Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc: by the Sieur Louis de Conte

"I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well."

-Mark Twain

Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte (1896) was Mark Twain's last completed novel, offering a portrait of Joan of Arc (1412-1431), the French heroine and a national symbol of France. At the age of seventeen, she led a French army to defeat the English during the Hundred Years' War. In 1430, she was captured by a group of French nobles allied with the English and was burned at the stake by the English. In 1920, she was canonized as a Catholic Saint.

Although not as well-known as some of Twain's other works, this jacketed hardcover replica with drawings by illustrator Frank DuMond is a beautiful piece of historical fiction.