Testifying to Joan’s life just as it was.īehind this feigned presence, however, Twain masterfully tells another story, a story about the construction of memoir in all its possibilities and limitations.

He even goes so far as to swear under oath that he is truthfully Indeed, Sieur Louis’s narration continually reminds the reader that he was there to see things with his ownĮyes. Finally, he even gives Sieur Louis a front row seat as a scribe during her trial and condemnation in an ecclesiastical court controlled by the English.Īt these key periods makes him the perfect person to describe the “real” Joan. He appoints Sieur Louis to the position of page and secretary when Joan assumes military command of the French army. For example, Twain places Sieur Louis off in the shadows during one of Joan’s heavenly visions. His unique relationship with Joan allows him to narrate the story from the perspective of an eyewitness.

The fictitious character of Sieur Louis de Conte is Joan’s lifelong friend and confidante. Primarily through his narrator, Sieur Louis de Conte, and two other characters.Įach represent distinct historical renderings who Joan was. As a storyteller first and historian second, he plays with fact and fiction in all sorts of ways to entertain the reader and guide him through an investigation into the Truth of Joan’s life, something my class calls construction of memoir. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, hereafter Mark Twain, tells a captivating, historically accurate version of Joan of Arc’s life in his Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.

Mark twain on joan of arc