THIS WON'T DO, for me at least. I have a longtime fascination with Joan of Arc, so this novel caught my eye at the bookstore. The cover was off-putting--a glamorous model in a chainmail coif--but there was a ringingly positive blurb from Hilary Mantel, so it seemed worth a shot.
Turns out Chen is really interested in Joan only as a fighter and military tactician. Chen's Joan does not hear voices, for instance. She's pious, but not a mystic.
She is not particularly patriotic, either. She fights less for king and France than out of a desire to avenge an attack on her hometown (this did happen) and the rape of her sister (this, so far as anyone knows, did not happen).
Chen's novel effectively ends with Joan's capture--during which, according to Chen, she kills a few Burgundians and then bites the Duke of Burgundy (who was not present at her capture, actually).
Joan's trial and martyrdom--in the course of which, it seems fair to say, she was at least as brave and strong as she was in any battle, and without the benefit of armor, weapon, or companions--is entirely omitted from the novel.
This is Joan? If you like the idea of Joan of Arc as Xena the Warrior Princess, maybe.
No comments:
Post a Comment