Helena, Evelyn Waugh
Helena, Evelyn Waugh
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Helena

Author: Evelyn Waugh

Narrator: Simon Prebble

Unabridged: 5 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/11/2012


Synopsis

Evelyn Waugh's personal favorite of his novels and "a superlatively well done book" (Chicago Tribune) set in the age of Emperor Constantine.

Helena is the intelligent, horse-mad daughter of a British chieftain who is thrown into marriage with the man who will one day become the Roman emperor Constantius. Leaving home for lands unknown, she spends her adulthood seeking truth in the religions, mythologies, and philosophies of the declining ancient world, and becomes initiated into Christianity just as it is recognized as the religion of the Roman Empire. Helena--a novel that Evelyn Waugh considered to be his favorite, and most ambitious, work--deftly traverses the forces of corruption, treachery, enlightenment, and political intrigue of Imperial Rome as it brings to life an inspiring heroine.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Dhanaraj on June 04, 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.......more

Goodreads review by John on September 09, 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 court......more

Goodreads review by Robert 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-......more

Goodreads review by Alberto on August 15, 2018

Una buena novela historica de Waugh aunque siendo mas preciso habría 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 ofici......more

Goodreads review by Patrick on 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.......more


Quotes

"[Helena] may be read on two levels of appreciation. As bright entertainment, or as deceptively profound commentary. On both levels it's a superlatively well done book."—Chicago Tribune

"In Helena, the play of words and the fireworks, the exquisite descriptions of landscapes, and even the finished portraits of the heroine, her husband, and her son, are always subordinate to the author's broad vision of the mixed anguish and hope with which the world of Constantine's time was filled."—New York Herald Tribune