Opposites Attract: Mark Twain and Joan of Arc

Opposites Attract: Mark Twain and Joan of Arc
The moment when Sts. Michael, Margaret, and Catherine appear to the peasant girl Joan in her parents’ garden. "Joan of Arc," 1879, by Jules Bastien-Lepage (French, 1848–1884). Oil on canvas, 100 inches by 110 inches. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Jeff Minick
Updated:
More than a century after his death, Mark Twain (1835–1910), the pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens, remains a figure of controversy. Some schools, for example, have dropped his American classic “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from required reading lists for its racial language.

Twain’s religious skepticism, directed in particular toward Christianity, has also made his reputation a battleground between believers and atheists. In both his public speaking and his writing, Twain satirized Christians, the Bible, and religion in general, though during his lifetime he proceeded with caution so as to avoid alienating readers. Only many years after his death did his daughter Clara and others publish some of his more controversial attacks on faith, like “The Mysterious Stranger” and “Letters From the Earth.”

Jeff Minick
Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.
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