Customer Reviews

An Army of Angels: A Novel of Joan of Arc

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I could not put this book down. The way she followed her faith really touched my heart. I thought it might be a boring book for me, being a 14 year old, but I found that the adventure and mystery of her life left me unable to put the book down. I found it quite amazing that a girl my age could have gone through that and still stood by her faith. The book should be read by people able to follow facts and a plot at the same time.

It's hard to craft a good story about Joan of Arc. So much of the story does not make sense. So many of the documented details do not hang together. All you have to do is view the first 20 minutes of the new Luc Besson film, THE MESSENGER, to see how painfully a telling of this tale is usually executed. The true story of Jehanne the Maid will likely forever be masked in mystery, a mystery that some have attributed to saintliness, others to madness and still others to the devious dealings of the many infamous royal and ecclesiastical opportunists of the Dark Ages.

What Pamela Marcantel has managed to do with AN ARMY OF ANGELS, is to craft a creative and extraordinarily well-researched retelling of this classic mystery play without lapsing into the usual cliches or delusions surrounding the life of this heroic and controverial 15th Century teenager. She has approached a difficult story with finesse and grace. Mostly, while I found Marcantel's conceptualizations of the messages received via Jehanne's mysterious voices to be somewhat unbelievable, I admired Marcantel's courage to attack that issue head-on -- most authors have simply avoided any speculation whatsoever and have made no attempt to explain directly how Jehanne arrived at her convictions.

As stories of Joan of Arc go, AN ARMY OF ANGELS is currently number one on my recommendation list.

"Army of Angels" is excellent and engaging. I have always had trouble reading history, but Marcantel makes it very digestible, even delicious! Her writing is so realistic that I had to keep reminding myself I was reading a novelization, not "FACTS" written in stone. I couldn't put it down. To anyone intimidated by the length of the book, I say don't be. It is so engaging, you'll fly through it before you realize.

Other readers have had issues believing the rape scene. Joan's abuses in prison have been discussed by many historians, as well as Marcantel. Anyone who thinks a woman in prison in those days -- especially one who claimed to talk to angels -- would not have been raped or otherwise sexually assaulted is sadly deluded. If it can happen today in our prisons, why not then in theirs? Marcantel's portrayal is very believable and tastefully written.

I highly recommend this book to anyone having an interest in Joan of Arc. It is obvious Marcantel based her writing in historical facts and research.

I enjoy historical novels a great deal, because they remove the "dryness" from history as it's usually written, dry, flat and boring. However, I also have reservations about most historical novels because the authors tend to embellish their recount of events almost to a point beyond credibility. This very readable, page-turning account of "Jehanne the Maid" is neither dry, flat, boring or beyond belief. Ms. Marcantel has the uncanny ability to bring to life an era and events which we cannot conceive, and have been insulated from, unless you survived the holocaust or were intimately involved with the wars of this century. This book has obviously been well-researched. Where there are questions as to lapses in time, the author tells you how she has endeavored to compensate, never losing the "atmosphere" of the times. No one can really explain to anyone's satisfaction how saints and angels appear to any particular person, but I believe Ms. Marcantel has done a most credible work in recounting the experiences of Jehanne the Maid, and has done justice to the history of the times.

Trust me--you will never come across a more powerfully real Joan of Arc. Pamela Marcantel's Jehanne the Maid is not an annoyingly pious saint-in-the-making or some kind of schizophrenic radical. This Joan is a down-to-earth peasant girl, whose fervent religious beliefs are fleshed out by her quick temper and tendency towards self-doubt. This is Joan as she must have really been: sturdy, honest, full of love, somewhat afraid of her destiny, never hesitating to speak her mind. The book is excellently researched, making frequent use of actual quotes from Joan herself (recorded during her trial). However: though the story is told on the most part from Jehanne's point of view, the narration is often strangely distant. The whole first part of the book is told as if Marcantel can't wait to get it all out of the way, while still managing to be quite long. Though Joan's voices are faithfully documented without a hint of skepticism, their wise sayings (appearing in ful! l splendor in an array of different fonts) are sometimes hard to swallow. Unfortunately, the book really takes its time to build up. But worth the wait--the last quarter or so is very intense. The ending is enough to elicit a profound sense of awe for this girl who commanded the French army and was burned as a heretic--all before she was twenty.

I read two to three books a week and it is rare for me to find a book as brutally honest as this one. The pull of the characters were so subtle that I had no idea how emotionally involved I was until near the end of the book. I have bought An Army of Angels twice because it has worn out from how many people I insist read it. Definitely worth the time and emotional involvement.

An Army of Angels is beautifully written, infused with light, faith and a conveyable sense of how this righteous, teenaged peasant girl uplifted the hope of nations. Of how she, despite the dogged stubbornness that moved her and her army beyond Orleans to the Siege of Paris in the face of sensible political opposition, was able to keep the faith in what she felt was right to do. Though her angels warned against it, as she had already fulfilled their task for her. Though doing so led her to be captured, tried and executed.

Pamela Marcantel's magnificent re-telling of the story of Jehanne left me in tears. It's a big book, but don't be daunted... you'll wish there were more pages and chapters when it ends. Marcantel isn't afraid of Jehanne's mystical side, and she interprets it without judgment. Neither overly skeptical nor overly credulous, Marcantel faithfully re-creates a gritty, terrifying period in all its dimensionality.

Don't get me wrong, I did love the book, and the trial scenes were excellent. But Jehanne's saintly conversations with her Angels were sometimes too much. I also thought that she went through unlikely changes towards the middle of the story, especially after her liberation of Orleans. Those changes are easily seen in her treatment of the members of her entourage. Does P. Marcantel have any other books in the works? Her research and attention to detail are excellent, and made scenes that could have been dull (like the scenes from Jehanne's childhood in Domremy) interesting when they could have been dull. All in all an excellent read, although a long one. It's worth it, though.

Ok, before any history professors jump my case about saying this is historically accurate, let me just say that I have read the transcripts from both hearings and many of Joan's actual words make it into this book.

If you like historical fiction, you should like this book. It was one of the best books I have ever read. The descriptions of battle and of Joan's incarceration made me feel like I was there. If you read this book, you will probably find that you will have a newfound respect for Joan of Arc.

Read this book for its wonderful story, not as a history lesson.