EVEN WITHOUT THE benefit of modern scholarship, this is one of the best books on Joan, I'd say. Michelet did not actually publish it as a book; it's an excerpt from his multi-volume history of France, deftly translated and presented by Albert Guérard.
As a historian, Michelet was of the republican tradition and as such no ally of the church, but he had a soft spot for Joan. His narration of her career begins:
Joan’s eminent originality was her common sense. This set her apart from the multitude of enthusiasts who, in ages of ignorance, have swayed the masses. In most cases, they derived their power from some dark contagious force of unreason. Her influence, on the contrary, was due to the clear light she was able to throw upon an obscure situation, through the unique virtue of her good sense and of her loving heart.
Michelet sought to reclaim Joan from the obscurantist pope-and-king element that were then re-fashioning her for propaganda purposes--a trend that continued right through the Dreyfus Affair, the collaborationist Vichy government (ironically enough), and Marine Le Pen in our own time. I guess we have to say he did not entirely succeed, given the depth to which right wing claws are still sunk in the image of the Maid of Orléans, but one is grateful the attempt was made.
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