Medieval Historical Fiction Novel of the Week
An Army of Angels: A Novel of Joan of Arc by Pamela Marcantel
Paperback - 592 pages
Publisher - St. Martin’s Griffin; St Martin’s Griffin Ed edition (March 15, 1998)
Average Customer Review on Amazon - 4 stars
Editorial Review from Publishers Weekly:
Extensively researched, Marcantel’s earnest retelling of the story of Joan of Arc traces the saint’s life from her childhood to her fiery death, keeping the labyrinthine politics of the age clearly delineated at all times. Marcantel depicts a willful, impatient, hot-tempered Joan who, at times, is just as frightened as anyone else in her situation would be. In 1425, in the village of Domremy, 13-year-old Jhanette, an austere and pious girl, receives her first mystic visitation. Told she is “His special one,” she is renamed Jehanne. By her second vision, her destiny?to serve France and God?is revealed to her. The voices of the archangels Michel, Catherine and Marguerite begin to speak to Jehanne more frequently. A calm intensity comes upon her, and she takes an oath to remain virginal. Leaving her village at age 17, she makes her way to Charles de Valois, 26, the uncrowned and unanointed king of France, cutting her hair and adopting men’s dress along the way. Received by the Dauphin, she convinces him that she has come to beat back the seven-month English siege of Orleans, then to accompany him to Riems to be crowned. Marcantel knows and clearly loves her history, but perhaps too much so. As the story chugs toward Jehanne’s death, dates and names dutifully accumulate until the novel, Marcantel’s first, seems more like a ritual than a dramatic narrative. Ultimately, this tale is reminiscent of its subject’s famed suit of armor: well structured, densely woven?and lifeless.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Chapter One Excerpt:
When Jahnette was a child it was said that fairies dwelt within the overhanging branches of the Ladies’ Tree, guardian of the village fountain. The old people claimed to have seen them sometimes, when they went to drink the waters as their ancestors had done for centuries. They explained to the young that a healing spring deep beneath the earth gushed forth from the ancient Mother’s breasts, and that the fairies were the stewards of this gift to her children. The elders swore that when summer was high, you could see flickering lifeforms from the hidden world dancing in the shadows under the magical tree. One of Jhanette’s own godmothers and her namesake, Tante Jehanne Aubry, vowed by the Holy Virgin that she had actually seen the fairies with her own eyes.
I read this last year and it was pretty good, although parts of it did drag.
Tanzanite, I haven’t read it yet. One of the ones on my growing list. How do you feel the author did with the characters in this novel?
I think it depends on how strongly you view Joan of Arc herself. Joan is not saint in this book and she kind of gets “knocked off her pedestal” a bit. She has flaws and doubts and is very human. I’ve read some reviews where that really bothered some people.
I haven’t studied Joan of Arc much myself. I would be going into it competely fresh.