Fiction · 1896
A Monk of Fife
Being the Chronicle Written by Norman Leslie of Pitcullo, Concerning Marvellous Deeds That Befell in the Realm of France, in the Years of Our Redemption, MCCCCXXIX-XXXI
Presented as the recovered chronicle of Norman Leslie, a young Scottish squire who travels to France in 1429 and finds himself drawn into the campaigns of a peasant girl claiming to act on divine orders — Joan of Arc — Andrew Lang's novel follows its narrator from the siege of Orléans through the swift, strange reversal of Joan's fortune, as a soldier's eyewitness account rather than a distant history.
Andrew Lang published A Monk of Fife in 1896, drawing on his own extensive historical research into Joan of Arc and fifteenth-century France — subjects he also wrote about directly as a historian — to frame the novel as an editor's discovery of a genuine old manuscript.
This Bibliomancer edition presents the complete text.
Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- Chapter I — How This Book Was Written, and How Norman Leslie Fled Out of Fife
- Chapter II — How Norman Leslie Met Noiroufle the Cordelier, Called Brother Thomas in Religion: And of Miracles Wrought by Brother Thomas
- Chapter III — What Befell Outside of Chinon Town
- Chapter IV — In What Company Norman Leslie Entered Chinon; And How He Demeaned Himself to Take Service
- Chapter V — Of the Fray on the Drawbridge at Chinon Castle
- Chapter VI — How Norman Leslie Escaped Out of Chinon Castle
- Chapter VII — Concerning the Wrath of Elliot, and the Jeopardy of Norman Leslie
- Chapter VIII — Of Certain Quarrels That Came on the Hands of Norman Leslie
- Chapter IX — Of the Winning of Elliot
- Chapter X — How Norman Leslie Was Out of All Comfort
- Chapter XI — How Madame Catherine of Fierbois Wrought a Miracle for a Scot, and How Norman Rode to the Wars
- Chapter XII — How the Maid Came to Orleans, and of the Dolorous Stroke That First She Struck in War
- Chapter XIII — Of the Fighting at Les Augustins and the Prophecy of the Maid
- Chapter XIV — Of the Fighting at the Bridge, and of the Prize Won by Norman Leslie from the River
- Chapter XV — How Norman Leslie Was Absolved by Brother Thomas
- Chapter XVI — How Sorrow Came on Norman Leslie, and Joy Thereafter
- Chapter XVII — How Elliot Lost Her Jackanapes
- Chapter XVIII — How Elliot’s Jackanapes Was Seen at the King’s Crowning
- Chapter XIX — How Norman Leslie Rode Again to the Wars
- Chapter XX — Concerning the Maid and the Birds
- Chapter XXI — How a Hundred Scots Set Forth to Take Paris Town
- Chapter XXII — How Norman Leslie Fared in Paris Town
- Chapter XXIII — How Elliot’s Jackanapes Came Home
- Chapter XXIV — How the Maid Heard Ill Tidings from Her Voices, and of the Silence of the Birds
- Chapter XXV — Of the Onfall at Pont L’Eveque, and How Norman Leslie Was Hurt
- Chapter XXVI — How, and by Whose Device, the Maid Was Taken at Compiegne
- Chapter XXVII — How Norman Leslie Fared in Compiegne, with the End of That Leaguer
- Chapter XXVIII — How the Burgundians Hunted Hares, with the End of That Hunting
- Chapter XXIX — Showeth How Very Noble Was the Duke of Burgundy
- Chapter XXX — How Norman Leslie Took Service with the English
- Chapter XXXI — How Norman Leslie Saw the Maid in Her Prison
- Chapter XXXII — The End of This Chronicle
- Footnotes
New editions
Never lose your place.
This book is free to read in full, and stays that way. Leave an address: one click confirms it and opens a free account, so your progress and bookmarks sync across every device. You'll also hear when the next restored edition enters the archive. Terminate at any time.
Subjects
About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
Source mind
About the author
1844–1912 · Victorian
Andrew Lang (1844–1912) was born in Selkirk and educated at St Andrews, Glasgow and Oxford, where he held a fellowship at Merton College before turning to literary journalism in London. A folklorist, classicist, historian, poet and immensely prolific reviewer, he is best remembered as the general editor of the twelve "colour" fairy books (1889–1910), for which his wife, Leonora Blanche Lang, and other collaborators carried out much of the actual translation under his direction. He also wrote fairy tales of his own, among them Prince Prigio, and a History of Scotland.
Adjacent records
