(From the publisher):
Again and again, in their moments of agony, the people of France have been sustained by the vision of Joan of Arc. Sometimes she appears to them as a figure in armor, riding before the shattered troops; sometimes she is seen more humbly, but none the less heroically, as just such a young village girl as Feuchtwanger has created in Simone Planchard.
Simone is a very real fifteen-year-old who, roused by the betrayal of France, strikes a very real blow against the German enemy and his French friends. But Simone is also a child of dreams, and when her captors confront her with her deed, she lives again in fancy the experiences of the Maid of Orleans.
Love and renunciation, treachery and patriotism are woven by Feuchtwanger into a fabric that is singularly tense and affecting. The straightforward narrative of Simone and the legend of Joan of Arc merge imperceptably, as the fate of one clarifies for the other her mission and destiny.
Original title: Simone
Genre: Fiction→ Historical→ European→ France