Helena

By: Evelyn Waugh

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

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.

Critic reviews

"[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

A wonderful hagiography

Not as beautifully written as Brideshead Revisited, but it was nonetheless very compelling and richly written. I loved Simon Prebble’s performance.

Wonderful imagining of an historical episode

I loved the book. And I did enjoy the narration as I have the other books I have listened to that Simon Preble has narrated

A fun and informative historical novel

A fun and informative historical novel about St. Helena. I confess, I had never heard of her before reading this, but I am now intrigued and must learn more!

Waugh’s Historical novel.

Those who enjoy Robert Graves “I, Claudius” and C.S. Lewis’s “Till We Have Faces” will find this novel very interesting.

Best of Waugh

I love Evelyn Waugh’s books and style. This is my favorite as it is a story of the searcher who has hope till the day she dies.

Unique story of finding Truth

The characters sometimes seemed more than human, a mix of Christian saints and faeries. It felt puzzling at times, but interesting enough to follow the story ti its end.

Beautiful

It is such a joy these days to hear such beautiful language, which is even more mellifluous read aloud. Don’t worry that it’s too preachy, Waugh is never preachy. Just a great story and great character building. A delicious aperitif for Brideshead Revisited fans.

good combination of history and imagination

Recommended for anyone wanting a creative way to imagine what this remarkable woman must have been like!

And There Alone is Hope

I was curious to see how Waugh would handle this challenging subject matter, so seemingly outside his usual ken, the world of Basil Seal and Charles Ryder. Of course, it’s really the same world, the same grapple between blindness and seeing, darkness and light, fashion and fundamentals.

One critic I read sees humor—a satirizing humor, but humor nonetheless—throughout the book. I know what he means, but the attitudes and fashions being satirized were just a wee bit too familiar for me to smile much. When the Aryan bishop Eusebius holds forth on the goings-on at the Council of Nicaea, I spent most of my time cringing:

“All that invoking of the Holy Ghost put things on the wrong footing. It was purely a question of practical convenience… I mean, we must have progress.”

Constantine’s edict making Christianity the official religion of the empire also made it fashionable. And in Helena’s day that meant Gnosticism, a creed that eschewed physical reality in favor of airy theory. Ironically, Helena’s inbred skepticism leads her to faith. Like Doubting Thomas, she wants to touch the physical reality of Christ. It’s an attitude that’s easy to dismiss; indeed, Christ Himself rebukes Thomas when He speaks of the blessedness of those who have not seen and yet believe. Yet beneath that need to touch and feel there lurks, I think, a faith that there actually is something there to touch and feel. Like the reality of the True Presence that lead me and my wife—Thomas and Helena-like—to conversion, this yearning for the physical reality of Christ led Helena to find what everyone around her said could never be found.

As with every book I’ve listened to narrated by Simon Prebble, I started out wondering if he was really the perfect voice pick and ended by realizing he was.

Needed a female narrator.

The narrator did a superb job, but this was a book that, in my opinion, required a female narrator.