Gloria: The Merlin and The Saint: From the Joan of Arc Tapestries [Hardcover]

Ann Chamberlin (Author)

Book Description

Series: Joan of Arc Tapestries | Publication Date: August 15, 2005

From Ann Chamberlin, winner Critic's Choice Award for Best Overall Historical, this fictional account of the life of Joan of Arc from her emergence at the court of Charles the Dauphin, through the lifting of the English siege of Orleans, to the crowning of Charles as King of France. If Joan really were a witch.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Chamberlin, moving from DAW for this third installment of the Joan of Arc Tapestries, again mixes above-average medievalism and convoluted narrative. She picks up Joan's historical career from her first appearance at the dauphin's raggle-taggle court through his coronation at Rheims as a fulfillment of Merlin's prophecy. Much of the story along the way is taken up by Joan's lifting the siege of Orleans by charismatically securing the loyalty of able lieutenants and by outright magic. The latter is provided by Father Jann, Merlin's heir in witchcraft, and Gilles de Rais (aka Bluebeard), a talented bon vivant who believes that Joan (or La Pucelle) is his destined true love. The battle sequences are formidable both in vividness and detail, as are the magic sequences. It takes some suspension of disbelief to accept Chamberlin's kinder, gentler Gilles de Rais (who has come down to us as a pedophile, mass murderer and Satanist), but the story is otherwise credible and absorbing if sometimes slow. At the end, the stage is set for La Pucelle's destined fate, and readers who have come this far will probably want to see it.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Chamberlin resumes the Joan of Arc Tapestries, begun in The Merlin of St. Gilles' Well (1999) and continued in The Merlin of the Oak Wood (2001), with La Pucelle now at center stage as a heavenly, or perhaps diabolical, gender-bending vision-figure who straddles the line between witchcraft and mystic Christianity. In Chamberlin's interpretation, Jehanne was a follower of the Old Religion and a member of a coven that also included her beloved dauphin, Charles. Aided by the magician Yann, who is barely disguised as a priest, and protected by the obsessive love of the noble Gilles, the Maid throws herself into battle after battle. With witches dancing spells nearby, she advances to evict the occupying English and free besieged Orleans, then surges overland to Charles' coronation at Rheims. Well told and full of magic and romance, this volume clearly sets up its sequel, in which the Maid will die. But will she perish willingly, a substitute sacrifice for Charles? The ending of this volume leaves all possibilities open. Patricia Monaghan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: High Country Publishers (August 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932158618
• ISBN-13: 978-1932158618
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,364,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Gloria, December 5, 2006

By 

Jessica Lynn Chubet (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gloria: The Merlin and The Saint: From the Joan of Arc Tapestries (Hardcover)

I found this book to be very interesting. I did not read the first two books in the trilogy but had no trouble following this book. I think it was an interesting story, combining fiction with a historical character. The way Chamberlin describes La Pucelle througout the book keeps you wanting to read more of the story.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic historical fictional fantasy, September 3, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gloria: The Merlin and The Saint: From the Joan of Arc Tapestries (Hardcover)

In 1428 Christian time, Augustinian monk Jean Pasquerel, a follower of the Old Religion of Merlin, knows that the young peasant Jehanne of Lorraine is the mythical La Pucelle. This chosen one will break the Templar Knight curse that cripples France. Meanwhile Jehanne persuades her loyal follower Lord Gilles de Rais, who sees her as his soul mate and salvation from a life of abuse and sin, to help her crown Charles the Dauphin as King of France.

Jehanne obtains loyal military help and with Gilles at her side leads a force to try to lift the siege at Orleans, a needed step on the way to placing the Dauphin on the throne. She leads her men into battle while Jann provides the witchcraft. Still Gilles has doubts not about the skills of Jehanne or Jann, but that the Dauphin will prove not strong enough to complete the final magical step that requires a sacrifice of major magnitude, which can only be the monarch himself or some equivalent, of which he knows of none other.

Adding Merlinian sorcery into a vivid accurate historical portrayal of troubled fifteenth century France, Ann Chamberlin provides a fantastic historical fictional fantasy. Jehanne is wonderful as she matures from her youthful naiveté (see THE MERLIN OF ST. GILLES' WELL and THE MERLIN OF THE OAK WOOD) yet contains that charismatic exuberance that brings her loyal followers. Gilles has mellowed mostly because of his one true love. Fans of the series will devour the third tale while looking forward to the continuing saga of Joan of Arc meets Camelot in France.

Harriet Klausner

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting but Unrealistic Veiw on History, October 15, 2010

By 

Morgan N. Young - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gloria: The Merlin and The Saint: From the Joan of Arc Tapestries (Hardcover)

I found this book at my library and decided to give this book a try since I really like the subject of Joan of Arc. I am about halfway through this book and I find that it is very well written and interesting. But the one thing that really keeps me from enjoying this book is the fact that she has Joan being portrayed as a pagan witch when history have proven to us that she was a very devout Catholic. The author had gotten her theory that Joan of Arc is a pagan from Margaret Murray someone that no reliable historian has been able to take her and her views on history serirously. If this book had been just a speculation of what Joan's life would have been like as a pagan I wouldn't have minded, but the author even goes so far as to say that she finds herself believeing that Joan is a pagan. I will probably end up buying this book to add it to my collection of books about Joan of Arc, but I must warn people to not take this story seriously as history since it makes a claim about a Christian saint that is both unrealistic and untrue.