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Podcast: New Books in Literary Studies
Episode: Bernard J. Dobski, "Mark Twain’s Joan of Arc: Political Wisdom, Divine Justice, and the Origins of Modernity" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2024)
Description: Political Theorist B.J. (Bernard J.) Dobski has a new book focusing on Mark Twain’s final published novel, Personal Reflections of Joan of Arc. As Dobski notes in his work and in our conversation, this is one of the more obscure texts by Twain, but Twain considered it his best work. Dobski’s book is a close reading of Twain’s Joan of Arc and an analysis of how this particular work, focusing on Joan of Arc’s life through the narration of Sieur Louis De Conte (Joan’s childhood friend and her secretary during her military undertakings), is part of...