"Was she a saint or a witch? A visionary or a madwoman? Or an extraordinary peasant girl who, at God\'s bidding, led an army, saved France, and paid the price by burning alive? .
Cutter strips away the romanticism in favor of a more complex portrayal that raises some provocative questions." -- O Magazine. . .
Cutter evokes the novel\'s medieval world with striking details." -- New York Times Book Review "Joan of Arc, the teenage peasant girl who commanded a French army, was burned at the stake, and eventually declared a saint, exists in our collective imagination as more myth than human being . . . "Impressive .
Rich with unspoken love and battlefield valor, The Maid is a Novel about the power and uncertainty of faith and the exhilarating and devastating consequences of fame.
But the story of Jehanne--the girl whose sister was murdered by the English, who sought an escape from a violent father and a forced marriage, who taught herself to ride and to fight, and who somehow found the courage and tenacity to persuade first one, then two, then thousands to follow her--is at once thrilling, unexpected, and heartbreaking.
The story of Jehanne d\'Arc, the visionary and saint who believed she had been chosen by God, who led an army and saved her country, has captivated our imaginations for centuries.
And in the quiet of her parents\' garden in Domr my, a peasant girl sees a spangle of light and hears a powerful voice speak her name: Jehanne.
France is under siege, English soldiers tear through the countryside destroying all who cross their paths, and Charles VII, the uncrowned king, has neither the strength nor the will to rally his army.
Kimberly Cutter\'s portrait of \'Jehanne\' as a strange, gritty teenage tomboy and true believer is compelling." -- USA Today It is the fifteenth century, and the tumultuous Hundred Years\' War rages on. . . "Was she a saint or a witch? A visionary or a madwoman? Or an extraordinary peasant girl who, at God\'s bidding, led an army, saved France, and paid the price by burning alive?
