25 MAY 1929, Page 30

On the seventh of May, 1429, five hundred years ago,

Orleans was taken from the English and their Burgundian allies by Joan of Arc. ' It is fitting that at this time, when France is celebrating the victory of the Maid we in England should pay some tribute to her. Mr. Belloc, in Joan of Arc (Cassell, 6s.), tells her story as well as it has ever been told in English. He writes of this girl around whose standard the flower of France gathered-" for it was the young who loved her and knew her to be of Heaven "-with the greatest sincerity, simplicity, and restrained emotion. We feel sure -Mr. Belloc -enjoyed writing this story, and we feel equally sure that many people will enjoy reading it. Mr. Belloc's Joan of Arc is not so vivid or detailed a picture as Mr. Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan-it has been drawn with few but accurate lines-birt 'it is certainly aS * moving.

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