Helena

Helena, published in 1950, is the sole historical novel of Evelyn Waugh. Overview In the preface Waugh writes in part: "The reader may reasonably inquire: how much is true? The Age of Constantine is strangely obscure. Most of the dates and hard facts, confidently given in the encyclopedia, soften and dissolve on examination. The life of St. Helena begins and ends in surmise and legend. The story is just something to be read; in fact a legend." It follows the quest of Helena of Constantinople to find the relics of the cross on which Christ was crucified. Helena, a Christian, was the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine I.