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Helena
Evelyn Waugh, author of the internationally acclaimed bestseller Brideshead Revisited and one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, considered Helena to be perhaps his finest novel. Based on the life of St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine and finder of the true cross, this spiritual adventure brings to life the political intrigues of ancient Rome and the early years of Christianity.
264 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
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About the author
Evelyn Waugh
299Ìýbooks2,779ÌýfollowersEvelyn Waugh's father Arthur was a noted editor and publisher. His only sibling Alec also became a writer of note. In fact, his book “The Loom of Youthâ€� (1917) a novel about his old boarding school Sherborne caused Evelyn to be expelled from there and placed at Lancing College. He said of his time there, “…the whole of English education when I was brought up was to produce prose writers; it was all we were taught, really.â€� He went on to Hertford College, Oxford, where he read History. When asked if he took up any sports there he quipped, “I drank for Hertford.â€�
In 1924 Waugh left Oxford without taking his degree. After inglorious stints as a school teacher (he was dismissed for trying to seduce a school matron and/or inebriation), an apprentice cabinet maker and journalist, he wrote and had published his first novel, “Decline and Fall� in 1928.
In 1928 he married Evelyn Gardiner. She proved unfaithful, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1930. Waugh would derive parts of “A Handful of Dust� from this unhappy time. His second marriage to Audrey Herbert lasted the rest of his life and begat seven children. It was during this time that he converted to Catholicism.
During the thirties Waugh produced one gem after another. From this decade come: “Vile Bodies� (1930), “Black Mischief� (1932), the incomparable “A Handful of Dust� (1934) and “Scoop� (1938). After the Second World War he published what is for many his masterpiece, “Brideshead Revisited,� in which his Catholicism took centre stage. “The Loved One� a scathing satire of the American death industry followed in 1947. After publishing his “Sword of Honour Trilogy� about his experiences in World War II - “Men at Arms� (1952), “Officers and Gentlemen� (1955), “Unconditional Surrender" (1961) - his career was seen to be on the wane. In fact, “Basil Seal Rides Again� (1963) - his last published novel - received little critical or commercial attention.
Evelyn Waugh, considered by many to be the greatest satirical novelist of his day, died on 10 April 1966 at the age of 62.
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In 1924 Waugh left Oxford without taking his degree. After inglorious stints as a school teacher (he was dismissed for trying to seduce a school matron and/or inebriation), an apprentice cabinet maker and journalist, he wrote and had published his first novel, “Decline and Fall� in 1928.
In 1928 he married Evelyn Gardiner. She proved unfaithful, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1930. Waugh would derive parts of “A Handful of Dust� from this unhappy time. His second marriage to Audrey Herbert lasted the rest of his life and begat seven children. It was during this time that he converted to Catholicism.
During the thirties Waugh produced one gem after another. From this decade come: “Vile Bodies� (1930), “Black Mischief� (1932), the incomparable “A Handful of Dust� (1934) and “Scoop� (1938). After the Second World War he published what is for many his masterpiece, “Brideshead Revisited,� in which his Catholicism took centre stage. “The Loved One� a scathing satire of the American death industry followed in 1947. After publishing his “Sword of Honour Trilogy� about his experiences in World War II - “Men at Arms� (1952), “Officers and Gentlemen� (1955), “Unconditional Surrender" (1961) - his career was seen to be on the wane. In fact, “Basil Seal Rides Again� (1963) - his last published novel - received little critical or commercial attention.
Evelyn Waugh, considered by many to be the greatest satirical novelist of his day, died on 10 April 1966 at the age of 62.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 234 reviews
April 18, 2020
I Want My World Back
I doubt that a recognised talent like Waugh would spend time on an historical fantasy like Helena without a purpose. So reading the book one is constantly searching for his intention. Piety? Whimsey? Correction of historical perceptions? Who knows for sure. But there are some clues worth nothing.
The Roman Empire had its founding myths; but it had no ideology, no coherent theory of itself, and therefore no real culture except what it borrowed from Greece. Instead it had an economics which functioned practically as such an ideology. Its economics depended crucially on expansion. As long as the Empire grew, the excess and ‘idle� wealth accumulated by those it conquered could be confiscated and put to work, mainly in building the city of Rome itself, but also in creating a physical and governmental infrastructure. This booty, like that of black slavery in the 18th century British Empire built on sugar, ‘capitalised� non-earning assets. It was a self-sustaining system; but only so long as hoards of potential capital - precious metals, agricultural land, enslavable people - were available. Once the Empire accepted borders, it’s very being was threatened.
Helena hints at this recently occurring condition when she questions her new husband Constantius about his political manoeuvring to become Caesar. ‘Why not think bigger,� she essentially says to him, ‘and expand more broadly rather than merely defending what you have? He calls her a silly girl. And rightly so. She doesn’t understand the situation. There are no more plums to be picked at hand. The Empire now needs walls to protect itself from those who have no assets worth seizing but rather see Rome as itself the great plum tree ready to be picked at leisure. Helena has intuited two things: the limits of economics, and the lack of any other conceptual reasons for continued imperial rule.
I think Helena’s intuition is the key to Waugh’s intention for the book. It is obviously not an historical novel. He admits in his preface that Helena’s life is legendary at best. Neither is it romantic fiction - the characters are cardboard cutouts from a Boy’s Own adventure with lots of commentary on the strange local customs of the day. Nor is it strictly speaking an apologia for the Christianisation of Europe in the manner of someone like Tom Holland in his book Dominion which conceives the official adoption of Christianity as the civil religion of the Empire as something of existential import, a sort of spiritual breakthrough for humanity. What Waugh craves is order not religious faith.
Waugh wrote Helena in 1950 during the political transformation of Britain into an aspiring socialist state, which he despised; and at a period of the apparent loss of the chivalrous ideals of the war years, which he mourned. The Empire that had brought English values to half the world was wobbling. His traditionalist sensitivities were deeply offended, as they would continue to be until his death in the Britain of the Swinging 60’s. As in Helena, the world appeared to have substituted economics for culture. And for Waugh culture literally meant tradition, just as he portrays in his description Helena’s inner state. Even his conversion to Catholicism (and his intense opposition to the changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council) seem motivated by the rigidity rather than the content of Catholic doctrine.
Long before Waugh became a religious enthusiast, he was an aesthete, and a member of English country house society. The ‘normal� progression from Sherborne School to Oxford to the Guards was sabotaged only by his elder brother’s homosexual affair at Sherborne, which forced him into an ‘inferior� public school. Otherwise Waugh fit snugly into the machinery of the English establishment. After a somewhat dissolute university career (due mainly to aesthetic adventuring) and a rather unsuccessful early teaching career (he seduced one of the school matrons and was sacked), he found his feet as a novelist and correspondent. Whatever else he was, Waugh was a snob. He refused a CBE in 1960, believing that he should have been awarded a knighthood.
It is this deeply held but unconscious snobbery, a perhaps inevitable consequence of his background, that is the real motive force behind Helena. As in the 4th century, the world was once again being destroyed by lack of vision and taste. This contributed to his insomniac depression and made him increasingly dependent not only on drugs and alcohol, but also on the institutional certainties provided by the Catholic Church. Without the Church as a symbol of the reality of Tradition as it was defined, Waugh had no foundation for his aesthetics, his social position, or, ultimately, his life’s work.
Waugh considered Helena his most important novel. That no one else did suggests strongly that it was entirely personal rather than a religious or political work. It is, for me, his statement of what the world should look like if it were to accommodate Evelyn Waugh adequately - more or less the one that existed in 1935, of chaos coming down from Oxford for long weekends of meaningful discussion about art, and travel, and how things must surely remain the same for the benefit of humanity.
I doubt that a recognised talent like Waugh would spend time on an historical fantasy like Helena without a purpose. So reading the book one is constantly searching for his intention. Piety? Whimsey? Correction of historical perceptions? Who knows for sure. But there are some clues worth nothing.
The Roman Empire had its founding myths; but it had no ideology, no coherent theory of itself, and therefore no real culture except what it borrowed from Greece. Instead it had an economics which functioned practically as such an ideology. Its economics depended crucially on expansion. As long as the Empire grew, the excess and ‘idle� wealth accumulated by those it conquered could be confiscated and put to work, mainly in building the city of Rome itself, but also in creating a physical and governmental infrastructure. This booty, like that of black slavery in the 18th century British Empire built on sugar, ‘capitalised� non-earning assets. It was a self-sustaining system; but only so long as hoards of potential capital - precious metals, agricultural land, enslavable people - were available. Once the Empire accepted borders, it’s very being was threatened.
Helena hints at this recently occurring condition when she questions her new husband Constantius about his political manoeuvring to become Caesar. ‘Why not think bigger,� she essentially says to him, ‘and expand more broadly rather than merely defending what you have? He calls her a silly girl. And rightly so. She doesn’t understand the situation. There are no more plums to be picked at hand. The Empire now needs walls to protect itself from those who have no assets worth seizing but rather see Rome as itself the great plum tree ready to be picked at leisure. Helena has intuited two things: the limits of economics, and the lack of any other conceptual reasons for continued imperial rule.
I think Helena’s intuition is the key to Waugh’s intention for the book. It is obviously not an historical novel. He admits in his preface that Helena’s life is legendary at best. Neither is it romantic fiction - the characters are cardboard cutouts from a Boy’s Own adventure with lots of commentary on the strange local customs of the day. Nor is it strictly speaking an apologia for the Christianisation of Europe in the manner of someone like Tom Holland in his book Dominion which conceives the official adoption of Christianity as the civil religion of the Empire as something of existential import, a sort of spiritual breakthrough for humanity. What Waugh craves is order not religious faith.
Waugh wrote Helena in 1950 during the political transformation of Britain into an aspiring socialist state, which he despised; and at a period of the apparent loss of the chivalrous ideals of the war years, which he mourned. The Empire that had brought English values to half the world was wobbling. His traditionalist sensitivities were deeply offended, as they would continue to be until his death in the Britain of the Swinging 60’s. As in Helena, the world appeared to have substituted economics for culture. And for Waugh culture literally meant tradition, just as he portrays in his description Helena’s inner state. Even his conversion to Catholicism (and his intense opposition to the changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council) seem motivated by the rigidity rather than the content of Catholic doctrine.
Long before Waugh became a religious enthusiast, he was an aesthete, and a member of English country house society. The ‘normal� progression from Sherborne School to Oxford to the Guards was sabotaged only by his elder brother’s homosexual affair at Sherborne, which forced him into an ‘inferior� public school. Otherwise Waugh fit snugly into the machinery of the English establishment. After a somewhat dissolute university career (due mainly to aesthetic adventuring) and a rather unsuccessful early teaching career (he seduced one of the school matrons and was sacked), he found his feet as a novelist and correspondent. Whatever else he was, Waugh was a snob. He refused a CBE in 1960, believing that he should have been awarded a knighthood.
It is this deeply held but unconscious snobbery, a perhaps inevitable consequence of his background, that is the real motive force behind Helena. As in the 4th century, the world was once again being destroyed by lack of vision and taste. This contributed to his insomniac depression and made him increasingly dependent not only on drugs and alcohol, but also on the institutional certainties provided by the Catholic Church. Without the Church as a symbol of the reality of Tradition as it was defined, Waugh had no foundation for his aesthetics, his social position, or, ultimately, his life’s work.
Waugh considered Helena his most important novel. That no one else did suggests strongly that it was entirely personal rather than a religious or political work. It is, for me, his statement of what the world should look like if it were to accommodate Evelyn Waugh adequately - more or less the one that existed in 1935, of chaos coming down from Oxford for long weekends of meaningful discussion about art, and travel, and how things must surely remain the same for the benefit of humanity.
June 4, 2015
It is a short novel (historical novel) that speaks of the life of St. Helen, the mother of the Roman Emperor, Constantine, the Great. She is also popularly known for her pilgrimage to the Holy Land and finding the True Cross on which was crucified Jesus Christ.
Few Remarks:
It is an historical novel. And so the history, rather the Roman politics comes more alive than the character. Helen appears as a simple clog in the heavy machine of history. She does not emerge a live character with flesh and blood. She seems to be distant most of the time from the reader. There are few moments in which she emerges as a live person and those passages are lovely.
The religion (Christianity) occupies an interesting spot in the second half of the novel. After all, it was a great political problem for the empire. How the religion was viewed by the Romans and how it was received by the Romans are narrated in an interesting manner. Later when Christianity was the state religion the problems within the religion (dogmatic problems - the threat of Arians and the Council of Nicea) became an important issue to be dealt with. These events form part of the novel. As I said earlier the politics comes very much alive in the book. A disadvantage may be that the reader is expected to be having the necessary knowledge of some of the historical events.
There are also spiritual reflections at the end of the book. Last two chapters can be read as spiritual reading. The reflections on Magi, Cross, Holy Land, and Pilgrimage are very revealing.
Final Observation:
The novel begins very slow and only half way through (that is, after Constantine becomes the emperor) it picks up the speed.
If you are a Christian, you will find yourself reading some of the passages in the last chapters again and again (especially Helena's prayer to Magi).
From HELENA by E. Waugh:
1. What is the reason for bloody politics which causes the father(emperor) to kill his own son or father in law or cousins or nephews?
The answer: Everyone longs for Power. Power without Grace leads to high cruelty.
2. Is the Church the perfect place to turn to?
The answer: "Church isn't a cult for a few heroes. It is the whole of fallen mankind redeemed."
The theme of conversion of Constantine may very well stand for the conversion of E. Waugh himself.
Few Remarks:
It is an historical novel. And so the history, rather the Roman politics comes more alive than the character. Helen appears as a simple clog in the heavy machine of history. She does not emerge a live character with flesh and blood. She seems to be distant most of the time from the reader. There are few moments in which she emerges as a live person and those passages are lovely.
The religion (Christianity) occupies an interesting spot in the second half of the novel. After all, it was a great political problem for the empire. How the religion was viewed by the Romans and how it was received by the Romans are narrated in an interesting manner. Later when Christianity was the state religion the problems within the religion (dogmatic problems - the threat of Arians and the Council of Nicea) became an important issue to be dealt with. These events form part of the novel. As I said earlier the politics comes very much alive in the book. A disadvantage may be that the reader is expected to be having the necessary knowledge of some of the historical events.
There are also spiritual reflections at the end of the book. Last two chapters can be read as spiritual reading. The reflections on Magi, Cross, Holy Land, and Pilgrimage are very revealing.
Final Observation:
The novel begins very slow and only half way through (that is, after Constantine becomes the emperor) it picks up the speed.
If you are a Christian, you will find yourself reading some of the passages in the last chapters again and again (especially Helena's prayer to Magi).
From HELENA by E. Waugh:
1. What is the reason for bloody politics which causes the father(emperor) to kill his own son or father in law or cousins or nephews?
The answer: Everyone longs for Power. Power without Grace leads to high cruelty.
2. Is the Church the perfect place to turn to?
The answer: "Church isn't a cult for a few heroes. It is the whole of fallen mankind redeemed."
The theme of conversion of Constantine may very well stand for the conversion of E. Waugh himself.
September 9, 2021
A story about Helena mother of Constantine one of the Roman Emperors. The story mixes fact with fiction and is entertaining as well as satirical in places. The clergy is trying to hoodwink Helena who sees through their lies and exaggerations.
The first part goes through her life in Britain and courtship with Constantius. Later he divorces her and their son rises to be Emperor but also develops an ego and his wife Fausta manipulates him. However, when she tries to get him to murder his mother Helena she gets her just desserts or perhaps lobster would be a more apt description of the meal!
In her twilight years Helena embarks on a quest having become a Christian. She goes in search of the cross Jesus was crucified upon. All in all a well written story but for me fails to meet the mark.
The first part goes through her life in Britain and courtship with Constantius. Later he divorces her and their son rises to be Emperor but also develops an ego and his wife Fausta manipulates him. However, when she tries to get him to murder his mother Helena she gets her just desserts or perhaps lobster would be a more apt description of the meal!
In her twilight years Helena embarks on a quest having become a Christian. She goes in search of the cross Jesus was crucified upon. All in all a well written story but for me fails to meet the mark.
November 22, 2023
Helena is Waugh's sole historical novel and it is somewhat of an anomaly. It doesn't fit the mold and is therefore either dismissed or overlooked. Published just five years after , it is likewise concerned with religion, and as with Brideshead, I did not read it with this as my focus. The Roman Empire in 200-something AD has plenty of murder and political intrigue to go around, but even this isn't the point. What is the point?
It isn't a character study of the epynonous (Saint) Helena--she is more of an anchor than a complex protagonist, and only in the final chapter does she truly gain significance. By no means plot or strictly history-driven, the book is perhaps best described as wholly Waughian and remained Waugh's personal favorite of his works. It is interesting to see Christianity as something newly respectable and ripe for myth making, relic hunting, and money grubbing, rather than as the long-accepted gospel--still rife with all of the above--of the modern age. On rereading, the chapters concerning the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem were fantastic.
A companion to the literary oddity that is fellow Catholic convert Muriel Spark's . It has a nonfiction counterpart, , which I am eager to get my hands on.
It isn't a character study of the epynonous (Saint) Helena--she is more of an anchor than a complex protagonist, and only in the final chapter does she truly gain significance. By no means plot or strictly history-driven, the book is perhaps best described as wholly Waughian and remained Waugh's personal favorite of his works. It is interesting to see Christianity as something newly respectable and ripe for myth making, relic hunting, and money grubbing, rather than as the long-accepted gospel--still rife with all of the above--of the modern age. On rereading, the chapters concerning the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem were fantastic.
A companion to the literary oddity that is fellow Catholic convert Muriel Spark's . It has a nonfiction counterpart, , which I am eager to get my hands on.
October 20, 2020
This is a very different sort of historical fiction. Waugh does evoke the time and place of the fourth Century Roman Empire but he never leaves you to really imaginatively enter into that world. He's always at your side, nudging the careful reader in the ribs to share a laugh at the expense of self-important intellectuals or effete no-talent artists trying to pass off their lack of ability as refined aesthetic sensibility. Some laughs, he throws in just for the fun of it and because he can (look for the thinly veiled nursery rhyme allusion on page 32). Some of the references are historical "inside jokes" that are funny if you see them but less informed readers will breeze past. My personal favorite is when Constantine leaves Rome to pope Sylvester, and one of the priests says, "I rather wish we had it in writing;" a second priest replies "Oh, we will" (a reference to the 8th century forged decree known as the "Donatio Constantini").
There are a handful of passages that are worth the price of the book all by themselves: the account of Fausta's demise, the conversation between Constantine and the architect and artist working on his triumphal arch, and the prayer of Helena to the three Magi at the grotto in Bethlehem on the feast of Epiphany, to name just a few.
This volume is highly recommended, though much different than Waugh's more traditional biography of Edmund Campion, which has its own sort of excellence.
There are a handful of passages that are worth the price of the book all by themselves: the account of Fausta's demise, the conversation between Constantine and the architect and artist working on his triumphal arch, and the prayer of Helena to the three Magi at the grotto in Bethlehem on the feast of Epiphany, to name just a few.
This volume is highly recommended, though much different than Waugh's more traditional biography of Edmund Campion, which has its own sort of excellence.
August 15, 2018
Una buena novela historica de Waugh aunque siendo mas preciso habrÃa que decir que es una recreación novelada de la leyenda de Helena la emperatriz romana repudiada por su esposo Constancio y que pasó a la historia por ser la madre del emperador Constantino el que hizo al cristianismo religión oficial del imperio y que sin su historica decisión posiblemente el rumbo de la humanidad hubiera sido muy diferente. Aquà la protagonista es el personaje femenino de la historia la que supuestamente tras un sueño se dirigió a Jerusalen y realizó siendo ya una anciana de 80 años la excavación en la que se encontró la cruz en la que fue crucificado Jesucristo lo que la hizo ser considerada Santa tanto por los cristianos católicos como los ortodoxos. Una nueva demostración de lo buen escritor que era Waugh que sabÃa cambiar de registro en sus obras siendo excelente en todos ellos.
June 7, 2022
Witty and sometime humorous novella of St. Helen, mixed with a good deal of hagiography. The last few chapters were my favorite part: a "Golden Legend"-type pilgrimage to Jerusalem where Helena finds the True Cross and other relics. I also relished the literary or classical allusions such as Helena's father, King Coel of the Trinovantes calling for mead and music then dismissing his bowl, fiddlers three and pipe. Also Helena takes the young Constantine to "Government House" in her husband's posting and upon seeing the ocean, the little boy cries, "The sea; the sea!"
Delightful!
Delightful!
July 20, 2019
Interesting little novel incorporating fiction with historical events. I'll say that if you don't have a Christian background you might find this a bit of a bore. It's not particularly engaging plot-wise but there are some nice satirical moments.
August 27, 2014
In this short book Evelyn Waugh (Brideshead Revisited) takes a turn with Constantine's famously pious mother Helena. We know little about the woman behind all of the rumors and conjecture so her life is perfectly suited to a fictive rendering. We don't even know where she was born, only that she was rumored to be low-born and that her early life had something do with being around inns and/or horses, possibly but very possibly not including some sort of sexual servitude. Large swaths of her life don't even register on the grid of history until she comes thundering back into its pages well after her husband Constantius (Constantine's father) has died and well after her prime (she was probably close to 80 years old) to embark on her famous trip to Jerusalem. While this trip was significant in its own right it was the ascription of the discovery of Christ's cross to her that launched her into late antique and medieval celebrity status. Helena discovered no such thing, but it does make quite a story.
Waugh's own treatment is simple. He chooses one of the possible pasts for Helena (a very unlikely one of her being royalty in Britain) and then projects her future. Waugh's Helena is wild yet stern, the perpetual outsider with a skill for ill-timed wit, and armed with a keen awareness of just how precarious her position is in the respective reigns of her husband and son. Helena's youth is punctuated by the harsh cold of British winters, her marriage marked with the frigidity of a life lived largely alone and distant from her husband. That chill sweeps through the rest of the book as well, never quite biting too harshly but just enough to embody Helena literarily as one often left in the cold.
Waugh's own treatment is simple. He chooses one of the possible pasts for Helena (a very unlikely one of her being royalty in Britain) and then projects her future. Waugh's Helena is wild yet stern, the perpetual outsider with a skill for ill-timed wit, and armed with a keen awareness of just how precarious her position is in the respective reigns of her husband and son. Helena's youth is punctuated by the harsh cold of British winters, her marriage marked with the frigidity of a life lived largely alone and distant from her husband. That chill sweeps through the rest of the book as well, never quite biting too harshly but just enough to embody Helena literarily as one often left in the cold.
December 21, 2020
Helena is probably Evelyn Waugh's least regarded novel but it is a personal favourite. In part, that's because of Waugh's portrayal of Helena herself, the mother of the future Emperor Constantine, which is one of his most vivid and affecting character studies. But most of all it is for the single finest passage in Waugh's writing - and there are so many - but Helena's prayer outmasters them all for it is Waugh's prayer for the salvation of his own soul and I can do no better than to quote the final part of the prayer here, dear reader. If your heart responds and tears start from your eyes, then this book is a gift from Waugh to the deepest parts of your soul; if you read it as words then, pass it by, for it will seem dated and strange and odd.
The passage comes as Helena reflects on the journy of the Magi, the Three Kings, to Bethlehem, following the Star to the birth of a new King.
“You are my especial patrons,� said Helena, “and patrons of all late-comers, of all who have had a tedious journey to make to the truth, of all who are confused with knowledge and speculation, of all who through politeness make themselves partners in guilt, of all who stand in danger by reason of their talents.�
“Dear cousins, pray for me,� said Helena, “and for my poor overloaded son. May he, too, before the end find kneeling-space in the straw. Pray for the great, lest they perish utterly. And pray for Lactantius and Marcias and the young poets of Trèves and for the souls of my wild, blind ancestors; for their sly foe Odysseus and for the great Longinus.�
“For His sake who did not reject your curious gifts, pray always for the learned, the oblique, the delicate. Let them not be quite forgotten at the Throne of God when the simple come into their kingdom.�
The passage comes as Helena reflects on the journy of the Magi, the Three Kings, to Bethlehem, following the Star to the birth of a new King.
“You are my especial patrons,� said Helena, “and patrons of all late-comers, of all who have had a tedious journey to make to the truth, of all who are confused with knowledge and speculation, of all who through politeness make themselves partners in guilt, of all who stand in danger by reason of their talents.�
“Dear cousins, pray for me,� said Helena, “and for my poor overloaded son. May he, too, before the end find kneeling-space in the straw. Pray for the great, lest they perish utterly. And pray for Lactantius and Marcias and the young poets of Trèves and for the souls of my wild, blind ancestors; for their sly foe Odysseus and for the great Longinus.�
“For His sake who did not reject your curious gifts, pray always for the learned, the oblique, the delicate. Let them not be quite forgotten at the Throne of God when the simple come into their kingdom.�
January 17, 2023
I had to think a bit before assigning a score or a review. This is a book that the star system just doesn't apply to, but here are stars anyway.
Why 4 stars? Well, the novel is creative. Waugh achieved, for me least, the impossible task of threading the events of the 4th century Roman world together in a way that forged a "story". This period when Rome's rule is chaotic and brutal, when the empire is marching toward christianity, and when royal family ties are cruel and violent in the struggles of empire. Not a small feat.
Also, the story of Helena is fascinating to contemplate which may be part of the reason why Waugh wrote the book.
The seesaw of characters teetering between reason and nonsense in their thoughts and conversations is quite brilliant in my opinion.
And I like the ending.
Why 4 stars? Well, the novel is creative. Waugh achieved, for me least, the impossible task of threading the events of the 4th century Roman world together in a way that forged a "story". This period when Rome's rule is chaotic and brutal, when the empire is marching toward christianity, and when royal family ties are cruel and violent in the struggles of empire. Not a small feat.
Also, the story of Helena is fascinating to contemplate which may be part of the reason why Waugh wrote the book.
The seesaw of characters teetering between reason and nonsense in their thoughts and conversations is quite brilliant in my opinion.
And I like the ending.
March 17, 2012
Waugh called this book "far the best book I have ever written or ever will write". I would amend that to 'far the best thing he ever tried to write.'
Briefly, the book recreates the life of Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine and credited with finding the cross of Christ hidden at Jerusalem after the crucifixion.
The book's style oscillates between a fictional historical novel and a traditional Life of a Saint. The first three-quarters documents Helena's life, from her hypothetical youth as a Briton chieftain's daughter, through her marriage to Constantius Chlorus, a high-ranking Roman officer on a secret visit to Britain, her raising of Constantine, their son, to her semi-recluse life in Illyria and Treves, until Constantine's accession to the throne and his seizure of Rome. The mood of this section is one of cynical futility: Helena, despite hobnobbing with the highest people in the empire, really has no reason to live except tend her villa and while away the time.
In the last quarter of the book the real story starts. Constantine defeats and kills his rival Maxentius and takes Rome, and Helena for the first time in her life visits the city - to find a hotbed of intrigue with her son at the epicentre. Despite having become a Christian in the interim, Helena does not appear that much affected by Constantine's behaviour, not even by his killing of his son Crispus and his wife Fausta. She seems to shake a weary head and then think up something new to do - go to Jerusalem and find the cross of Christ.
Then, according to Waugh, she becomes a saint, living in spartan simplicity at a convent in Jerusalem, waiting at table, praying for hours on end, fasting. Waugh does not attempt to delineate the process by which she was tranformed from world-weary indifference to fervent sainthood. Just one day she is a cynic, the next a saint. My impression, on reading this section, is that Waugh does not understand the psychological and spiritual reality of sainthood - what makes an individual a saint within him or herself, as oppose to how it might appear to observers.
Waugh never quite shakes off the satirical cynicism his other books are noted for, with its sense of the futility of human endeavour. At times his Catholic component rises to the surface: 'But as the news [of the Edict of Milan granting peace to the Church] spread everywhere in Christendom, from every altar a great wind of prayer gathered and mounted, lifted the whole squat smokey dome of the Ancient World, swept it off and up like the thatch of a stable, and threw open the calm and brilliant prospect of measureless space.� But it never really permeates the novel, whereas the intrigue, ruthlessness and careless neglect of men of power, does. Waugh is more in his element describing what is wrong with the world rather than what is right with it.
Constantine is portrayed as a monster of egotism, suborning the Church and its treasures to his own glory (including making one of the crucifixion nails into a bit for his horse). His faults are as Waugh describes them, but there was an undercurrent of sincerity under Constantine’s political calculation that grew stronger as the years passed. I don’t believe everything this emperor did was done purely for political advancement and self-glorification. He could not give to God what he knew was required of him, but he spared no effort in giving everything else. He was a complex man, made more so by his ambiguous position as pagan Pontifex Maximus and supporter of Christianity. For Waugh he is just another Nero.
As a final note, I think Waugh is offsides in his treatment of Helena’s husband, Constantius Chlorus. In his foreward, Waugh states, “I have given Constantius Chlorus a mistress, although he was reputed to be unusually chaste.� This fictional mistress is maintained by Constantius for several years, then murdered by him. Why create that slur?
The book is well-written and readable, but in my opinion misses the mark. A pity as there is so much fictional potential in Helena’s story.
Briefly, the book recreates the life of Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine and credited with finding the cross of Christ hidden at Jerusalem after the crucifixion.
The book's style oscillates between a fictional historical novel and a traditional Life of a Saint. The first three-quarters documents Helena's life, from her hypothetical youth as a Briton chieftain's daughter, through her marriage to Constantius Chlorus, a high-ranking Roman officer on a secret visit to Britain, her raising of Constantine, their son, to her semi-recluse life in Illyria and Treves, until Constantine's accession to the throne and his seizure of Rome. The mood of this section is one of cynical futility: Helena, despite hobnobbing with the highest people in the empire, really has no reason to live except tend her villa and while away the time.
In the last quarter of the book the real story starts. Constantine defeats and kills his rival Maxentius and takes Rome, and Helena for the first time in her life visits the city - to find a hotbed of intrigue with her son at the epicentre. Despite having become a Christian in the interim, Helena does not appear that much affected by Constantine's behaviour, not even by his killing of his son Crispus and his wife Fausta. She seems to shake a weary head and then think up something new to do - go to Jerusalem and find the cross of Christ.
Then, according to Waugh, she becomes a saint, living in spartan simplicity at a convent in Jerusalem, waiting at table, praying for hours on end, fasting. Waugh does not attempt to delineate the process by which she was tranformed from world-weary indifference to fervent sainthood. Just one day she is a cynic, the next a saint. My impression, on reading this section, is that Waugh does not understand the psychological and spiritual reality of sainthood - what makes an individual a saint within him or herself, as oppose to how it might appear to observers.
Waugh never quite shakes off the satirical cynicism his other books are noted for, with its sense of the futility of human endeavour. At times his Catholic component rises to the surface: 'But as the news [of the Edict of Milan granting peace to the Church] spread everywhere in Christendom, from every altar a great wind of prayer gathered and mounted, lifted the whole squat smokey dome of the Ancient World, swept it off and up like the thatch of a stable, and threw open the calm and brilliant prospect of measureless space.� But it never really permeates the novel, whereas the intrigue, ruthlessness and careless neglect of men of power, does. Waugh is more in his element describing what is wrong with the world rather than what is right with it.
Constantine is portrayed as a monster of egotism, suborning the Church and its treasures to his own glory (including making one of the crucifixion nails into a bit for his horse). His faults are as Waugh describes them, but there was an undercurrent of sincerity under Constantine’s political calculation that grew stronger as the years passed. I don’t believe everything this emperor did was done purely for political advancement and self-glorification. He could not give to God what he knew was required of him, but he spared no effort in giving everything else. He was a complex man, made more so by his ambiguous position as pagan Pontifex Maximus and supporter of Christianity. For Waugh he is just another Nero.
As a final note, I think Waugh is offsides in his treatment of Helena’s husband, Constantius Chlorus. In his foreward, Waugh states, “I have given Constantius Chlorus a mistress, although he was reputed to be unusually chaste.� This fictional mistress is maintained by Constantius for several years, then murdered by him. Why create that slur?
The book is well-written and readable, but in my opinion misses the mark. A pity as there is so much fictional potential in Helena’s story.
April 27, 2016
A completely different book than my love, Brideshead, but that is okay. This novel tells the story of St. Helena and her discovery of the True Cross. Yes, it's a hagiography, but it is also a good story, a commentary on our times, and literary apologetic, as well.
There are delightful moments, such as when Helena's father, King Coel, calls for his pipe, his bowl of food, and three fiddlers. Lots of clever writing by Waugh.
One of the most interesting things about this book is its treatment of conversion to Catholicism. Knowing that Waugh was a convert, as was St. Helena, it is beautiful when she prays to the Magi,
"You are my especial patrons," said Helena, "and patrons of all late-comers, of all who have a tedious journey to make to the truth, of all who are confused with knowledge and speculation, of all who through politeness make themselves partners in guilt, of all who stand in danger by reason of their talents."
It perfectly captures my feelings about my long path to Catholicism. I wasn't expecting the emphasis on conversion, but I already have plans to gift this to many people from my RCIA program.
Another interesting focus of the book is the contrast between myths and legends, Mount Olympus, and the cult of the Christians, The Cross. At the beginning of the novel, Helena is listening to the Iliad and wondering if it really happened. She is curious about the archeology which would verify the claims of the myths. She is never able to find absolute confirmation that the myths are true, that they really happened.
At the end of the book, though, we read the narrator saying:
But the wood as endured. In splinters and shavings, gorgeously encased, it has traveled the world over and found a joyous welcome among every race.
For it states a fact.
Hounds are checked, hunting wild. A horn calls clear through the convert. Helena casts them back on the scent.
Above all the babble of her ages and ours, she makes one blunt assertion. And there alone lies hope."
It seems that in finding the True Cross, Helena has differentiated Christianity from the myths.
There are delightful moments, such as when Helena's father, King Coel, calls for his pipe, his bowl of food, and three fiddlers. Lots of clever writing by Waugh.
One of the most interesting things about this book is its treatment of conversion to Catholicism. Knowing that Waugh was a convert, as was St. Helena, it is beautiful when she prays to the Magi,
"You are my especial patrons," said Helena, "and patrons of all late-comers, of all who have a tedious journey to make to the truth, of all who are confused with knowledge and speculation, of all who through politeness make themselves partners in guilt, of all who stand in danger by reason of their talents."
It perfectly captures my feelings about my long path to Catholicism. I wasn't expecting the emphasis on conversion, but I already have plans to gift this to many people from my RCIA program.
Another interesting focus of the book is the contrast between myths and legends, Mount Olympus, and the cult of the Christians, The Cross. At the beginning of the novel, Helena is listening to the Iliad and wondering if it really happened. She is curious about the archeology which would verify the claims of the myths. She is never able to find absolute confirmation that the myths are true, that they really happened.
At the end of the book, though, we read the narrator saying:
But the wood as endured. In splinters and shavings, gorgeously encased, it has traveled the world over and found a joyous welcome among every race.
For it states a fact.
Hounds are checked, hunting wild. A horn calls clear through the convert. Helena casts them back on the scent.
Above all the babble of her ages and ours, she makes one blunt assertion. And there alone lies hope."
It seems that in finding the True Cross, Helena has differentiated Christianity from the myths.
January 12, 2022
My favorite Waugh. I think maybe it was his favorite too. I have no evidence. Just a feeling based on the subject, the surprising emotional and spiritual impact of it all, and the character of Helena herself.
April 23, 2024
No wonder this was Waugh’s favourite book. I’ve loved reading it!
December 15, 2021
"Give me real bones every time."
You know, I kind of hate it when I walk into a bookstore looking for presents for somebody else, and walk OUT of that bookstore holding an impulse buy for myself.
But I couldn't help it, guys. It's Evelyn Waugh. Evelyn Waugh at his happiest and most Catholic. I had to. I HAD TO.
Anyway. I'm happy to report that stupid decision though that may have been, I have no regrets. Helena is not Brideshead Revisited, but I mean, no book is, and two masterpieces of exactly the same caliber would be too much to ask even from Evelyn Waugh. It's probably not fair of me to go into this comparing the two novels, because...they're very different. Brideshead is a good 300 pages long and it's told in first person, and while it spans a good twenty years that's mostly because of several well-placed time jumps. Helena is barely 200 pages, narrated omnisciently, and the pacing indulges in idiosyncrasies, lingering over some conversations while skipping lightly over other key events--the deaths of key characters, for instance, might be mentioned in passing. So it's a little hard to "get into." Especially when you've got Brideshead in mind.
BUT BUT BUT. That's not to say Helena isn't absolutely beautiful in its own unique way. Because it is.
I cried at the end.
Things I Really Really Loved:
-) Evelyn Waugh's consistent elegant control over the English language.
-) He is a Master, guys.
-) And he deploys his Mastery to expound on certain Catholic ideas here, including
-) Christianity is a historical FACT, yo
-) the desirability and necessity of asking questions/being intellectually curious about religion
-) the non-desirability of being MERELY intellectually curious about religion.
(There was this really cool tension in the novel between, like, INTELLECTUAL theology and TANGIBLE theology--doctrine vs. relics. Both have an important place, and if you ditch the one, you can easily end up going overboard on the other.)
-) Waugh's appreciation of history, and myth, and how myth has an important PLACE in history but ISN'T history.
-) How delightfully no-nonsense Helena is. ("Bosh!")
-) Romans (including Roman Britons) walking around talking in 20th century British slang.
-) I am so here for all the Roman Britons walking around talking in 20th century British slang.
-) The uncompromising look at Constantine's flaws.
-) Did I mention Helena?
In general, I am agog with A) Waugh's mastery of English, as noted above and B) his grasp of theology. I think I had one theological quibble in the whole book, and that was a sentence which seemed, grammatically, to be saying that both Mary and Jesus "ascended" into Heaven. Which--Evelyn, c'mon, man, you know assumption and ascension are two very different things! This is uncharacteristically sloppy of you. I'm going to give it a pass as poetic license but REALLY, sentences like this are why our Protestant brethren are confused about Catholic Mariology.
Some of the PARTICULARLY BEAUTIFUL theological passages included
-) a meditation on the Magi's importance as patrons of latecomers and intellectual snobs
and
-) how Helena's conversion to Christianity makes it so that there is no longer any "mob" for her, just individuals who might turn out to be her brothers and sisters in Christ, because the Church knows no race or nationality (this was VERY apropos of the eugenic movement which...I'm sure Waugh came across in some function or other, as a guy living in the first half of the 20th century in Britain).
So yeah. This was a Good Book. I liked it muchly. I think I shall read it again and enjoy it even more.
Five stars!
You know, I kind of hate it when I walk into a bookstore looking for presents for somebody else, and walk OUT of that bookstore holding an impulse buy for myself.
But I couldn't help it, guys. It's Evelyn Waugh. Evelyn Waugh at his happiest and most Catholic. I had to. I HAD TO.
Anyway. I'm happy to report that stupid decision though that may have been, I have no regrets. Helena is not Brideshead Revisited, but I mean, no book is, and two masterpieces of exactly the same caliber would be too much to ask even from Evelyn Waugh. It's probably not fair of me to go into this comparing the two novels, because...they're very different. Brideshead is a good 300 pages long and it's told in first person, and while it spans a good twenty years that's mostly because of several well-placed time jumps. Helena is barely 200 pages, narrated omnisciently, and the pacing indulges in idiosyncrasies, lingering over some conversations while skipping lightly over other key events--the deaths of key characters, for instance, might be mentioned in passing. So it's a little hard to "get into." Especially when you've got Brideshead in mind.
BUT BUT BUT. That's not to say Helena isn't absolutely beautiful in its own unique way. Because it is.
I cried at the end.
Things I Really Really Loved:
-) Evelyn Waugh's consistent elegant control over the English language.
-) He is a Master, guys.
-) And he deploys his Mastery to expound on certain Catholic ideas here, including
-) Christianity is a historical FACT, yo
-) the desirability and necessity of asking questions/being intellectually curious about religion
-) the non-desirability of being MERELY intellectually curious about religion.
(There was this really cool tension in the novel between, like, INTELLECTUAL theology and TANGIBLE theology--doctrine vs. relics. Both have an important place, and if you ditch the one, you can easily end up going overboard on the other.)
-) Waugh's appreciation of history, and myth, and how myth has an important PLACE in history but ISN'T history.
-) How delightfully no-nonsense Helena is. ("Bosh!")
-) Romans (including Roman Britons) walking around talking in 20th century British slang.
-) I am so here for all the Roman Britons walking around talking in 20th century British slang.
-) The uncompromising look at Constantine's flaws.
-) Did I mention Helena?
In general, I am agog with A) Waugh's mastery of English, as noted above and B) his grasp of theology. I think I had one theological quibble in the whole book, and that was a sentence which seemed, grammatically, to be saying that both Mary and Jesus "ascended" into Heaven. Which--Evelyn, c'mon, man, you know assumption and ascension are two very different things! This is uncharacteristically sloppy of you. I'm going to give it a pass as poetic license but REALLY, sentences like this are why our Protestant brethren are confused about Catholic Mariology.
Some of the PARTICULARLY BEAUTIFUL theological passages included
-) a meditation on the Magi's importance as patrons of latecomers and intellectual snobs
and
-) how Helena's conversion to Christianity makes it so that there is no longer any "mob" for her, just individuals who might turn out to be her brothers and sisters in Christ, because the Church knows no race or nationality (this was VERY apropos of the eugenic movement which...I'm sure Waugh came across in some function or other, as a guy living in the first half of the 20th century in Britain).
So yeah. This was a Good Book. I liked it muchly. I think I shall read it again and enjoy it even more.
Five stars!
January 16, 2022
Exquisite short-form historical fiction. Waugh combines an authenticity, springing from his sincere feeling for a saint's life, with a historical distance of narrative, sometimes ironical, oftentimes, again, striking those genuine notes of sadness and of hope. I don't wonder he was fond of this book.
Waugh's wisdoms aren't always mine, or even often, but they are captured in story and movingly conveyed. His witticisms are lovely, and the creative anachronism of many of them doesn't detract from his conjuration of late antiquity. I like these levels in my historicals!
I almost docked a half-star for the 'horsey girls' passage with the usual amateur Freudianisms (seriously, men, stop projecting).
Waugh's wisdoms aren't always mine, or even often, but they are captured in story and movingly conveyed. His witticisms are lovely, and the creative anachronism of many of them doesn't detract from his conjuration of late antiquity. I like these levels in my historicals!
I almost docked a half-star for the 'horsey girls' passage with the usual amateur Freudianisms (seriously, men, stop projecting).
May 24, 2014
This is a story imaging the life of St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine who "legalized" the practice of Christianity with his Edict of Milan. Helena is herself credited with finding the "True Cross" upon which Jesus called the Christ was crucified. The author of this work, Evelyn Waugh, writes in the preface, "The Age of Constantine is strangely obscure. Most of the dates and hard facts ... soften and dissolve on examination. The life of St. Helena begins and ends in surmise and legend." Waugh has Helena born around 255-260; she died 18 August 328. As Waugh wrote, "This is a novel." In excerpts from the transcript of a 1960 interview for a BBC series appended to the Back Bay Books paperback edition, Waugh remarked that HELENA was his "favorite" work - "now never read, awfully good." When pressed, Waugh continued, "Well, it's just much the best, you know. It's the best written, most interesting theme." In the same interview he would say of St. Helena, "it wasn't about her sanctity I was writing; it was about the conditions of fourth-century Rome, you see. She happened to be the empress. It wasn't the fact of her rank that made her interesting; it was the fact of her finding the True Cross that made her interesting." The True Cross you say? Consider this, "It is almost certain that Helena directed excavations in which pieces of wood were found, which she and all Christendom immediately accepted as the cross on which Our Lord died. ... We do not know that the wood Helena found is the True Cross. We need make no difficulty about the possibility of its preservation, for the distance in time between Helena and Our Lord is not great (sic) ... but if we do accept its authenticity we must, I think, allow an element of the miraculous in its discovery and identification. We do know that most of the relics of the True Cross now venerated in various places have a clear descent from the relic venerated in the first half of the fourth century. It used to be believed by the vulgar that there were enough pieces of this 'true cross' to build a battleship. In the last century (i.e. the 18th) a French savant, Charles Rohault de Fleury, went to the great trouble of measuring them all. He found a total of 4 million cubic millimeters, whereas the cross on which Our Lord suffered would probably comprise some 178 million. As far as volume goes, therefore, there is no strain on the credulity of the faithful" (Evelyn Waugh). The first American edition of HELENA was published here in October 1950. The Modern Library named three of Evelyn Waugh's novels among the 100 best novels of the 20th century. (HELENA was not one of the three.)
January 23, 2021
“Sometimes I feel as though the empire were an unseaworthy boat; she brings leak leak in one place, you caulk it up, bail out and then before you can settle down to navigation, water comes spurting in somewhere else.�
---------------------------------------------ÌýÌý
“Unpleasant associations are the seed of the church.�
---------------------------------------------
“The Church isn’t a cult for a few heroes. It is the whole of fallen mankind redeemed.�
---------------------------------------------
This one has been on my TBR since our pastor recommended it a few years ago. It is a beautiful fictionalization of the life of an ancient, towering example of a woman. She was responsible for the spread and acceptance of Christianity across the Mediterranean with her finding and venerating of the cross of Jesus. Her and her son had an unusual view of the world and way of comporting themselves for the time they were born.
I enjoyed the snippets of life we saw along the way for Helena, Constantine and Crispus although I would have loved for this story to be 100s of pages longer and given me more detail about her inner thoughts and how she came to see the world as she did. Her faith once present was unwavering and the idea that she had such power in the time she did was so inspiring.
---------------------------------------------ÌýÌý
“Unpleasant associations are the seed of the church.�
---------------------------------------------
“The Church isn’t a cult for a few heroes. It is the whole of fallen mankind redeemed.�
---------------------------------------------
This one has been on my TBR since our pastor recommended it a few years ago. It is a beautiful fictionalization of the life of an ancient, towering example of a woman. She was responsible for the spread and acceptance of Christianity across the Mediterranean with her finding and venerating of the cross of Jesus. Her and her son had an unusual view of the world and way of comporting themselves for the time they were born.
I enjoyed the snippets of life we saw along the way for Helena, Constantine and Crispus although I would have loved for this story to be 100s of pages longer and given me more detail about her inner thoughts and how she came to see the world as she did. Her faith once present was unwavering and the idea that she had such power in the time she did was so inspiring.
October 31, 2019
Listen, I'm not one to drag the dead, but I mean...the author sure did with the Romans, so I don't think he'd mind.
This book was uncomfortable. Not in the "wow, I'm out of my comfort zone and my world is expanding" way, but more of a "the author sure is spending a lot of time talking about Helena's chest". There was a passage where Helena slept with her husband and the next morning, she rode a horse, which the author claimed reinstated her maidenhood?? Not to mention a literal slave argued that freedom's no big deal and he'd be fine with never being liberated???
Mr. Waugh, sir, what the fuck.
I get that this is an older work, so maybe it shouldn't be held to a modern standard of common human decency. Ew, but okay. That said, this book also failed at...being a book? The plot didn't start until 30 pages out from the end, meaning this book was over 100 pages too long.
I will say that when the plot started, the pacing made reading a breeze. Sprinkling in some wit also helped alleviate some of the exposition heavy passages. Did that make it worth reading? I don't think so. If you really want to check it out though, google the characters and start about halfway through the book. You won't miss anything important. I promise.
This book was uncomfortable. Not in the "wow, I'm out of my comfort zone and my world is expanding" way, but more of a "the author sure is spending a lot of time talking about Helena's chest". There was a passage where Helena slept with her husband and the next morning, she rode a horse, which the author claimed reinstated her maidenhood?? Not to mention a literal slave argued that freedom's no big deal and he'd be fine with never being liberated???
Mr. Waugh, sir, what the fuck.
I get that this is an older work, so maybe it shouldn't be held to a modern standard of common human decency. Ew, but okay. That said, this book also failed at...being a book? The plot didn't start until 30 pages out from the end, meaning this book was over 100 pages too long.
I will say that when the plot started, the pacing made reading a breeze. Sprinkling in some wit also helped alleviate some of the exposition heavy passages. Did that make it worth reading? I don't think so. If you really want to check it out though, google the characters and start about halfway through the book. You won't miss anything important. I promise.
January 26, 2021
This is a simple and simply great novel. Beyond the ironies and wit (always substantial with Waugh), we have a perfect examination of the grittiness of Christianity and the understated holiness of a saint.
A great work need not be lengthy; it need not have the psychological oddities and suffering that appears to pass for literature today. Helena offers two major insights: firstly, that the Christian faith is radically different from others, for it states bald facts: Christ was crucified & Christ rose from the dead. It happened at a specific time, in a specific place. The cross was not a mere symbol or phantasm, but solid wood. Secondly, that sanctity need not be a showy, extravagant affair. Waugh's conclusion about Helena is what we can hope for ourselves: "She had done what only the saints succeed in doing; what indeed constitutes their patent of sanctity. She had completely conformed to the will of God."
There is more of course: Waugh's amusingly compelling portrait of Constantine's egoism; a great filling-in of the unknowns of Helena's life; the choice not to write a direct account of Helena's conversion. It is all excellent, but it achieves brilliance in accomplishing its two major objectives: the in-the-dirt reality of Christianity, and the simple sanctity of Helena.
A great work need not be lengthy; it need not have the psychological oddities and suffering that appears to pass for literature today. Helena offers two major insights: firstly, that the Christian faith is radically different from others, for it states bald facts: Christ was crucified & Christ rose from the dead. It happened at a specific time, in a specific place. The cross was not a mere symbol or phantasm, but solid wood. Secondly, that sanctity need not be a showy, extravagant affair. Waugh's conclusion about Helena is what we can hope for ourselves: "She had done what only the saints succeed in doing; what indeed constitutes their patent of sanctity. She had completely conformed to the will of God."
There is more of course: Waugh's amusingly compelling portrait of Constantine's egoism; a great filling-in of the unknowns of Helena's life; the choice not to write a direct account of Helena's conversion. It is all excellent, but it achieves brilliance in accomplishing its two major objectives: the in-the-dirt reality of Christianity, and the simple sanctity of Helena.
October 12, 2012
Contains some witty bits, and makes Helena an interesting and likable character. Trashes Constantine unmercifully and probably beyond the reasonable bounds of cynicism. Waugh's Roman Catholic doctrine of relics is presented winsomely, if somewhat heavy handedly, but it did not persuade this Protestant one bit. The best parts of the book are the passages that require a bit of historical knowledge to get the joke, as when Constantine leaves Rome to pope Sylvester, and one of the priests present says, "I rather wish we had it in writing", and another says, "Oh, we will"; or when Lactantius says, nodding to a pet gibbon, "A man like that might make it his business to write down the martyrs and excuse the persecutors. He might be refuted again and again but what he wrote would remain in people's minds when the refutations were quite forgotten."
A short read. I gave Waugh a second chance with this book, which came recommended to me by a dear friend. But I don't think I'll give him a third. (I tried Brideshead earlier, and found it was insufferable.)
A short read. I gave Waugh a second chance with this book, which came recommended to me by a dear friend. But I don't think I'll give him a third. (I tried Brideshead earlier, and found it was insufferable.)
December 15, 2015
I suppose I should write a few words, because I’m typically such a Waugh fan. This book, though, has almost none of his usual wit evident in works like like Scoop, A Handful of Dust, or even dramatic stories like his famous Brideshead Revisited.
It, instead, has very thick, overwrought sentences. The story follows Helena � the woman who will become Saint Helena � through her life. It’s mostly fiction, tied together with the thin bits of fact they had in the 1940s. It’s marked by Waugh’s absolute conversion to Catholicism, yet unmarked by more than just a handful of memorable characters. The plot is episodic and largely unemotional until the last quarters. The language never quite captures Roman antiquity so much as it hearkens back to the overworked sentences of the Victorian romantics.
I did like how he explains the typical, constant violence of Rome. I am fascinated why conversion to Christianity doesn’t seem to deeply affect people’s character flaws. I wish Helena were more fully realized; skipping over thirty years of her life in a few pages does a lot of damage.
It, instead, has very thick, overwrought sentences. The story follows Helena � the woman who will become Saint Helena � through her life. It’s mostly fiction, tied together with the thin bits of fact they had in the 1940s. It’s marked by Waugh’s absolute conversion to Catholicism, yet unmarked by more than just a handful of memorable characters. The plot is episodic and largely unemotional until the last quarters. The language never quite captures Roman antiquity so much as it hearkens back to the overworked sentences of the Victorian romantics.
I did like how he explains the typical, constant violence of Rome. I am fascinated why conversion to Christianity doesn’t seem to deeply affect people’s character flaws. I wish Helena were more fully realized; skipping over thirty years of her life in a few pages does a lot of damage.
April 15, 2021
This is more of a historical novel than a portrayal of Helena, the mother of Constantine. For a woman with such a pivotal role in the growth of Christianity in the Roman Empire, I really wish that the author created a more vivid portrayal and brought her front and center. I did like the authors portrayal of some of the other characters. Her husband was a real dink though!
May 8, 2017
I loved it! Waugh is pretty clever in how fills in the blanks and makes the whole novel a beautiful reflection on Roman Catholicism, and how it differs from mere mythology or philosophy. A must read for anyone visiting Rome or Jerusalem. Very funny depictions of Constantine and Eusebius too.
July 8, 2024
Why are we on this Earth? Just to suffer? Every day I think about the fact that Evelyn Waugh knew very well how to write characters like he did in Brideshead Revisited and for some reason just chose not to.
April 20, 2022
Great book to read during the Easter season.
July 9, 2021
'Once, long ago, before flowers were named which struggled and fluttered below the rain-swept walls, there sat at an upper window a princess and a slave reading a story which even then was old: or, rather, to be entirely prosaic, on the wet afternoon of the Nones of May in the year (as it was computed later) of Our Lord 273, in the city of Colchester, Helena, red-haired, youngest daughter of Coel, Paramount Chief of the Trinovantes, gazed into the rain while her tutor read the Iliad of Homer in a Latin paraphrase'
So begins the novel which Evelyn Waugh believed to be his finest. It isn't surprising that the story of the Empress Helena, mother of the first Christian Roman Emperor (Constantine) and reputed discover of fragments of the True Cross, should in equal measure delight and captivate Waugh.
In his usual style, Waugh is able to avert being didactic and - like most of his oeuvre - his seriousness is always conveyed through irony. Helena is a surprisingly funny novel and Waugh doesn't hesitate to poke fun at figures as diverse (and revered) as Eusebius and the immature, temperamental Constantine himself - perhaps only Lactantius a studious, conservative and judicious Christian scholar who can rarely provide Helena with the answers to her straightforward (but a touch naive) questions gets off lightly. Even the good bishop Macarius, with his innocent piety, is not spared some mockery.
Waugh's satire, at its best, brings together a cynicism which doesn't quite move into bitterness because it is mediated by a fundamental hope (seldom optimism though). The much-celebrated arch-gnostic Marcian has his lustre and arrogance anti-climactically deflated by Helena's straight talking,
Helena's character development is, of course, where the novel stands or falls; here, Waugh's carefully wrought hagiography strikes the right balance. Helena's practical mind (which Waugh associates, unsurprisingly, with the Britishness he has given her) which is prone to demystifying the pretensions of pagan cults and the new religion alike is precisely what makes her capable of becoming an elderly saint. Not only because this (rather comically) allows her to become a sort-of foreman who directs the sceptical Bishop Macarius and his workers to the location of fragments of the True Cross, but because Waugh paradoxically sees in her bluntness (which is very much not other-worldly) the nature of Christianity as an incarnational faith. It is also this which, for Waugh and Helena alike, the relic which always haunts the narrative and is eventually found, also stands for in the modern world of the 1950s which Waugh is writing in.
Some critics have complained that Helena speaks in the English of Waugh's time and milieu, as do many of the other characters and so do Waugh's place names. But Waugh makes clear in his preface that he is not writing a history but 'The story is just something to be read; in fact a legend'. Waugh isn't concerned with whether or not 'the wood Helena found is the True Cross' but what this symbol means: 'Above all the babble of her age and ours' as 'she makes one blunt assertion. And there alone lies Hope'. We don't devalue early modern Italian Madonna scenes because they depict their figures in contemporary clothing or because they might be set in the Tuscan or Mantuan countryside rather than the desert of Palestine.
In devaluing Waugh for that we, in fact, miss precisely his point - Helena's seriousness doesn't come from a strict historical fidelity (the faithful depiction of accidental phenomena) but precisely by bridging the gap between what seems to be a recondite story of faith and pilgrimage - the preserve of a certain kind of believer - and the 'babble' and confusion of the modernity which we find ourselves in.
So begins the novel which Evelyn Waugh believed to be his finest. It isn't surprising that the story of the Empress Helena, mother of the first Christian Roman Emperor (Constantine) and reputed discover of fragments of the True Cross, should in equal measure delight and captivate Waugh.
In his usual style, Waugh is able to avert being didactic and - like most of his oeuvre - his seriousness is always conveyed through irony. Helena is a surprisingly funny novel and Waugh doesn't hesitate to poke fun at figures as diverse (and revered) as Eusebius and the immature, temperamental Constantine himself - perhaps only Lactantius a studious, conservative and judicious Christian scholar who can rarely provide Helena with the answers to her straightforward (but a touch naive) questions gets off lightly. Even the good bishop Macarius, with his innocent piety, is not spared some mockery.
Waugh's satire, at its best, brings together a cynicism which doesn't quite move into bitterness because it is mediated by a fundamental hope (seldom optimism though). The much-celebrated arch-gnostic Marcian has his lustre and arrogance anti-climactically deflated by Helena's straight talking,
Helena's character development is, of course, where the novel stands or falls; here, Waugh's carefully wrought hagiography strikes the right balance. Helena's practical mind (which Waugh associates, unsurprisingly, with the Britishness he has given her) which is prone to demystifying the pretensions of pagan cults and the new religion alike is precisely what makes her capable of becoming an elderly saint. Not only because this (rather comically) allows her to become a sort-of foreman who directs the sceptical Bishop Macarius and his workers to the location of fragments of the True Cross, but because Waugh paradoxically sees in her bluntness (which is very much not other-worldly) the nature of Christianity as an incarnational faith. It is also this which, for Waugh and Helena alike, the relic which always haunts the narrative and is eventually found, also stands for in the modern world of the 1950s which Waugh is writing in.
Some critics have complained that Helena speaks in the English of Waugh's time and milieu, as do many of the other characters and so do Waugh's place names. But Waugh makes clear in his preface that he is not writing a history but 'The story is just something to be read; in fact a legend'. Waugh isn't concerned with whether or not 'the wood Helena found is the True Cross' but what this symbol means: 'Above all the babble of her age and ours' as 'she makes one blunt assertion. And there alone lies Hope'. We don't devalue early modern Italian Madonna scenes because they depict their figures in contemporary clothing or because they might be set in the Tuscan or Mantuan countryside rather than the desert of Palestine.
In devaluing Waugh for that we, in fact, miss precisely his point - Helena's seriousness doesn't come from a strict historical fidelity (the faithful depiction of accidental phenomena) but precisely by bridging the gap between what seems to be a recondite story of faith and pilgrimage - the preserve of a certain kind of believer - and the 'babble' and confusion of the modernity which we find ourselves in.
March 2, 2019
Let’s first try and classify the genre of Evelyn Waugh’s Helena. His characters—or, at least, many of them—are known to have existed…so the book is historical, nonfiction, if you will. Yet Waugh calls Helena a novel…so it must be fiction. It is also a religious tale, and we may as well add part fantasy, as Waugh plays fast and loose with dreams and myths. There you have it: Helena is a true, fantasy tale of religious, historical fiction!
But the genre doesn’t really matter much when compared to the spare, crisp narrative and the somewhat experimental modern-ness of the dialogue, given that the period is fourth century and the setting is the Roman Empire. The plot revolves around Helena, a religious skeptic initially, who questions other believers with simple, annoying, brutal logic. Nevertheless, she is searching for religion, and feels she can become a Christian if given an appropriate sign. She concocts this sign to be the finding of the true cross on which Christ is alleged to have been crucified.
How she goes about this adventure and the degree to which she succeeds makes for entertaining reading. By this point in the book, readers will be completely untroubled by whether or not what they are reading is historical fact, inventive fiction, or a blend of both.
This novel is unique in the Waugh canon. Some have described it as a personal statement of Christianity by Waugh, himself a convert to catholicism. Helena is prized by the author himself as his best work. However, this reviewer, having read all of Waugh’s other novels, cannot agree. The signature satire in every other Waugh novel inevitably builds an expectation for more of the same. Alas, though humorous in parts, this reviewer is left to admire Helena as an experimental work, and a good one at that.
But the genre doesn’t really matter much when compared to the spare, crisp narrative and the somewhat experimental modern-ness of the dialogue, given that the period is fourth century and the setting is the Roman Empire. The plot revolves around Helena, a religious skeptic initially, who questions other believers with simple, annoying, brutal logic. Nevertheless, she is searching for religion, and feels she can become a Christian if given an appropriate sign. She concocts this sign to be the finding of the true cross on which Christ is alleged to have been crucified.
How she goes about this adventure and the degree to which she succeeds makes for entertaining reading. By this point in the book, readers will be completely untroubled by whether or not what they are reading is historical fact, inventive fiction, or a blend of both.
This novel is unique in the Waugh canon. Some have described it as a personal statement of Christianity by Waugh, himself a convert to catholicism. Helena is prized by the author himself as his best work. However, this reviewer, having read all of Waugh’s other novels, cannot agree. The signature satire in every other Waugh novel inevitably builds an expectation for more of the same. Alas, though humorous in parts, this reviewer is left to admire Helena as an experimental work, and a good one at that.
May 10, 2012
Very odd book, some nice flashes of Waughvian comedy particularly in the contemporary, colloquial dialogue, but they're set pieces within a plodding exposition that is ultimately not only humourless but sanctimonious. Not quite a novel, not quite a hagiography; its inconsistencies suggest less postmodernism avant la lettre than they betray a native satirist (and quintessential Briton of his class and moment) struggling awkwardly to justify and also to subordinate his own sensibilities and talents to a Greater Purpose. Which is, I suppose, the point of his Helena.
I must say that the editorial context is just as astonishing and to be fair may contribute to my perception. The introduction by George Weigl (who??) asserts that the book is a critique of gnosticism, calling it 'every bit as much a temptation in the twenty-first century as it was in Helena's day....Audiences still find it amazing, even unbelievable, when I tell them that, in the overwhelming majority of American universities today, very, very few members of the philosophy department will defend the claim that the reality we perceive discloses the truth of things'. Scandalous! Nor have I ever read a book that concludes with 'Questions for Reflection and Discussion', such as:
'1. What is your general impression of the character of Helena? What did you like about her?' and
'15. "Her work was finished. She had done what only the saints succeed in doing; what indeed constitutes their patent of sanctity. She had completely conformed to the will of God". How did Helena's unique personality and her questions open her to fulfilling God's will?'
I must say that the editorial context is just as astonishing and to be fair may contribute to my perception. The introduction by George Weigl (who??) asserts that the book is a critique of gnosticism, calling it 'every bit as much a temptation in the twenty-first century as it was in Helena's day....Audiences still find it amazing, even unbelievable, when I tell them that, in the overwhelming majority of American universities today, very, very few members of the philosophy department will defend the claim that the reality we perceive discloses the truth of things'. Scandalous! Nor have I ever read a book that concludes with 'Questions for Reflection and Discussion', such as:
'1. What is your general impression of the character of Helena? What did you like about her?' and
'15. "Her work was finished. She had done what only the saints succeed in doing; what indeed constitutes their patent of sanctity. She had completely conformed to the will of God". How did Helena's unique personality and her questions open her to fulfilling God's will?'
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