Jeanne d'Arc: Her Life and Death

by Mrs. Oliphant

Margaret Oliphant Oliphant (nee Margaret Oliphant Wilson) (April 4, 1828 - June 25, 1897), Scottish novelist and historical writer, daughter of Francis Wilson, was born at Wallyford, near Musselburgh, East Lothian. Her childhood was spent at Lasswade (near Dalkeith), Glasgow and Liverpool. As a girl she constantly occupied herself with literary experiments, and in 1849 published her first novel Passages in the Life of Mrs Margaret Maitland. It dealt with the Scottish Free Church movement, with which Mr and Mrs Wilson both sympathized, and had some success. This she followed up in 1851 with Caleb Field, and in the same year met Major William Blackwood in Edinburgh, and was invited by him to contribute to the famous Blackwood's Magazine. The connection thus early commenced lasted during her whole lifetime, and she contributed considerably more than 100 articles to its pages, such as a critique of the character of Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter. ... She had now become a popular writer, and worked with amazing industry to sustain her position."

Genres: History, Biography, Short Stories, Nonfiction

452 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant (née Margaret Oliphant Wilson) was a Scottish novelist and historical writer, who usually wrote as Mrs. Oliphant. Her fictional works encompass "domestic realism, the historical novel and tales of the supernatural".

Margaret Oliphant was born at Wallyford, near Musselburgh, East Lothian, and spent her childhood at Lasswade (near Dalkeith), Glasgow and Liverpool. As a girl, she constantly experimented with writing. In 1849 she had her first novel published: Passages in the Life of Mrs. Margaret Maitland which dealt with the Scottish Free Church movement. It was followed by Caleb Field in 1851, the year in which she met the publisher William Blackwood in Edinburgh and was invited to contribute to the famous Blackwood's Magazine. The connection was to last for her whole lifetime, during which she contributed well over 100 articles, including, a critique of the character of Arthur Dimmesdale in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.

Reviews

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good place to start with learning about Joan of Arc. I started out with a four star rating, but moved it up to five.

[Joseph Durham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A poignant account of her life. In a case like this is difficult to get beneath all of the passion, and conjecture that surround her life and present a full picture of the events described. This book does offer a somber insight to the depths of human venality. Even centuries past it is a difficult scene to encounter.

[Edanur Yılmaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Biraz ağır ama tek kelimeyle ilham verici. Ağırdan kastım 100 sayfa boyunca sorgulama ve mahkeme eğer ilgi alanınız ya da uğraştığınız bişey değilse

[Brant · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you are looking for a book about Joan of Arc that has no more information than the Wikipedia article on her but is as lengthy as the Old Testament, this is the book for you. Mz. Oliphant drones on and on for pages and pages about seemingly unimportant details, but then describes key events in Joan's life as if they are trivial. It was almost as if Mz. Oliphant decided, before writing the book, that all the important stuff had already been covered somewhere else so she would write about the unimportant stuff instead. The battles read like: Joan freed such-and-such city. The trial reads like a bad transcript of a bad movie based on a bad book about Joan of Arc: Joan said this, then that, then was returned to her cell.

The remainder of the book is filled with fluffy babbling that for the most part didn't assist with understanding Joan's predicament. The first chapter of the book describes the political fragmenting of France at the time, which does help the reader understand a bit how Joan ended up on trial after defending her own country, but again this goes on for pages and utilizes the most boring, lengthy sentences possible. It was worse than reading an actual text book on the history of France. Which brings me to one other complaint: sprinkled throughout the book are words and phrases and entire sentences in French, most with no translation presented. Now I can certainly fire up an online translation tool, but come on, this is just annoying. I should have just learned French and read some other book on Joan of Arc in it's original language. At least then I would've gotten something out of it!

Maybe out of the entire book there were a dozen or so redeeming paragraphs that provided some insight into Joan's personality, but that doesn't make it worth the pain of reading the entire book. I think Mark Twain's book on Joan is a much easier and more interesting read, and though it is written in the style of a historical fiction, Twain did his homework and I would say his portrayal of Joan and her key achievements are accurate. I would recommend reading it (or any other book on Joan of Arc, really!) over this one.

[Elise Ravenclaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting account of life in a mad-house, and the mistreatment the patients were subjected to. However, if you are looking for gory details, look elsewhere, since this book does not focus on that. This is an account of a young female journalist, who posed as being slightly mad, and was sent to an asylum, but was not place in the worst part of the island, where I suppose the treatment would have been worse.

[Chrissy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to know the story of Jeanne d'arc and I achieved that goal with this book. However this author did not put forth any effort to make it easy and enjoyable to read.

I would recommend giving another version a try.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 1896 book surprised me. The author comes across well as an expert authority on Saint Joan of Arc. There is a lot of information and a peek into the personal life of the saint, but some of it was hard to stomach. Particularly, the author states that Joa