The Memoirs of Helen of Troy: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Amanda Elyot (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Actress and author Leslie Carroll (Miss Match) checks in under an assumed name for her debut historical. Writing for her abandoned daughter, Hermione, in a rich but sometimes overwrought prose, Helen of Troy recalls her girlhood as a Spartan princess. Her stepfather, Tyndareus, doesn't love her (Helen is the daughter of Leda and Zeus); her sister, Clytemnestra, is jealous of her; her mother introduces her to the old ways of "the Goddess" and then kills herself. Helen grows into a lovely young woman; at 14, she's kidnapped by Theseus. At first miffed he has done so for ransom (she fancies herself the prize), she later falls in love with him, and when her brothers come to save her, she's pregnant with his child. Giving her daughter to Clytemnestra and married off to Menelaus—a rocky union from the start—Helen then falls for visiting Paris. When she runs away with him, it's almost convenient for Menelaus and his brother, Agamemnon—the perfect reason to attack Troy. Though divinely conceived, this Helen is skeptical of those she calls "the sky gods"; she's a study in contrasts generally, all cool analysis and white-hot passion. The problem is that she's not quite convincing as either one or the other, though the story is engrossing. (Oct.)
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From Booklist
"Men do not go to war over an abducted woman," states Theseus, king of Athens, after kidnapping young Helen of Sparta. His words are both prophetic and true. Helen, in middle age, writes her autobiography for her daughter, Hermione, revealing how she became the notorious Helen of Troy. The half-immortal daughter of Zeus by Leda, queen of Sparta, Helen grows up nearly friendless, for her looks arouse women's jealousy. Her youthful sexuality awakened by Theseus, Helen quickly learns that her beauty is both a source of power and a curse. When she abandons her dull husband, Menelaus, for handsome Paris Alexandros of Troy, Menelaus' brother, Agamemnon, finds his excuse to conquer that faraway city. Intelligent yet occasionally vain, Helen lives out her greatest dream only to lose nearly everything she cherishes when Troy falls. Blending mythology with history, Elyot (pseudonym of actress-novelist Leslie Carroll) details Helen's unforgettable journey from innocence to tragedy and, finally, happiness. Fans of historical women's fiction will savor this engrossing novel about the rewards and dangers of following one's heart. Sarah Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Crown; Presumed First Edition edition (November 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307209989
• ISBN-13: 978-0307209986
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #417,830 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Chick-Lit in a Chiton, February 16, 2006

By	Xena - See all my reviews

This novel fails at every level. Let's begin with the facts. It's easier to count the few things right than to enumerate the multitude of mistakes. To take just one example, when Helen is thinking of her old home in Sparta, she says, "There were days when my heart ached for the familiar scent of eucalyptus. How I longed to revisit the sacred grove." Since eucalyptus grew only in Australia, which was thousands of years away from being discovered, this is quite a feat of memory on her part. The author is unaware that only in the 19th century was eucalyptus exported and planted all over the world. Other 'facts' are just as haywire.

The information on the gods is incorrect and muddled, starting with the premise that Helen, being a daughter of Zeus, is immortal and cannot die, when everyone knows the offspring of a god and a mortal is always mortal. Otherwise Achilles could not die. But this does not bother the author, who wants to have it both ways. She also contends that the gods are just made up by humans, as if this did not negate the possibility that Helen was the daughter of Zeus, and...you see the problem.

Then, there is the anachronistic thinking and the numerous tired old cliche/tropes, the foremost being the women worshipping the Great Goddess (in secret) while being repressed by the Male Establishment, who promote Male God (here called 'the sky gods') worship. This was a new idea back in the early 1980s in "The Mists of Avalon" but since then has gotten moldy and is trotted out tiresomely in books such as "The Red Tent" and even the recent laughable Hercules miniseries. Enough already with this---for which serious historians admit there isn't a shred of evidence.

Another silly trope is that Paris is a Sensitive New Age Guy. He doesn't like to kill, see, except for food. This makes everyone look down on him and he don't get no respect.

All this might be forgiven if it worked as a novel, but it flunks this test, too. Helen is a conceited airhead, who by my count tells the reader 80 times how beautiful she is (about once every three pages, in case you forget). When she isn't trumpeting her charms, ("I had always known that no woman could compete with my immortal beauty and my desirability"), she's wallowing in self-pity. Everyone is jealous of her. Her family in Sparta is mean to her. The Trojan women don't like her---and you can certainly see why. A really repulsive character, except that she's so unreal she's just a cartoon. In spite of the feminist trappings, she has no life of her own and is totally passive and dependent on men for all her emotions, although the men are interchangable to her, like a teenager with serial crushes. Her many children are only names and she seems unaware of them.

Paris is a sort of lounge lizard (in spite of being a SNAG) and he and Helen make love every night for 15 years (!) and that's the extent of their relationship.

The Trojan War is made boring, and the author paints no picture of any landscapes or settings, so you have no sense of time or place. Since this is what a historical novel is supposed to do, this is a massive failure. The rest of the famous cast of characters---Achilles, Odysseus, Hector, and Priam---fare even worse than Helen and Paris in depiction.

So, missing factual and entertainment value, what does this novel offer? The one thing this Romance novel has in abundance is the usual generic array of props for this genre: lots of alabaster bottles of perfume, ("Then I anointed my body and hair with fragrant oils, perfuming my skin with an irresistably aromatic elixir and artfully applying my cosmetics"---she does this a lot), silken gowns of every color, 'exquisite' jewelry, padded gilded couches, heaps of sensuous food on bejeweled platters---in short, you have a 'Sex and Shopping' novel transported to the ancient world.

Stay away from this mess, or Zeus will punish you!

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Action Packed, Sexy, November 11, 2005

By	Grammy L "New York Grandma" (Riverdale, NY) - See all my reviews

As the daughter of a mother enamored of Greek mythology, history and literature I was immediately attracted to this stunning new book, The Memoirs of Helen of Troy by Amanda Elyot. Ms. Elyot has captured not only Helen's beauty and passion -but has given her a most elegant, eloquent voice. It is clear that she is a devotee of all things Greek as she recreates the total ambience and lifestyle of Helen's era. She truly makes you feel a part of the action -whether it's the ravages of war or the intimacy of the bedroom. I have always known the story of Helen of Troy -my mother named me after Helen's mother because of her interest in mythology. My name is immediately associated with the Swan. So I just had to read this newest version of the age old tale to see how Amanda Elyot fit all the pieces together. I'm so glad I did. It is a rich and wonderfully woven tapestry of words and images. A perfect holiday gift book.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Luminously intelligent indeed, November 10, 2005

By	Danny D - See all my reviews

One reviewer referred to this book as "luminously intelligent", and it's easy to see why. Amanda Elyot gives one of history's most celebrated women a voice that is not only aptly passionate but distinctively perceptive as well. Her Helen is keenly aware of both her mortality and the divinity she feels in her blood, and Elyot narrates her loves and adventures with a deft, entertaining writing style and a powerful sense of both irony and desire. The author's deep respect for the historical universe she evokes is palpable and impressive; both the tone and the content of the research reflect a love of her subject and a desire to share it with vivacious pleasure. Those who are familiar with classic historical fiction (such as that of Mary Renault and others) about the heroes and heroines of Greek myth will welcome this witty, sexy entry into those Aegean literary waters. Those who may be slower to recognize how beautifully observed are the nuanced details of this mythic period are likely to enjoy this fascinating feminist account in any case, both because the story itself is as sensational as ever after all these centuries, and because this particular telling of it has such verve and style.