Point of View

Pope Joan is told from the omnipotent viewpoint of the author, which often allows the reader to know things the characters themselves do not know. Woolfolk-Cross begins the story with the birth of Joan, and jumps in the next chapter to Joan's childhood, later bringing back the midwife who delivered the infant Joan. She also takes us abruptly to Anastasius at different events in his life that do not weave and connect with Joan's life until much later in the story. As readers, we observe the unfolding of this story from all angles, including the individual emotions and thinking of the characters.

Occasionally, as when Joan is studying at Fulda, a few years pass in between chapters. Joan and Gerold grow into middle age over the course of this story. Joan is in her early forties when she dies, but meets Gerold when she is fifteen...