Helen of Troy

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.

I've been a fan of Margaret George since I read Mary Queen of Scotland and The Isles.  I then inhaled The Memoir of Cleopatra and The Autobiography of Henry VIII.  But I haven't kept up with all her books, so when I saw Helen of Troy on the suggestion shelf at the library I knew I had to give the author a try again.

Like many people I knew of the tale and I even read The Iliad by Homer, but I've always been curious about it.  What about Helen?  And in this book gave me a glimpse on what could have happened.  The author made Helen real, at first a child trying to figure out why she was kept secluded and wearing a veil, as a young woman being married off to a suitable warrior and then falling in love for the first time with a younger man, who took her away and finally gave her what she always wanted: freedom.

Like all other of the author's books this one is large in length but it was so well written that I did not notice it.  It flowed beautifully.  I was taken back to a time where everything revolved around the gods and wars.  It was amazing.

If you're curious about the Greek Mythology tale, Helen of Troy, you can find a short version of it at Wikipedia, here.  

Helen of Troy by Margaret George (5/5) Historical Fiction; Greek Mythology; Published: Viking (2006); Favourite Read 2012; Library; Books 2012 (40);