Helen of Troy by Margaret George
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| Title: Helen of Troy Author: Margaret George Published: August 3rd 2006 Publisher: Viking Adult Pages: 611 ISBN: 0670037788 |
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Synopsis:
A lush, seductive novel of the legendary beauty whose face launched a thousand shipsDaughter of a god, wife of a king, prize of antiquity's bloodiest war, Helen of Troy has inspired artists for millennia. Now, Margaret George, the highly acclaimed bestselling historical novelist, has turned her intelligent, perceptive eye to the myth that is Helen of Troy.
Margaret George breathes new life into the great Homeric tale by having Helen narrate her own story. Through her eyes and in her voice, we experience the young Helen's discovery of her divine origin and her terrifying beauty. While hardly more than a girl, Helen married the remote Spartan king Menelaus and bore him a daughter. By the age of twenty, the world's most beautiful woman was resigned to a passionless marriage until she encountered the handsome Trojan prince Paris. And once the lovers flee to Troy, war, murder, and tragedy become inevitable. In Helen of Troy, Margaret George has captured a timeless legend in a mesmerizing tale of a woman whose life was destined to create strife and destroy civilizations.
My Review:
Omens. If I were beginning again, starting out in life, I would ignore all omens, neither heeding them nor trying to disable them. If we chose to pass them by, then perhaps they would lose their power, as old gods and goddesses, no longer worshiped, fade away and lose their grip on us.
The writing in the opening chapter is lyrical and sweeping. Then Margaret George begins Helen’s story with her childhood in Sparta while a princess she is kept at home or hidden behind veils. As a child, a seer foretells that she will bring destruction on both Greece and Asia. As she matures she longs to break out of the confines of her veils and the protection of her parents. Helen marries Menelaus and becomes the queen of Sparta. The marriage lacks passion, and when Paris, a young Trojan man, visits Sparta, he and Helen fall madly in love. Helen escapes with Paris to Troy, leaving her family, husband, and daughter Hermione behind. Helen’s actions bring about the Trojan War, and many lives are lost as a result.
Helen is an admirable hero who is portrayed as having a mind and identity separate from her physical beauty. I like she explored Helen’s family life, what it was like to hide her face and her early beginnings. It is written in the first person, which I liked very much as it connected me to Helen’s character emotionally and it felt as though I knew her by the end of the book.
What impressed me the most about this book are the detailed descriptions. You really get to know the clothes, the food, the landscape. I felt like I was there with Helen smelling the roses when Aphrodite met with her on the beach.
I also liked the treatment of the gods. For most events, George offers both a divine explanation and a normal one. It leaves the reader to decide what to believe. The Trojan War itself is illustrated in all its vivid and dark destruction.
Margaret George brings to life the heroic and not so heroic deeds of the Trojan war. All the characters are there Odysseus, Hector, Achilles, Priam, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon and Helen, and Paris. The author brings to life the sights, sounds, and conflicts of the war and the pain and suffering of the men who fought in it. That said, I found this to be a credible, fascinating look into this era of history.
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