Book cover of Saint Joan

Book description

'What other judgment can I judge by but my own?' Charting the meteoric rise and fall of Joan of Arc and her mission to drive the English from France, Shaw's Saint Joan draws directly on the medieval records to cut through the sentiment that characterized previous literary treatments of her…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Saint Joan as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Although written as a play, it has a foreword detailing its subject—the life of Joan of Arc. Joan was the inspiration and much-admired heroine of Rebecca Roberts in my own book. Based closely on the Inquisition records, it has very moving moments, whether read or performed as a play.

Saint Joan is a story of youthful self-realization. I liked the description of its characters, the folly of leadership, and the theme of determined assertion to be recognized. The dialogue of its characters resonates with the words of Bernard Shaw. She was ‘the girl’ whose confrontations with the powerful led to an early death. I entered the pages to find Saint Joan an appealing and cautious tale of personal vanity, overconfidence, and confrontation with power. The curious will have to decide what lessons can be learned from this story. She’s an upstart who lectured, talked down, and overruled statesmen and…

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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