HELEN OF TROY

Synopsis:

The New York Times bestseller — from Margaret George, author of Mary, Called Magdalene

With her amazing ability to summon the voices of historical characters, Margaret George in Helen of Troy tells the story of the woman whose face "launched a thousand ships." Laden with doom, yet surprising in its moments of innocence and beauty, this is a beautifully told story of a legendary woman and her times. An exquisite page-turner with a cast of irresistible characters—Odysseus, Hector, Achilles, Priam, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon, as well as Helen and Paris themselves—and a wealth of material that reproduces the Age of Bronze in all its glory, Helen of Troy brings to life a war that we have all learned about but never before experienced.

Review:

Margaret George is an author I already knew from the books Memoirs of Cleopatra and already from those books she had become one of my favorite authors at the level of historical fiction.

Firstly I have to admire an author who with her international fame within the historical novel has had the audacity to pick up the myth of Helen of Troy since Helen is a character somewhat obscure, we do not know for sure if she really existed, and until very recently we were not even sure that the city of Troy actually existed.

The author has done a remarkable job with this book . Of course she had to take great creative freedoms, since most of this story is a myth, but these artistic liberties resulted very well giving the story a very realistic appearance. What actually surprised me a lot in this book was that the author with her writing almost magically is able to give life and meaning to characters and mythological creatures and gods, all very well portrayed according to Greek mythology, which demonstrates that there was a profound work of historical research and the author did not simply "invent".

I particularly liked the personalities of the gods, and according to Greek mythology, who despite being the most beautiful beings and superior to humans, have an insidious nature and are loaded with human feelings like jealousy, pride and even love.

The character of Helen, who narrates her own story, is beautifully constructed, with a strong personality, intelligent and decisive. Removing us the idea of a submissive character and selfish view that she allowed herself to be married to someone she does not want, and was then kidnapped lost by her own beauty. This is not the case with this Helen that justifies very well all her choices and accepts the consequences.

I also found very important that the book does not focus only on the Trojan War, but also in the childhood and youth of Helen and the reasons for which she fled with Paris and giving rise to the famous war.