- Paperback: 425 pages
- Publisher: Three Rivers Press (CA) (9 Jun 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0307452360
- ISBN-13: 978-0307452368
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 2.4 x 20.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 631,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
A world-wide bestseller, major motion picture and upcoming "Director's Cut" TV mini-series exclusively for the U.S!
"Pope Joan has all the elements one wants in a historical drama–love, sex, violence, duplicity, and long-buried secrets. Cross has written an engaging book."–Los Angeles Times Book Review
For a thousand years her existence has been denied. She is the legend that will not die–Pope Joan, the ninth-century woman who disguised herself as a man and rose to become the only female ever to sit on the throne of St. Peter. Now in this riveting novel, Donna Woolfolk Cross paints a sweeping portrait of an unforgettable heroine who struggles against restrictions her soul cannot accept.
Brilliant and talented, young Joan rebels against medieval social strictures forbidding women to learn. When her brother is brutally killed during a Viking attack, Joan takes up his cloak–and his identity–and enters the monastery of Fulda. As Brother John Anglicus, Joan distinguishes herself as a great scholar and healer. Eventually, she is drawn to Rome, where she becomes enmeshed in a dangerous web of love, passion, and politics. Triumphing over appalling odds, she finally attains the highest office in Christendom–wielding a power greater than any woman before or since. But such power always comes at a price . . .
In this international bestseller, Cross brings the Dark Ages to life in all their brutal splendor and shares the dramatic story of a woman whose strength of vision led her to defy the social restrictions of her day.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an astounding book, which is entirely gripping, and keeps you really personally involved in the life of Pope Joan. You get to see her life in the context of religion and social politics ofher time, but more importantly, you really get to know the heroine, and by the end, if you don't care for her and are not urging her on with all your heart, then you must have missed a few pages. The detail is thrilling, the scenes are panoramic, and there is a glorious decadence about the City of Rome under the mediaeval papacy, and a sense of delicious bleakness about the 'barbarian' lands of Northern Europe. After reading this book, you will feel as if you have learnt something, but you will also have spent a few of the most profitable hours of reading of your life.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I think I'm going to be in the minority here. I found the idea of a woman disguised as a man seated on the papal throne to be an interesting legend and the author did a decent job with it. I appreciated the research the author took on the period and customs of the times, which is not an easy task as so much is unknown about the dark ages.
The problem I had is the incredible coincidences throughout the book where Joan is just saved in the nick of time in true soap opera fashion (think Days of Our Lives -- no better yet the Perils of Pauline) from disaster upon disaster to chance upon chance of being discovered as a woman, to the near escape from the Viking raid and more ad infinitum. It never stopped until the very end, there were so many times where you just want to roll your eyes and say give me a break!
All in all a light pleasant read, but not one I'm apt to write home to friends and family about nor one I will want to pick up and read again. I'd recommend getting it from the library first, and then buy it if you love it. JMHO.
The problem I had is the incredible coincidences throughout the book where Joan is just saved in the nick of time in true soap opera fashion (think Days of Our Lives -- no better yet the Perils of Pauline) from disaster upon disaster to chance upon chance of being discovered as a woman, to the near escape from the Viking raid and more ad infinitum. It never stopped until the very end, there were so many times where you just want to roll your eyes and say give me a break!
All in all a light pleasant read, but not one I'm apt to write home to friends and family about nor one I will want to pick up and read again. I'd recommend getting it from the library first, and then buy it if you love it. JMHO.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An exciting, historical novel. Pope Joan - a remarkable, tough woman!
Fiction or part of history - arguable, but I want to believe she was real.:-)
Can recomment this book to everyone who loves historical novels.
Fiction or part of history - arguable, but I want to believe she was real.:-)
Can recomment this book to everyone who loves historical novels.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Pope Joan
I have found this fictitious account of Pope Joan's life extremely useful as I am about to play her in Caryl Churchill's play Top Girls. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Cuerton1967
The novel that converted me to historic novels - a truely brilliant...
Pope Joan is the name of a supposed female pope (also La Papessa) who reigned for less than three years in the 850s based on a legend that circulated in the Middle Ages. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2008 by Amelrode
thought provoking
Much to my amazement, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was very thought -provoking and the prejudices against women have only changed slightly over the last 100years. Read more
Published on 12 Jun 2008 by MRT
Fantastic!
I agree! one of the best books I have ever read! I was truly transported back to the 9th Century as soon as I picked up this book. I so didn't want this book to end! Read it!
Published on 8 July 2007 by Mrs. M. T. Hayward
Buy this Book
I had heard of this book and I thought yes this is for me, I was not wrong. This Book is quite simply one of the best books I have come across; I would compare it to the color... Read more
Published on 28 Nov 2006 by J. Howell
I envy those who have not still read this book!
Excellent! I could not tear my eyes from the book until it was all read. Magnificent story about a woman's early fight for recognition and respect.
Published on 3 Jan 2002
Absolutely riveting
This book is truely unputdownable and gives us some insight of the darkest of the dark ages. Towards the end it reads like a hollywood script ... still, I can't wait for the film!
Published on 18 Jan 2001 by von Wolfsberg
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