The Private Life of Helen of Troy

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-private-life-of-helen-of-troy-by-john-erskin...

This was the best-selling book in the USA in 1926, a hundred years ago, so I got hold of it and read it. It’s a bit of a gem – almost entirely told in dialogue, with very little description of the scenery, Helen has nonchalantly returned home with Menelaus after the war and is confronted with the emotional resentment of their daughter Hermione, who sees her mother’s scandalous behaviour as the root of all her problems, but incidentally is in love with her cousin Orestes, who starts killing people (notably his mother, Helen’s sister Clytemnestra) in the last part of the book.

Despite the grim storyline, it’s actually rather funny, with Helen show more bringing 1920s sensibilities to a dark mythic past. It’s anachronistic, but one can totally see her quipping to her relatives and associates over her cigarette-holder. And her message is one of empowerment: she is unashamed of her love affair with Paris; it didn’t work out, so she is back with Menelaus. She is then challenged to apply the same standards to Hermione, and to another young woman in her household who becomes pregnant, but in the end succeeds in doing so, and we cheer for her. Menelaus (and his doorkeeper Eteoneus who provides an alternative old-fashioned viewpoint) are left confused by her confidence. Rather an interesting find. show less

Well, it wasn't the salacious version that the title would seem to promise. It's got a certain homage to pay to Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde. Menelaus did forgive her and take her back home again after all that sailing and killing. So how does one live with her after that? Erskine's urbanity is a treasure.

A series of conversations almost exclusively within the house of Menelaus of Sparta between Helen, Menelaus, Hermione their daughter, Eteoneus the doorkeeper and Adraste, Helen's companion, punctuated with reports of murder. Helen is as beautiful as ever, and a more original moralist than Eliza Doolittle's father. While not the whimsical delight of The Brief Hour of François Villon, this only drags a bit do to repetition, unless you absolutely require action.

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