Pope Joan_ A Novel - Donna Woolfolk Cross [220]
Francis Bacon, the seventeenth-century philosopher, said, “People believe what they prefer to be true.” How does this relate to Joan’s story compared to, say, that of King Arthur? What is it about Joan’s story that people might not “prefer to be true”?
Are reason and faith incompatible? What do you make of Aesculapius’s argument that lack of faith leads people to fear reason? What about Joan? Does her study of reason in the work of classical authors such as Lucretius diminish her faith?
Joan sacrificed much because she loved Gerold. Do you know women who have sacrificed opportunities to exercise mind, heart, and spirit for love of a man? For love of a child? Are such sacrifices justified?
What implications does Joan’s story have with regard to the role of women in the Catholic Church? Should nuns play a greater—or different—role? If so, what should that role be? Should women be priests? What effect would women priests have on the Church and its liturgy? What effect have they had on the Episcopal Church?
One reviewer wrote: “Pope Joan … is a reminder that some things never change, only the stage and the players do.” Are there any similarities between the way women live in some places of the world today and the way they lived back then?
What causes any society to oppress womankind? What are the root causes of misogyny? Are they based in religion or in society? Both? Neither?
Why might medieval society have believed so strongly that education hampered a woman’s ability to bear children? What purpose might such a belief serve?
What similarities or differences do you see between Pope Joan and Saint Joan of Arc? Why was one Joan expunged from history books and the other made a saint?
If Joan had agreed to leave with Gerold when he first came to Rome, what would her life have been like? Did she make the right choice or not?
What causes Joan’s inner conflict between faith and doubt? How do these conflicts affect the decisions she makes? Does she ever resolve these conflicts?
*1Reading groups interested in setting up a “Chat with the Author” should go to popejoan.com for information or to make a request.
About the Author
A New York City native, DONNA WOOLFOLK CROSS graduated cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Pennsylvania in 1969 with a B.A. in English. She moved to London, England, after graduation and worked in a small publishing house on Fleet Street, W. H. Allen and Company. Upon her return to the United States, Cross worked at Young and Rubicam, a Madison Avenue advertising firm, before going on to graduate school at UCLA where she earned a master’s degree in literature and writing in 1972.
In 1973, Cross moved to Upstate New York and began teaching writing at an upstate New York college. She is the author of two books on language, Word Abuse and Mediaspeak, and coauthor of the college textbook Speaking of Words. The product of seven years of research and writing, Pope Joan is her first novel. Cross is at work on a new novel set in seventeenth-century France.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1996, 2009 by Donna Woolfolk Cross
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
Three Rivers Press and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cross, Donna Woolfolk.
Pope Joan/Donna Cross.—1st Three Rivers Press ed.
Originally published: New York: Crown, © 1996.
1. Joan (Legendary Pope)—Fiction. 2. Popes—Legends—
Fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.R572P66 2009
813’.6—dc22 2008051919
eISBN: 978-0-307-45319-8
v3.0
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5