Customer Reviews
Funny and reverent - Waugh at his best - By: Mr. Neil T. Glanfield, 28 Jul 2008 
Helena is the story of a British princess (daughter of Old King Coel no less) & a superb "alternative hagiography". Waugh does nothing here to contradict any established facts of history, & suitably embellishes what there is (having tremendous fun with what is doubtful) to create a totallly coherent legend of St Helen. This is serious & pious stuff (Catholics will approve) that in no way suggests Waugh is mocking or taking apart Christian belief. More light-hearted than "Brideshead", this slight volume nonetheless gives a clear idea of what Christian life, conversion & faith is reallly about. Helena concentrates not on the Christians, but on the heathens. Get a grip on them, & you get a grip on the whole thing. Through alll of this, our feisty little saint just sails through.
There are so many laughs in this book you would have trouble listing them. Its triumph is that it makes sense of sainthood, & leaves you giggling.
By the way, nice & short, if you are a lazy student wanting an introduction to EW.
Waugh's Own Favourite Novel - By: P. M. Cray, 21 May 2008 I seem to recalll reading somewhere that Waugh considered this his favourite novel. Although its setting might not seem to be conventional Waugh (but then again he was irresistibly drawn to the exotic), we are still very much among the upper classes & very much in Robert Graves pseudo-historical territory. The novel reminded me of genre fantasy - this is, after alll, a quest for a magical item. Waugh was the C20th master of English prose. Anyone would profit from reading this delightful book & fantasy (and sf) writers would particularly benefit from studying the Master at work in something close to their milieu (it is not for nothing that Waugh features ("The Man Who Loved Dickens", later adapted into the last section of "A Handful of Dust") in the utterly essential Borges, Casares & Ocampo (eds) "The Book of Fantasy"; see also stories such as "Out of Depth" or even the "Sword of Honour" trilogy.
