Including a detailed historical annotation on Joan of Arc and her life *** A lengthy historical novel written because Joan of Arc was Clemens' favorite historical character. He stated: "It means more to me than anything I have ever undertaken." Clemens devoted twelve years to researching a...

Including a detailed historical annotation on Joan of Arc and her life *** A lengthy historical novel written because Joan of Arc was Clemens' favorite historical character. He stated: "It means more to me than anything I have ever undertaken." Clemens devoted twelve years to researching and writing this novel. Harper's Magazine serialized it first in three monthly installments (April 1895-April 1896) without his name. He used the pseudonym Sieur Louis de Conte to prevent the work's not being taken seriously under his own name, while the name of the translator, Jean Francois Alden, is referred to as a pun on John Alden. (From "A Centennial For Tom Sawyer") *** The Mark Twain Library is a landmark series presenting the most celebrated and enduring works of Samuel Langhorne Clemens-better known to the world as Mark Twain. Far beyond the beloved tales of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Twain's vast body of work spans satire, travel writing, philosophical fiction, biting social critique, and profound meditations on human nature. This series gathers his best-known novels, essays, short stories, and memoirs-including A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, The Innocents Abroad, and The Mysterious Stranger. Each volume captures Twain's unmatched wit, his deep skepticism of hypocrisy and injustice, and his unshakable belief in the power of plain speech to confront complexity. The Mark Twain Library invites readers into the vivid, irreverent, and fiercely honest world of one of America's greatest literary minds. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the soul of American literature-and the humor and heartbreak that live side by side within it.