Our collection of Joan of Arc antique French plates was inspired by this incredible book. Mark Twain personally hails it as his very best book, in which he invested twelve years of preparation and two years of writing, where his books required none. Personally, I find this book impossible to put down as it feels like a real story and a real hero, completely different than the legends and stereotypes that have clouded this heroine’s image.

“This novel deserves a better fate than it has received. The story itself is riveting. How could it not be? After all, this is the tale of “the only person, of either sex, who has ever held supreme command of the military forces of a nation at the age of seventeen,” as Twain points out in the epigraph to his book. I suspect that this novel could even serve as the basis for a megahit movie in the current day, when studios seek out narratives featuring powerful female protagonists, sweeping cinematic panoramas and awe-inspiring effects. Those are all here, in a way that they are not in Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.”