Twin's serious, impassioned, meticulously researched story about a compelling heroine, the Maid of Orleans. This is Twain's celebration of the ideal woman: gentle, selfless, and pure, but also brave, courageous, and eloquent.

A work that Mark Twain himself considered his last finished and most important novel, "The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc," is a departure from Twain's usual comic and satirical spirit. "Joan" is a work of serious historical reflection that suggests that the English deliberately rigged the trial of Joan of Arc to convict her of witchcraft and heresy, a view that recent scholarship seems to support.