Tea at Trianon: Why Mark Twain Wrote a Novel of St. Joan of Arc

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, June 28, 2026

Why Mark Twain Wrote a Novel of St. Joan of Arc

Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896) by Mark Twain is brilliant and well-researched historical fiction. From Jennifer Gill at The Distant Meadow:

St. Joan of Arc lived in the 15th century. A century known for civil upheaval, knights, peasants and wide divides between land holders, money and poverty.
She broke all the strict codes of her day, holding the record as the only person – male or female — to hold supreme command of military forces of a nation at the age of 17.
She led men to battle, acquired victory for France and required every solider to pray and go to confession. Her life and witness inspired some of the greatest thinkers and writers to honor her in various literary forms and honors:
The famous French poet Charles Peguy illustrates her life in The Mystery of the Charity of Joan of Arc. One of Peguy’s plays reached the Vatican causing former Pope Benedict XVI to proclaim that Peguy’s work “is so famous that has been offered to us also showed us that Joan’s pathetic cry, which betrays her distress and helplessness, reveals above all her ardent and lucid faith, marked by hope and courage.”
The famous Twain, sometimes openly hostile to the Catholic Church, writes the definitive biography on the saint stating it is the best of all his books. He travels to France and researches the saint for 14 years and took two years to write his famous chronicle of her, The Personal Recollections of St. Joan of Arc.
The great conquer Napoleon reinstated celebrations in St. Joan of Arc’s honor after they were prohibited following the French Revolution.
St. Therese of Lisieux, known world-wide as the Little Flower and a Doctor of the Church wanted to emulate St. Joan of Arc. The Little Flower portrayed her in a play at the convent.
(Read more.)