I love anything to do with Joan of Arc. I've read the play by George Bernard Shaw (St. Joan), and watched the movie as well. I've seen the movie Joan of Arc with Ingrid Bergman, a bit sentimental perhaps, but more attuned to medieval ways of thinking than some of the more modern movies. Of all the books I've read about Joan, this is definitely my favorite. It helps that Regine Pernoud is one of my favorite authors as well! Ms. Pernoud takes a unique approach here, introducing us to Joan through contemporary sources documents, in chronological order. This means that we first hear of her when she appears in Chinon and persuades the dauphin to send her to the relief of the city of Orleans, and that the book ends with her rehabilitation trial, at which much documentation is recorded through the witnessing of the people of her own village. What makes this documentation trustworthy is that the villagers don't try to make her into anything special. They don't describe miracles, golden auras or anything like that. Over and over again, they repeat, "She was just one of us. Maybe she was different in that she liked to pray a lot. But otherwise, she worked in the fields with the others, she participated in the village festivals, she was a good obedient daughter. She willingly went to church, she willingly helped neighbors in distress, etc." Nothing of the supernatural here. Yet Joan's pure humility and love of God shines through all this testimony and through her own words, carefully recorded all those hundreds of years ago. Wonderful book, I couldn't put it down!

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