Penguin Classics Helena Evelyn Waugh 9780141193502 Books
Download As PDF : Penguin Classics Helena Evelyn Waugh 9780141193502 Books
Part of the fabulous new hardback library of 24 Evelyn Waugh books, publishing in chronological order over the coming year. The Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, made the historic pilgrimage to Palestine, found pieces of wood from the true Cross, and built churches at Bethlehem and Olivet. Her life coincided with one of the great turning-points of history the recognition of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire. The enormous conflicting forces of the age, and the corruption, treachery, and madness of Imperial Rome combine to give Evelyn Waugh the theme for one of his most arresting and memorable novels.
Penguin Classics Helena Evelyn Waugh 9780141193502 Books
I had Heard much about this book and look forward to reading it. However much it was intended as a didactic, the book fails in its intent because it fails to develop plot and character. The book starts promisingly and then leaves the reader wondering why certain events happened -for example, why was Constantius in Britain, why was Helena getting those notes in her bedroom. It jumps from time period to time period with no intervening explanation as to what happened. The characters simply aren’t developed and we can’t develop sympathy for them. While there are moments of insight in the book, it fails to cohere as a whole.Product details
|
Tags : Penguin Classics Helena [Evelyn Waugh] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Part of the fabulous new hardback library of 24 Evelyn Waugh books, publishing in chronological order over the coming year. The Empress Helena,Evelyn Waugh,Penguin Classics Helena,Penguin Classic,0141193506,FICTION Classics
People also read other books :
- Carousel Judith R Robinson 9781929878550 Books
- Legend The First in the Hunter Series The Hunter Trilogy Volume 1 David Wood 9780985685102 Books
- Spider Dance The Director Cut edition by Will Graham Mystery Thriller Suspense eBooks
- Cat Trivia edition by Elliot Carruthers Crafts Hobbies Home eBooks
- Hilda Wade A Woman with Tenacity of Purpose Grant Allen 9781289450168 Books
Penguin Classics Helena Evelyn Waugh 9780141193502 Books Reviews
Evelyn Waugh is known for biting caustic satire and misogyny. He thinks nothing of killing small boys or tiny animals while scoring points against the bounders of society. His fiction contains more heartless, designing women then the back catalogs of ELO and Hall & Oates combined.
"Helena" (1950) is one odd novel from such a man. Satiric quips come thick and fast, but there's a rare and deep sense of emotional investment, too. And the hero is the title character, a woman named Helena who finds herself the victim of a designing husband for a change but shakes off her disappointment in search of something true and eternal, a hunger that eventually leads her to Christianity and sainthood.
Catholicism is the other thing Waugh is known for, and his trumping concern as far as "Helena" is concerned, a spiritual novel from the least spiritual of religiously-inclined writers. "The church isn't a cult for a few heroes," Helena is told by Pope Sylvester, advising her on what becomes her quest, to uncover the fragments of the Cross of the Crucifixion and bring them to the European heart of the Empire. "It is the whole of fallen mankind redeemed."
While based on the real life of the mother of the first Roman emperor to reputedly embrace Christ, Waugh takes some liberties. Helena starts out here a British princess, horse-mad and lusty, who catches the eye of the Roman royal Constantius. Waugh's treatment of ancient customs isn't too far afield of how he serves up early 20th century London. When Constantius asks Helena's father for his daughter's hand, and mentions he has a chance of becoming emperor, the father isn't all that impressed.
"Some of the emperors we've had lately, you know, have been nothing to make a song about," Poppa replies. "It's one thing burning incense to them and quite another having them in the family."
Waugh employs this sort of anachronistic tension throughout his narrative, presenting Helena's contemporaries as social strivers not at all different from the people of Waugh's own day (and ours.) He also writes some of his most affecting prose this side of "Brideshead Revisited," beautiful visions of nature, the ancient world, and a boy who comes home from fishing "to lay his dripping creel before his mother, proud as a dog with a rat." Readers of Robert Graves' Claudius books will recognize a similar style to Waugh's depictions of court intrigue, romance, and life and death.
Like another of Waugh's books, "Handful Of Dust," this is slightly flawed in pace and tone but a riveting read throughout, very different from his other novels yet in tune with Waugh's overall sensibility. Waugh called "Helena" his most successful novel, a verdict few share; yet it certainly represents a worthwhile stretching of his talents and ably communicates the sense of grace and purpose he drew from his faith often lacking even from his more famous works.
Of course, this is a classic, and the writing is nothing short of superb. What I am wondering about would be the reaction of feminists. Do they find the attempt to describe the world of the Roman empire from an elite woman's perspective as successful? I am pursuing a hunch about thee figure of Helena in modern literature that is not substantiated enough to present here.
I love Evelyn Waugh and have read all his books. The writing in Helena is characteristically perfect never a clunky sentence or word out of place. The characters are sketched in and yet have the feeling of real depth to them.
What made my feelings mixed was the absence of Helena's conversion from the story. There were hints of Christianity in the first part of the book, and after her conversion it is a primary theme. But Waugh doesn't depict the actual process or instant of change and I was hoping he would. In this respect, Brideshead Revisited, even if at points a bit overblown in the prose department, strikes me as ultimately the deeper and better book.
I am a devoted Waugh reader, but his favorite book did not mesmerize me as the others did. Some of the "facts" noted in the book are not really facts; the style vacillates between his delightful cynism and a sort of devotion, which he might or might not have felt; Helen's character remains embedded in fog.
This, of course, is merely a personal bias, but to me the development of a character is as important as the plot, but I missed this psychological enlightment in the book. Helen is alternatively swept into situations totally different from those in which she formerly lived, but the reader does not perceive either her confusion nor the process by which she learned to adapt and to accept her new roles. For example historians usually do not accept her noble birth as true-- as a matter of fact in contemporary writings she was referred to as a "good stable maid", yet in due time she took the role of an empress. What did this mean to her? -- Later she was dethroned because Constantinius did not consider her highborn enough to be his consort. This must have been a blow of incredible magnitude, and could have converted a saint to a sinner. Did she ever dream in secret of homocide, or was she saintly enough by that time to be able to forgive the unforgivable? The reader remains clueless. To summarize my original observation I cannot accept it as a biography, but as a novel I missed the nuances and changes in Helen's character. I read it and was far from hating it, but it certainly did not leave a deep impression, nor added much to my knowledge. As a matter of fact, the very content of the book is slowly disappearing from my memory.
Although I'm Christian, I do believe Waugh's novel has the power to resonate with most.
This historical fictions follows Helena in her search for the basis of faith. Waugh implement s the use of religious and historical accounts, at times combining the discrepancies that have not been proven. It is a relatively quick read, and will leave you with great quotes and a new perspective on religion and 4th Century history.
I had Heard much about this book and look forward to reading it. However much it was intended as a didactic, the book fails in its intent because it fails to develop plot and character. The book starts promisingly and then leaves the reader wondering why certain events happened -for example, why was Constantius in Britain, why was Helena getting those notes in her bedroom. It jumps from time period to time period with no intervening explanation as to what happened. The characters simply aren’t developed and we can’t develop sympathy for them. While there are moments of insight in the book, it fails to cohere as a whole.
0 Response to "[FCN]∎ Descargar Free Penguin Classics Helena Evelyn Waugh 9780141193502 Books"
Post a Comment