Evening star., 1950-10-15

pO1Ot OF view III an uIlCOuVeHClOIlt
which has the mother of Con-
stantine talking like a Mayfair
hostess.
Mr.. Waugh has attempted the
difficult job of writing with COM
plete reverence about one char
acter while submitting every one
else to his celebrated curled-lip
treatment. It comes off surpris-
ingly well. Amid cluster OF
knaves. hypocrites and conspira-
tors he has painted radiant por-
trait of Helena as she progresses
from warm hearted British tom
boy through disenchanted wife
and mother of two emperors OF
the shaky Roman Empire to
Christian convert who, at 80, sets
out for Jerusalem to recover the
relics of the True Cross.
Since Mr.. Waugh describes
various imperial aspirants and
their followers with the murderous
elegance he showed for the mad
young things of the interwar
London smart set, Helena" is
often akin in spirit to his early
satires. The old Waugh sparkles
in his dissection of the venomous
mealy-mouthed Fausta, wife of
Constantine. He also makes very
light of Constantine. a moody
hypochondriac, an unbaptized
convert who wants to have his
cake and eat it, too.
A Calypso Song.
Helena" abounds in willful
anachronisms. The modern dia-
logue seems sensible after you get
over the first shock, and much
easier to take than the "thee's
and thou's" of more pedantic his
torical novelists. There is one
jarring note, however: A witch
consulted by Constantine, pending
his baptism, gives her prophecy
in calypso song full of contem-
porary references.
A sometimes uneasy marriage of
the sublime and the ridiculous,
Helena" is still excellent reading
Mr.. Waugh knows as much as
anybody about the fine art of put
ting words together. The book is
meant to "a legend" as he ex-
plains in a rather lordly foreword,
so perhaps it will not be counted
among his major works. But it
is significant for it's departure
from the usual Waugh aloofness.
AS a light treatment of history,
it has its moments of high COM
edy. AS devotional, it reaches
its climax when Helena, her goal
achieved in Jerusalem, makes an
exquisite prayer to the wise men,
which is perhaps an echo of the
authors own conversion.
JANE MECOM
BY Carl Van Doren. THE Viking
Press; 81
This pleasant excursion down
by-path of history leads through
the thorny life of Benjamin
Franklin's favorite sister, Jane
Mecom. Inevitably. the book de-
rives most of its interest from its
reflected portrait of Franklin, who
is revealed in his long correspon-
dence with Jane as the most affec-
tionate and solicitous of brothers,
never too busy to lend hand in
the smallest family matter or to
listen to clan news. But Jane is
in her own right distinctive per-
sonality-a woman of shining in
tegrity-and her letters have a
fine flavor.
Jane revered her brother as a
great man, but she adored him as
a benefactor. Myself and chill
dren have always been a heavy tax
on you" she wrote ruefully at one
point in their correspondence of
63 years. AS far as the record
shows, he never failed her, sus-
tanning her in the tragedies which
starred her life. The mother of
IL. she outlived all but one OF
her children and watched two sons
go mad. During the Revolution
she had to uproot herself from her
humble Boston home and flee to
Rhode Island Vet she hore all
with a truly Christian fortitude,
enjoyed the small pleasures that
came her way and took increasing
comfort from the devotion of her
brother.
Mr.. Van Doren has let Jane tell
l.