Review of Helena by Evelyn Waugh
A delightful historical fiction read. This is my first encounter with Evelyn Waugh. His prose is just as good as people say that it is. Waugh clearly has done his cultural and historical homework. The basic facts are there, but the conversations are all literary genius.
The story begins with Helena as a young woman in Britain. Constantinius is a rising leader in the Empire but is visiting Britain incognito. Helena's father is Coel, Paramount Chief of the Trinovantes. Helena and Constantinius meet, fall in love, and they are shortly wed. Not long after the wedding, they move because of Constantinius' career advancements.
Constantine is born to them. Not longer after his birth, Constantinius divorces Helena so that he can marry the daughter of a Caesar and thus gain more political prestige. Helena grows rich through shrewd business practices and investments.
Helena did not begin life as a Christian. I found the way that Waugh presented Helena's conversion suitably disruptive. All along the way, while historical figures are interacting with Helena, Waugh is doing what fiction writers do, creating conversations and experiences that are likely, but are non-the-less, fiction. But, when it comes time to report on Helena's conversion to Christianity and her baptism, Waugh stops the dialogue. He simply reports that no one knows the facts of Helena's religious instruction or her baptism, but only that it happened and that it changed the trajectory of her life. After the announcement of Helena's baptism, the fictional accounts resume.
Helena's son, Constantine did eventually become the Emperor, Constantine the Great. Helena eventually resides in Rome so she can gain access to her son and grandson Crispus. The book concludes with her pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the adventure of locating the cross of Christ in an underground storage facility that used to be a cistern for Jerusalem. Waugh presents the discovery of the cross as a mixture of vision, hard work, and prayerful discernment. The story ends with her discovery of the cross.
As Waugh points out in his preface, his story is a fanciful tale. Indeed. But, it is a delightful one to read and reflect upon. What would it be like to live in Rome as a wealthy Christian shortly after her son made Christianity legal? What would be like to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land and to find the cross of Christ?
As this is historical fiction, Waugh inserts real historical figures into his story. One such figure is Lactantius. Waugh does not have him do much more than serve as a Christian poet and writer in residence in Helena's palace. But, in fact, Lactantius was instrumental in guiding Constantine the Great's policies toward Christians in the Empire. And, he wrote a book, Divine Institutes, that was enormously important.
Waugh also shows that there were many religious choices in Helena's world. Not only the traditional Roman gods and goddesses, but also Gnosticism. One of her early tutors appears later as a Gnostic instructor.
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