Even so, when de Conte was but five, his native village was devastated and his family massacred by a Burgundian raiding party. Book One: In Domrémy īook One begins with the first-person narrator Sieur Louis de Conte relating that he was born on January 6, 1410, in Neufchâteau, France-after his family ".had fled to those distant regions from the neighborhood of Paris in the first years of the century." He relates that Paris was then tormented by mobs, criminals, and other instabilities, and that his parents had been persecuted there because they supported the King of France against his enemies the English and Burgundians. " about the life of Joan of Arc and his intimate relation to it: "I was with her from the beginning until the end" Here author Twain assigns his character Sieur de Conte to serve as the first-person narrator of his Joan of Arc story, and perhaps to serve as an alter-ego of the author in that role. In the forward Twain's fictional Sieur Louis de Conte presents himself in the year 1492-more than 60 years after Joan of Arc's death in 1431-as writing his "Personal Recollections.
The short "Peculiarity" note explains, first, that many actual details about (the long-ago) life of Joan of Arc are uniquely established and known, having been recorded under oath in court documents that are preserved in the National Archives of France and, that the "mass of added particulars" here are provided by Sieur de Conte, who, the (fictional) Translator assures us, is reliable. occupies the loftiest possible to human attainment". The "Translator's Preface" offers an overview of Joan of Arc's life, with heavy praise: "the character of Joan of Arc. Finally a foreword is presented by "The Sieur Louis de Conte", who represents an actual person in the life of Joan of Arc but here is fictionalized by the author Mark Twain as a childhood playmate of Joan who later serves as her page and secretary.
The novel begins with "the Translator's Preface" then follows a short note entitled "A Peculiarity of Joan of Arc's History" also written by "The Translator". Further information: Joan of Arc Introduction
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