A Saint, A Teenager, and My Abuela's Voice in My Head
Okay, so I wasn't expecting to spend a Tuesday afternoon designing wedding invitations while listening to a 19-year-old girl get burned at the stake. But here we are.
I picked up Andrew Lang's Story of Joan of Arc on a whim - two hours felt manageable between client calls, and honestly? I've been thinking about Abuela a lot lately. She had this little prayer card of Joan tucked into her Bible, edges worn soft from decades of rosaries. I never really understood why until now. A teenage girl who heard voices, defied everyone, led armies, and died refusing to deny what she believed? Abuela would have loved this one. She would've paused the audiobook to tell me about faith and stubbornness being the same thing sometimes.
So yeah. I cried. Not the ugly-cry kind - more like that quiet ache that sits in your chest when you're listening to something true.
The Voice Behind the Story
Let me be honest about TimothyFR's narration: it's not going to sweep you off your feet. This isn't Julia Whelan wrapping you in emotional velvet. His delivery is clear, steady, almost academic - like a really good history professor who genuinely cares about the material but isn't going to perform it for you.
And here's the thing - I didn't hate it? For this particular story, the straightforward approach kind of worked. Lang's writing is already pretty formal (dude was a Victorian scholar, so you're getting that slightly stiff 19th-century prose), and TimothyFR matches that energy without fighting it. He's not trying to make Joan sound like a YA heroine or turn the trial scenes into courtroom drama. He just... tells you what happened.
But - and this is a real "but" - I kept wanting more. When Joan is standing before her accusers, refusing to recant, there's this incredible defiance in her words that the narration doesn't quite capture. The text is doing heavy lifting and the voice is just... present. Not bad. Just present. I found myself wishing for a little more fire, a little more of that teenage stubbornness in the delivery.
(I actually paused during the trial section and reread some passages on my phone just to sit with them longer. That's either a compliment to Lang's writing or a sign that the audio needed more punch. Maybe both.)
What Lang Gets Right
Here's where I have to give credit: Andrew Lang really did his homework. This isn't some romanticized legend - he pulls directly from the actual trial records, the rehabilitation documents, the historical accounts. You're getting Joan as close to the source as a 19th-century writer could manage.
And what emerges is so much more interesting than the sanitized saint version. This was a peasant girl who couldn't read, who showed up at court and basically said "God told me to do this, so move" - and somehow convinced a desperate prince to give her an army. The audacity! The absolute nerve of this teenager!
Lang doesn't shy away from the uncomfortable parts either. The political maneuvering, the church officials who knew the trial was rigged, the way everyone who benefited from her victories just... let her burn. It's infuriating in a way that feels uncomfortably modern.
At just over two hours, it doesn't overstay its welcome. I finished it in one design session - a logo project that I probably should've been paying more attention to, but whatever, the client got their revisions and I got my feelings.
Fair Warning
Look, if you're coming to this wanting an immersive, emotionally dynamic listening experience - this ain't it. The narration is serviceable, not spectacular. Some listeners have complained it's dry, and I get that. There's no character voices to speak of, no dramatic variation. Diego actually fell asleep on my keyboard during the middle section, which might be commentary.
Also, Lang's Victorian prose can feel dense in places. There were moments where I had to rewind because my brain wandered during a particularly formal passage. At 1.0x speed (because I'm not a monster who speedruns books), some sections felt slower than they needed to be.
And if you're looking for deep analysis of why Joan heard voices or what that means theologically - Lang doesn't really go there. He presents the facts and lets you draw your own conclusions. Which I respect, but I also wanted someone to hold my hand through the bigger questions, you know?
Who Should Listen
This is a rainy Sunday book. Or a "I need something meaningful while I do mindless design work" book. It's for history lovers who want accuracy over drama, for people who find inspiration in real stories of impossible courage, for anyone who's ever felt called to do something that made no logical sense.
It's for people who had abuelas with worn prayer cards and unanswered questions about faith.
Skip it if you need your audiobooks to feel like movies. Skip it if Victorian prose makes you want to throw your phone. Skip it if you're looking for a narrator who's going to make you feel every moment - you'll have to bring your own emotions to this one.
But if you can meet it where it is? There's something quietly powerful here. A girl who changed history and died for it at nineteen. A story that's survived six hundred years because some things are too important to forget.
My heart. Not shattered, but definitely bruised in that good way.
Abuela, I finally get the prayer card.
