by Alden of de Conte's memoirs, written in his later years for the benefit of his descendants.
Twain based his descriptions of Joan of Arc on his daughter, Susy Clemens, as he remembered her at the age of seventeen.
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." (Summary by Wikipedia and John Greenman) (15 hr 18 min)
Chapters
Reviews
Brilliant Reader
Zonda
I've been impressed enough with John Greenman's readings to google him! Fantastic reader, who's made it his mission to read all of Mark Twain's books. And he seems to know them all by heart.... faultless readings, the characters come alive and hundreds of hours of brilliant entertainment. Why would ANYONE watch tv with this freely available? Thank you! Awesome :D
Excellent reading of an excellent book
Vic LePanto
I'd like to thank personally the reader, John Greenman, for the superb job he did. What a great book! I enjoyed this very much.
most interesting book and excellent reader
A LibriVox Listener
I enjoyed this book. It is worthy of your time. It starts slowly with details you do not realize will be relevant to the rest of the story. You will be glad you kept listing. The pace will quicken and you will not want it to end. The reader is one of the very best!!
Rach
Outstanding rendition of third lengthy story. The reader had superb diction, flow, sensitivity to the text. And an smooth voice that was easy to listen to.
Personal Recollections of Jean of Ark - Superb
A LibriVox Listener
A less renowned Twain story, but a compelling retelling of the Mayrter's life. Excellent reading by Mr. Greenman
Joan
TheBookworm
Excellent book, full of action and pathos. And of course Greenman's reading is simply wonderful. Thank you, John. TheBookworm (Manchester, UK)
Phenomenal and sadly unknown to many!
Annie Sandigo
Absolutely amazing! I was surprised to hear that Mark Twain had written a book about a Catholic saint, and especially that it was recommended by a friend of mine! At first, I was skeptical, having read online that Twain was anti-organized religion, so I was anticipating an anti-Catholic and skewed perspective. Boy was I wrong! This book was so well done, giving such detailed information about her life, her calling by God, and her martyrdom. The narrator of the story is fictional, but Twain says it himself that all of the words that Joan of Arc spoke in this book were documented as truly being said. He spent 12 years doing research for this book, and his work paid off, because this book is extremely accurate. The story of Joan of Arc is so powerful, inspiring, and profound, that a young uneducated peasant girl would be given such a holy mission by God, and then accept her martyrdom willingly. All for the love of God. I have watched the movie, The Passion of Joan of Arc, which I really enjoyed, but this book was even better than expected! This book was so wonderful! 5 out of 5 stars, without a doubt! Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us!
Gizmo princess 👑 🌸💗
gizmo princess
Greatest book ever. This book was an amazing book and I totally recommend reading this it is a fascinating time in history and I loved it so much totally advice reading this wonderful work of art 💖💖💖💖💖 oh yes and if anyone wants or needs a good review on a book y’all can totally look at all my good and bad reviews well there all good ones 🤥. Ok ok fine a few bad ones from when I was little so look up gizmo princess 👑 🌸💗. And you should not have a hard time finding my reviews well got to go and once agin everyone has to get or read this book it is sad happy rude funny and amazing all at the same time see ya later ❣️👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 and the last thing you see that part on the top underneath my name the part that says I love this song so much Annie well Annie is my little sister and she somehow figured out how to do that to where whatever reviews I put it will always be under my name I know not fair but I can’t fix it if anyone thinks they know how to fix it text a reply underneath this review we’ll got to go see ya soon love gizmo princess 👑 🌸💗