Beyond the Myth

The king was going mad . . . So begins Polly Schoyer Brooks''s account of one of history''s most compelling stories and one of the world''s most popular heroines-Joan of Arc. Brooks tells us of a fifteenth-century France ravaged by war plague and religious conflict; of a king who suffered fits of madness and his weak son who made a disappointing successor; and of a peasant girl from the countryside who accomplished what appeared to be miracles by rallying the dispirited French nation with her desire to see the rightful king rule. Little more than a year after her astounding triumphs-uniting the nation and securing the throne for Charles VII with her victory over the English at Orlean-nineteen-year-old Joan was imprisoned on charges of witchcraft and sorcery tried for heresy and burned at the stake. Polly Schoyer Brooks''s detailed narrative unveils the spirited young woman who became a patron saint and continues to inspire courage and faith.