The Saint and The Devil: The Story of Joan of Arc and Gilles De Rais by Winwar, Frances - 1948

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo. First edition stated. Green cloth boards with gilt lettering to spine, publisher's device in blind to lower front board. ix, 303 p.p. Six B&W plates of illustrations. Bumping and rubbing to spine ends and corners, else fine. Offsetting to endpapers. Bookplate of C.B. Farrar and ink ownership inscription to front pastedown. Dust jacket bumped, worn and creased to extremities, some soiling to rear cover. Perforation to front joint, closed tears to spine ends, small chips to corners. Front flap cropped at foot but price intact. Frances Winwar here presents a unique treatment of the moving story of Joan of Arc. The dramatic relationship between Joan and the gilded young courtier who led her men-at-arms - and who later became a symbol of evil for all of France - is here told in full for the first time. Gilles de Rais, Marshal of France and the flower of medieval chivalry, fought valiantly beside the Maid, whose faith led her to perform military miracles. In the end, however, the extravagance of his nature forced him into monstrous crime - and like Joan he died at the stake.