Books: Mrs. Menelaus*

She Launched a Thousand Scandals

The Story. The early life of Helen of Troy may not have been private—or at any rate Professor Erskine chooses to summarize it in two sentences: "So they all intended well. But Paris saw Helen face to face." The story begins when the topless towers of Ilium were falling: Menelaus sword in hand storms into Helen's room to kill her, looks and exclaims: "Helen, it's time we went home."

So they got Helen with her strange fascinating beauty, accustomed to what she wants, and baffled by her inability to come...