Saint Joan

George Bernard Shaw — 2019

Hailed by T. S. Eliot as "a dramatic delight," George Bernard Shaw's only tragedy traces the life of the peasant girl who led French troops to victory over the English in the Hundred Years' War. An avid socialist, Shaw regarded his writing as a vehicle for promoting his political and humanitarian views and exposing hypocrisy. With Saint Joan, he reached the height of his fame, and it was this play that led to his Nobel Prize in Literature for 1925. In the six centuries since her martyrdom, Joan of Arc has inspired artists, musicians, and writers. Shaw's heroine is unlike any previous interpretation — not a witch, saint, or madwoman but a pre-feminist icon, possessed of innate intelligence and leadership qualities that challenge the authority of church and state. She is also a real human being, warm and sincere, whose flaws include an obstinacy that leads to her undoing. This edition includes a substantial, informative Preface by the author.

Reviews

Hannah Yang@hannahyang

Sep 18, 2023

"O God that madest this beautiful earth, when will it be ready to receive Thy saints? How long, O Lord, how long?" A genuinely delightful play to read, which covers the life of Joan of Arc as she leads men into battle and brings Charles VII to the throne as well as the subsequent trial charging her with heresy (and a crushing epilogue wherein the men involved in her life and death continue to use her to their own benefit -- with Charles, for example, only advocating that her trial be voided so that no one can question the sacredness of his coronation, and those who originally tried her seeing the existence of her soul as proof that they are guiltless). Some compelling critiques of justice (and the Catholic Church) throughout, as we see the characters attempt to carry out a 'merciful' trial, each with their own self-interested motivations, only to "[send] a saint to the stake as a heretic and a sorceress" while centuries later, an even more corrupt court decides that Joan is "endowed with heroic virtues and favored with private revelations," naming her Saint Joan.

Zeke Taylor@zt1230

Apr 24, 2022

A good, brief perspective of St. Joan of Arc’s trial. Not that it should be taken as the most realistic, but something to think about. Shaw makes the Inquisition less so of this bizarre and incomprehensible evil and more so an overlapping with our contemporary society’s political and ethical sensibilities.