Product Description
Soon to be a major motion picture from the company that brought you The Name of the Rose


"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.Amazon.com Review
One of the most controversial women of history is brought to brilliant life in Donn Woolfolk Cross's tale of Pope Joan, a girl whose origins should have kept her in squalid domesticity. Instead, through her intelligence, indomitability and courage, she ascended to the throne of Rome as Pope John Anglicus.

The time is 814, the place is Ingelheim, a Frankland village. It isthe harshest winter in living memory when Joan is born to an English father and a Saxon mother.Her father is a canon, filled with holy zeal and capable of unconscionable cruelty.His piety does not extend to his family members, especially the females.His wife, Gudrun, is a young beauty to whom he was attracted beyond his will--and he hates her for showing him his weakness.Gudrun teaches Joan about her gods, and is repeatedly punished for it by the canon.Joan grows to young womanhood with the combined knowledge of the warlike Saxon gods and the teachings of the Church as her heritage.Both realities inform her life forever.

When her brother John, not a scholarly type, is sent away to school, Joan, who was supposed to be the one sent to school, runs away and joins him in Dorstadt, at Villaris, the home of Gerold, who is central to Joan's story.She falls in love with Gerold and their lives interesect repeatedly even through her Papacy.She is looked upon by all who know that she is a woman as a "lusus naturae," a freak of nature."She was... male in intellect, female in body, she fit in nowhere; it was as if she belonged to a third amorphous sex."Cross makes the case over and over again that the status of women in the Dark Ages was little better than cattle. They were judged inferior in every way, and necessary evils in the bargain.

After John is killed in a Viking attack, Joan sees her opportunity to escape the fate of all her gender. She cuts her hair, dons her dead brother's clothes and goes into the world as a young boy.Gerold is away from Villaris at the time of the attack and comes home to find his home in ruins, his family killed and Joan among the missing.After the attack, Joan goes to a Benedictine monastery, is accepted as a young man of great learning, and eventually makes her way to Rome.

The author is at pains to tell the reader in an Epilogue that she has written the story as fiction because it is impossible to document Joan's accesion to the Papacy.The Catholic Church has done everything possible to deny this embarrassment.Whether or not one believes in Joan as Pope, this is a compelling story, filled with all kinds of lore: the brutishness of the Dark Ages, Vatican intrigue, politics and favoritism and most of all, the place of women in the Church and in the world. --Valerie Ryan ... Read more

Customer Reviews (333)

Pope Joan: A fascinating woman defying the odds in a dangerous time.
The daughter of a church canon and his `heathen' Saxon wife, Joan is both clever and determined.Her older brother, Matthew, teaches her to read and write, in spite of their tyrannical father's opposition. Later, a Greek tutor continues her lessons, which her father permits only if the teacher instructs his younger son, John.Joan so impresses her teacher that he recommends her to a prestigious school.Her father forbids Joan to go, sending John in her place, so she runs away.As the years pass she proves to be an extremely talented scholar, but hated by almost everyone she meets.Her only friend is Gerold, her guardian, and Joan falls in love with him.But when Joan's brother is killed, she makes the radical decision to turn her back on love and take on his identity.Disguised as a man, Joan learns about healing and medicine, and sets out on a path that will eventually lead her to Rome and the Papal throne.

I have heard snippets of the legend of Pope Joan, but this is the first book I've read that delves extensively into her story.It's a work of fiction, but it does lay out a plausible scenario that could have led a woman to the Papacy.My knowledge of the Dark Ages in Europe is pretty weak, and my knowledge of the Catholic Church's political structure at the time even worse, so I don't know how accurate the history in the book is. Oppressed Saxons who were forced to convert to Christianity or be killed, witch burnings, Viking attacks, miserable women leading miserable lives, rampant ignorance and a Papacy concerned less with souls than promoting the welfare of wealthy Roman nobility...unfortunately, the never-ending hardships in the novel seem too likely to be true.

Joan herself seems just a little too perfect at times.I mean, she is always so intelligent and so logical and so modern and liberal in her opinions.I mean, for a woman to become Pope she'd have to be pretty darn exceptional, but that didn't make Joan any more believable as a woman of her time.Almost all the men around her are sexist, corrupt, cruel, and gluttonous save for the noble Gerold, her love interest.

In the print version of this book, there's an afterward in which author Donna Cross discusses some of the evidence for Pope Joan, but I listened to the audio book so unfortunately I missed this useful information.

I enjoyed Pope Joan: A Novel quite a lot.I'd very much like to read a non-fiction book about her.

Loved this book!
I loved "Pope Joan" and this evening I had an opportunity to view the movie.I read this book so many years ago, but the movie brought back so much of the book.It is over 2 hours long and yet, the time flew by.If you haven't read this wonderful book, I highly recommend it.If you have the opportunity to see the movie, run, don't walk!!

Pope Joan
It was no picnic being a growing girl in the 9th century and we see this several times over through the eyes of the title character Joan. Joan is born in poverty to a saxon mother and a father who is a canon of the church. Joan's mother dotes on her while her father regards her as an insolent nuisance and saves all his affection for the two boys of the family. When one brother dies, Joan's father pins his hopes on the other brother John to become a great figure within the church even though John is not good with his studies at all. She endures endless cruelty from her father until her brother is sent away to school and Joan escapes and follows him there. While there the school is attacked in a Viking raid and John is killed. Joan decides this is her chance, disguises herself as her brother and joins a monastery as John Anglicus.

She proves herself an able healer and gaining notice for this ability and her brilliant mind, continues to move up in the Church and is eventually elevated to Pope. She is constantly in conflict over her wish to lead the church and her desire to cast off her disguise to be with her love, Gerold.

I really enjoyed this book. I tried to capture the gist of the story in the synopsis above but I fear I did not do it justice. It made me curious as to whether there ever really was a female Pope and also gave me a glimpse into how political the Catholic church could be. This story was so well written it really did not feel like I was reading a 450 page book. The only complaint I had is the ending was kind of abrupt for me but I can get past this since it had just the right blend of strong characters, violence, intrigue, and a wee bit of romance thrown in for good measure.

It must have been truly awful to live in a time where women basically just existed to serve men and weren't allowed to have any kind of a life of their own at all. I know they made a movie out of this book and it was released in Europe late last year but not here in the US yet. I hope they do release it soon. I think it would be fascinating to watch this book come to life on the big screen.

good buy
i cant believe i got this great book in super shape.for such a great price

Move over, Dan Brown!
Donna Woolfolk Cross has researched and written a wonderful book, "Pope Joan", about the potentially true, and amazing legend of the one woman who became Pope of Rome in the 9th century. Disguised as a boy, this highly intelligent and determined young girl was given an education, impossible for any girls in those dark times, and went on, disguised as a man, to take the throne of St. Peter. This historical adventure/romance, written in an immensely readable style,and with marvelously descriptive images of medieval life and times, will entertain and inspire the reader, and will encourage girls and women to strive to attain and realize their true potential. Buy 2; one for you & one for someone else who may need to be inspired! This grand novel is a keeper!

POPE JOAN is now an epic feature film, co-starring John Goodman and David Wenham! Adapted from the internationally best-selling novel by Donna Woolfolk Cross, the film is asweeping historical drama based on the incredible life story of one of the most fascinating, extraordinary women in Western history--Pope Joan, a controversial figure of historical record who, boldly disguised as a man, rose to rule Christianity in the 9th century as the first and only woman to sit on the throne of St. Peter. The film will be featured at the 2010 Moondance International Film Festival, September 25, in Boulder, Colorado, and Ms. Cross will be in attendance to give a book-signing and a workshop on adapting the novel to the screen. ... Read more