About the Book
A lush, seductive novel of the legendary beauty whose face “launched a thousand ships”
Daughter of a god, wife of a king, prize of antiquity’s bloodiest war, Helen of Troy has inspired artists for millennia. Now Margaret George, the highly acclaimed bestselling historical novelist, has turned her intelligent, perceptive eye to the myth that is Helen of Troy.
Margaret George breathes new life into the great Homeric tale by having Helen narrate her own story. Through her eyes and in her voice, we experience the young Helen’s discovery of her divine origin and her terrifying beauty. While hardly more than a girl, Helen married the remote Spartan king Menelaus and bore him a daughter. By the age of twenty, the world’s most beautiful woman was resigned to a passionless marriage—until she encountered the handsome Trojan prince Paris. And once the lovers flee to Troy, war, murder, and tragedy become inevitable.
In Helen of Troy, Margaret George has captured a timeless legend in a mesmerizing tale of a woman whose life was destined to create strife—and destroy civilizations.
Praise
“Delicious.” – People
“An impressive feat of research and imagination. It’s no mean trick to resurrect not only ancient Attic politics and lifestyles, but the atmosphere of a time in which the gods truly spoke.” – Diana Gabaldon, author of Outlander
“A feast. . . George leaves us with the most coveted prize of fiction: a world. . . we wished existed, and that thoroughly does between the covers.” – Chicago Tribune
“Fresh and vivid.” – The Washington Post
“What Ms. George has created with this book is a great summer read: realistic characters, engaging plots and enough mythology and Homer to make it all interesting.” – The Dallas Morning News