Helena, a "biography" of Constantine's mother, is a failure as a historical novel. For one thing, it is tendentiously Christian (Catholic), pushing twentieth century parodies of Arianism and gnosticism back into the fourth century as straw-men. More tellingly, it conveys no feel for the period and doesn't offer much in the way of humour to compensate.

This is not one of Evelyn Waugh's better novels.

May 1995

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