by Evelyn Waugh
You say all that is good in the world comes from God; you don’t seem to find very much which is good in the modern world—you’ve seen it consistently as a decadent world, have you not?
But there’s good in a decadent world.
Yes, but your purpose in life is what? To castigate or to chronicle the decadent world? Do you see a purpose in your books—are you trying to scourge us into reform?
Oh no, no, no, no, no. No, I’m just trying to write books.
Yes, but nonetheless, no one who is as intellectually coherent as you are can write books even just as finished polished objects without having a certain purpose in mind, I suspect.
Quite unconscious. It wouldn’t occur to me to sit down and say, “I will now write a book to reveal the horrors of the gangs in this district” or something like that.
No, no, I am sure of that, but now, for instance—recently you said that in your next book you are going to deal with Crouchback’s realization that no good comes from public causes but only private causes of the spirit. Now this seems to me to be a didactic theme which the novelist is perfectly entitled to take, and I wonder when that first came to you.
Oh, I think always. I’ve never believed in public causes.
But you see, in your earlier books I would have said the characterization was perhaps not profound enough to reveal the private causes of the spirit.
Er, no, that’s quite true, but you certainly wouldn’t say they revealed any public causes, would you?
No, I wouldn’t indeed. What is your favorite book?
One called Helena— now never read, awfully good.
Well, tell me why you like that best.
Well, it’s just much the best, you know. It’s the best written, most interesting theme.
What in particular fascinated you about Helena? She’s an unusual saint.
Yes, that’s one of the fascinating things—practically nothing is known about her.
Catholicism in your books does seem very much to be equated with the aristocratic life and so on. I wonder, would you be equally interested in writing a book about the Little Flower, some Irish peasant saint, for instance, or a really humble—
It wasn’t about her sanctity I was writing; it was about the conditions of fourth-century Rome, you see. She happened to be the empress. It wasn’t the fact of her rank that made her interesting; it was the fact of her finding the True Cross made her interesting.
Is humility—
If I might continue. The fact of the True Cross was that there was an actual piece of wood, a historical fact, behind the Gospel. Whether or not the wood she found was the Cross is open to doubt, but at that time all those Asiatic cults, the Gnostics and people, were trying to theorize and symbolize and fine away the simple facts of an actual crucifixion on a piece of wood; and she I represented as being a simple English girl thrown greatly to her disgust into the imperial life, not the least enjoying her high position, and putting her finger at once on what was wrong with imperial Rome at that time, which was that they were losing the sense of actuality. That you might indeed say was a didactic book.
Questions and topics for discussion
1. Waugh considered Helena his favorite book. Why do you think that is?
2. What did you know about St. Helena before you read this book? What did you learn?
3. As a girl, Helena has a fascination with Helen of Troy, and the story comes up again over time as she travels the world. What do you think draws her to that myth in particular? What importance does it hold in her life?
4. Helena has a wide-ranging tone: from biography to fairy tale to modern novel. How would you classify it? Does the book defy these classifications?
5. Helena and the other characters often share dialogue that is typical of other Waugh books—saying things like “I say” or “Oh, bosh.” What do you think Waugh’s purpose was in using twentieth-century slang in a book set during the fourth century?
6. How important a role does Marcias play in Helena’s life? Is he a minor or a major character?
7. Why wouldn’t Constantius want anyone to know that Helena is the daughter of a British chieftain? Is her role as his wife more important than her lineage?
8. Why do you think Helena never remarries after Constantius divorces her? Were you surprised at Helena’s portrayal of divorce in the ancient world?
9. What happened to Constantine in his years as emperor that makes him so different from the son that Helena remembers? Is it Fausta’s influence, or something else?
10. Helena claims that she has been haunted by a vision of “a dusty world, with all the canals of Africa and Mesopotamia dried up and the aqueducts of Europe breached, a line of broken arches here and there in a dead world divided between a thousand squabbling barbarian chiefs” (here). Do you think she is talking about her times, or Waugh’s times?
11. Who do you think sends Helena the secret messages she receives in Rome?
12. Helena does not feel a call toward religion until she is in her seventies. Were you surprised at how strong her religious feelings became?
13. Who is the mysterious incense seller that Helena meets during her quest for the True Cross?
14. Do you feel as if you learned more about Waugh’s religious beliefs through reading Helena?
Suggested reading
Curious to find out more about Evelyn Waugh? Here are some titles worth investigating.
A Little Learning: An Autobiography, Evelyn Waugh
When the Going Was Good, Evelyn Waugh
Waugh Abroad: The Collected Travel Writing, Evelyn Waugh
The Letters of Evelyn Waugh, edited by Mark Amory
The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, edited by Michael Davie
The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, edited by Charlotte Mosley
The Letters of Evelyn Waugh and Diana Cooper, edited by Artemis Cooper
Evelyn Waugh: The Early Years, 1903–1939, Martin Stannard
Evelyn Waugh: The Later Years, 1939–1966, Martin Stannard
Evelyn Waugh: A Biography, Selina Hastings
Evelyn Waugh: A Biography, Christopher Sykes
The Life of Evelyn Waugh: A Critical Biography, Douglas Patey
Will This Do? An Autobiography, Auberon Waugh
Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family, Alexander Waugh
About the Author
Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) was born in Hampstead, England, into a family of publishers and writers. He was educated at Lancing and Hertford College, Oxford, where he majored in journalism and modern history.
Waugh’s first book, Rossetti: His Life and Works, was published in 1928. Soon afterward his first novel, Decline and Fall, appeared and his career was sensationally launched. “In fifteen novels of cunning construction and lapidary eloquence,” Time summarized later, “Evelyn Waugh developed a wickedly hilarious yet fundamentally religious assault on a century that, in his opinion, had ripped up the nourishing taproot of tradition and let wither all the dear things of the world.” Apart from his novels, Waugh also wrote several acclaimed travel books, two additional biographies, and an autobiography, A Little Learning. His short fiction is collected in The Complete Stories.
Books by Evelyn Waugh
Novels
Decline and Fall
Vile Bodies
Black Mischief
A Handful of Dust
Scoop
Put Out More Flags
Brideshead Revisited
The Loved One
Helena
Men at Arms
Officers and Gentlemen
The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
Unconditional Surrender (also published as The End of the Battle)
Sword of Honor (omnibus)
Stories
Mr. Loveday’s Little Outing, and Other Sad Stories
Tactical Exercise
Basil Seal Rides Again
Charles Ryder’s Schooldays
The Complete Stories
> Biography
Rossetti
Edmund Campion
Msgr. Ronald Knox
Autobiography/Diaries/Letters
A Little Learning
The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh
The Letters of Evelyn Waugh
Travel/Journalism
A Bachelor Abroad
They Were Still Dancing
Ninety-Two Days
Waugh in Abyssinia
Mexico: An Object Lesson
When the Going Was Good
A Tourist in Africa
A Little Order
The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh
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Contents
Welcome
Dedication
Preface
Chapter One: Court Memoir
Chapter Two: Fair Helen Forfeit
Chapter Three: None But My Foe to Be My Guide
Chapter Four: The Career Open to Talent
Chapter Five: The Post of Honor Is a Private Station
Chapter Six: Ancien Régime
Chapter Seven: The Second Spring
Chapter Eight: Constantine’s Great Treat
Chapter Nine: Recessional
Chapter Ten: The Innocence of Bishop Macarius
Chapter Eleven: Epiphany
Chapter Twelve: Ellen’s Invention
Reading Group Guide
A conversation with Evelyn Waugh
Questions and topics for discussion
Suggested reading
About the Author
Books by Evelyn Waugh
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 1950 by Evelyn Waugh
Reading group guide copyright © 2012 by the Estate of Evelyn Waugh and Little, Brown and Company
Author photograph © Hulton-Deutsch Collection / CORBIS
Cover design by Keith Hayes. Cover illustration by Jon Contino
Cover copyright © 2012 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown and Company
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First e-book edition: December 2012
ISBN 978-0-316-21652-4