God knows, Mark Twain isn’t primarily known for his religious fervor. He was a Presbyterian, perhaps because of these views that he held: You never see any of us Presbyterians getting in a sweat about religion and trying to massacre the neighbors. Let us all be content with the tried and safe old regular religions, and take nochances on wildcat.
Sounds plausible in theory… However, these statements may somewhat contradict Twain’s more than 40-year preoccupation with Joan of Arc.
Wikipedia reports that Twain had dreamed since childhood of writing a book about Saint Joan. He claimed to have found a biographical manuscript about her during his adolescence. The book that Twain eventually wrote was completely titled Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte, and was presented as a “fictionalized version” of the work of Louis de Conte (Joan of Arc’s page). Not only was this book of Twain’s somewhat attributed to De Conte, but it was also billed as “a translation from a manuscript by Jean Francois Alden” (and additionally claimed to be “Freely Translated out of the Ancient French into Modern English from the Original Unpublished Manuscript in the National Archives of France”).
Which only goes to show that Twain’s preoccupation with Saint Joan was not only intense, but also complex…
In Twain’s own words (from his essay Saint Joan of Arc - which is included in the latest edition of Twain’s book about her): The evidence furnished at the Trials and Rehabilitation sets forth Joan of Arc’s strange and beautiful history in clear and minute detail… The personality which made it possible is one to be reverently studied, loved, and marvelled at, but not to be wholly understood and accounted for by even the most searching analysis.
When all his years of “searching analysis” were said and done, Twain had this to say about the endeavor: “I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished
me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others…” Such, indeed, may be the power of Sainthood.
Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain
http://www.twainquotes.com/Religion.html
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/stj05003.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Recollections_of_Joan_of_Arc
Copyright February 6, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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