Joan of Arc

by Lucy Foster Madison

8 full-color paintings; b&w drawings throughout.

205 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1918

About the author

Born Lucy Foster in Kirksville, Missouri, the daughter of George W. Foster and Almira Parker, leaving her to care for her two younger sisters. She became a school teacher in Louisiana, Missouri, then in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1890 she was married to Winfield Scott Madison.

In 1893, the offer of a prize by a New York newspaper interested her enough to enter a short story and she won second place. She became a writer of both short stories and novels, plus a compiler of various Chautauqua assemblies. Her series of "Peggy Owens" stories and other tales for girls were popular early in the twentieth century. Her husband began to suffer ill health, so they moved to a farm near Hudson Falls, New York in 1924. She died there in 1932, a few days after she had a stroke.

Reviews

[Patricia]

This was so sentimental and trite. It didn't improve with further reading.

[Rachael]

Archaic language and a super fluffy tone......still I found the facts of the story to be accurate. The story of Joan was fascinating and I would love a better telling.

[Craig Carter]

I enjoyed this book. I didn't really know much about Joan of Arc other than her outcome. I knew she did heroic deeds, but wasn't sure exactly the scope. This book gives a good overview of her accomplishments. I'm not an expert, but I expect that a majority of the facts are as close to accurate as possible. And I enjoyed the story as well. It humanized Joan and made me care about the person behind the legend. There were some parts that were a little hard to follow, but those were largely the historical parts. And I would guess the author wanted to include them, but struggled with how to make them have an entertaining flow. Would recommend.

[Helen Meyer]

3.5 Stars. This book was very detailed, almost to the point where you wonder how much of it is just guessing. It's formatted more as a story than as a history, which I sort of liked. I saw a review giving it two stars on the grounds that the language, "was too archaic," but I had no trouble whatsoever with it. In fact, the writing was actually really good! The only thing you could call archaic was one instance where the author put "sex" instead of "gender," which I have no problem whatsoever with.

[Danial Azman]

You'll be in tears by the end

It's not often that I read a historical novel. Even rarer that I was so moved by it. The story of Jeanne d'Arc has been told many times. This one made me feel a great swell of sympathy as I finished it. Even though you likely know how it ends, the way the victories and triumphs and eventually Jeanne's capture, trial and sentencing is told kept me glued to the end. A humble peasant girl's extraordinary life that changed the history of France.

[Susan Clement]

Great historical read

I love learning about the history of the world, and this read is no different. I loved learning about Joan of Arc's life and more than her tragedy of her death. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves history and learning about the background to historical events in history.

[Traci T]

A very long read but worth it. Battle scenes a little hard to follow. Did fall in love with Joan's spunk, honesty and faith.

[Mary R Rosales]

Prophecy answered by a vibrant, God loving, simple farm girl. More than simple, such faith. Loads of battle and traversing her beloved France. Glad to have found this 1919 addition formated to ebook, of a historic era in the year 1424. God bless her soul, and may she pray for us.

[Victoria Simcox]

I liked this book. It is a time gone by historic account of St Joan, an archaic story. There are attention-grabbing evidences entwined in the story. The antiquity and the specifics of this tale seem to match the time frame of the legend of St Joan. A gratifying read.

[Kaija]

I didn't know the full story of Joan of Arc. Good retelling, but I'm curious as to how much of it is real.

[Barbara]

HC, from MEM