This little, slim volume (part of "Penguin lives" biographies where modern authors offer their interpretations of famous people like Charles Dickens, Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Darwin, Buddha, Jane Austin and Marlon Brando) came my way and it was actually surprisingly interesting, insightful look at life of one of the most famous girls in history. There are literally hundreds of books about Joan of Arc who lived and died in 15th century and if you are looking for more detailed accounts, the list of bibliography is almost intimidatingly wide as trough centuries there were various different authors trying to explain this unique historical phenomenon where illiterate peasant girl led the army into victories, just to get sacrificed as innocent little lamb. But she was never forgotten and the continuous interest in her story proves her charisma and how people all over the world feel about the whole unusual spectacle of warrior girl.
What is the most interesting for me personally is the way Mary Gordon carefully waves her story - instead of going the usual biographical route and describing everything in chronological detail, Gordon offers almost impressionistic portrait, explaining what story of Joan tells her. The final result is abstract portrait, almost like something painted by Picasso or Claude Monet - we get glimpses, ideas, reasons and musings but never concrete explanations because there is a huge gap between 15th century and our present time where for one thing, religion does not play such a important role in everyday lives as back than. Today we might call ourselves spiritual or agnostic but we would not stand on a serious trial, with our life on a stake because we ate meat on Friday or (like in Joan's case) we attacked besieged city on saint's day. Gordon patiently explains political and historical background of 15th century France and the world tainted with corruption, depression and disorder. Constant push-and-pull between French and British armies that nowadays we call the Hundred Years' War was nothing more but constant rampage and devastation of countryside, where innocent peasants and provinces suffered in hands of any bandits who passed by, while luxurious royal court lived constantly on a verge of bankruptcy. Something, someone had to happen and when Joan came out of nowhere, claiming she is guided by divine voices, hordes of desperate people clung to her because they needed to believe in her innocence and goodness.
Naturally I am sceptical about the whole idea of someone being guided by voices - from our current perspective, its something we are simply not familiar with and we associate it with mental illness - here again, the whole question of difference between 15th century and our time shows most clearly. Women visionaries were in fact quite common back than, they were called female mystics and were revered in church, where they prophesied usually from the protection of the monasteries and such. But Joan was not the one to hide behind the monastery walls, she was young girl who passionately threw herself right into battles and wore men's clothing - even when she was summoned to a court, she never felt comfortable there and was itching to go back to the battle. It occurred to me that she might have been attention seeker who used the time of political turbulence to escape dreary life of poverty in a countryside, but looking closely, it really appears that her motivations were utterly sincere and during her tragically short life she never showed any signs of personal interest in money, wealth or privileges - one thing that does shine bright trough centuries is her youthful passion, complete conviction, focus on what have to be done and impatience with people who don't understand it. Uncompromising from the first moment she enters the picture, Joan is in fact absolutely fascinating because she seems to have been genuine person who was willing to die for her ideals - I think this is what makes her story so interesting and unforgettable trough centuries, that we approach her with suspicion, ready to pronounce some medical hypothesis or another, but the closer you get to the well documented story, something inside tells you this was not a joke or illusion, that she might have been truly send on her path.
Mary Gordon basically touches just a surface - hers was not intention to go into too much detail, but to offer artistic impression - there is just so much more than other authors probably described in more detail and in the future I will probably research more, but this little volume was quite intriguing and impressive, because it created a spark of interest in me. Curiously, we actually have a lots of documents about Joan, specially her trial - she might be one of the most well documented historical persons - and her answers, opinions and quotes are absolutely fascinating, she was definitely not some deranged patient but lovable and likable brave young girl who deserved protection instead complete desertion from the very people who followed her initially. I completely understand why her story - and tragically short life, as she died at the age of 19 - was never forgotten and continued to inspire to this day. Multi-faceted and multi-layered story that can be explained from many different perspectives.
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