The Pillars of the Earth

See, I was misled. I'm not a big fan of melodrama, and this doorstop (900+ pages) is a genre-defining example. But I was told by friends that this was A Great Novel, you know, literary, thoughtful, philosophical, enlightening. I was told that it was the Harry Potter of its time, turning reluctant readers into enthusiastic consumers of historical fiction and high romance, sparking the boom in equally thick historical tomes by such writers as Philippa Gregory, Bernard Cornwell, Diana Gabaldon and Sara Waters (among many others). I was told it was relentlessly suspenseful and exciting, exceedingly clever in its many twists and turns, and even inspirational (and somewhat anticipatory) for its portrayal of strong, independent women who defy societal expectations and do what suits themselves best.

So, where to begin? I guess with the plot and story structure. For its length this is a book with a surprisingly thin story: the smart, young and industrious (and it must be said, prideful) new prior of Kingsbridge (Phillip) wants to build a cathedral in his backwater village where nobody goes. Hijinks ensue. That's it. That's the story. Highly episodic and cyclical, the novel takes us through a simple pattern:

1. Big problem
2. Clever solution
3. Incremental success
4. Complication and setback
5. Repeat

This pattern repeats, I don't know, eight, ten times and each time we are meant to sigh in relief as the clever Phillip overcomes complications to get his cathedral done (and, sorry, it's no spoiler to say he does. I mean, this wouldn't be one of the most beloved novels of all time (no, seriously) if the whole purpose for the book were never realized).

And what are the obstacles and complications? Two unidimensional guys, Bishop Waleran Bigod (and there's a name dripping with Signifance: the priest who serves two gods, get it?) and William Hamleigh, the villainous, ham-fisted, moustache-twirling Earl of Shiring, both of whom oppose the cathedral because it thwarts their own ambitions and offends their pride and they don't like Phillip because, in customary good guy-bad guy rivalry fashion, he makes them look stupid. They conspire repeatedly to stop the construction using means legal (trumped-up charges), illegal (murder), political (changing allegiance in the civil war), physical (attack and plunder) and ecclesiastical (trumped-up charges again but this time churchy), but each time good Prior Phillip outwits, outlasts and outplays them. Sometimes he gets mad and yells, but most of the time he is serene, urbane, sensible and wise.

The story plays out over 54 years of 12th century English history, beginning in 1120 with the sinking of the White Ship (a maritime disaster that killed the heir to the English throne) and ending in the aftermath of the murder of Thomas Beckett, the martyred Archbishop of Canterbury. We get a Forrest Gump's eye view of this period as our main characters, despite being in the aforementioned backwater village of Kingsbridge, find themselves central to the political and religious intrigue of this period known as The Anarchy. Along the way we are treated to micro-credential courses such as Gothic Architecture for Dummies, Introduction to Feudal Capitalism, Pre-Industrial Labour Relations and Collective Bargaining, and, most critically, Medieval Gender Equity and Feminist Theory. Seriously, at various points throughout the novel, the too-clever-by-half (and highly articulate) characters lay the groundwork for socio-economic developments that took centuries to manifest in Western Europe and North America. I was actually a little surprised that Follett didn't have Prior Phillip invent banking and the stock market.

I can't really offer an in-depth look at all the main characters because they are really just character types. Strong and decent Tom Builder, the stone mason. Alfred, his bullying, thick-headed son who also becomes a stone mason. Ellen the mysterious, incredibly beautiful, forest-dwelling woman who carries a dark secret. Aliena (another Significant Name), the also incredibly beautiful, willful daughter of the original Earl (deposed for backing the wrong side in the civil war). Richard, Aliena's thumb of a brother, good for fighting wars but little else. William the sadist. Bigod the corrupt. Jack Shareburg, hanged mysteriously in the prologue, and father of Jack Jackson who was raised by Tom to be the Greatest Builder Ever. There are more but you get the picture. It's a clockwork novel, and though you hear the machinery creaking, it keeps its steady time and plodding pace, the action rising and falling until we reach the big concluding scene where the righteous get their reward, the unrighteous their punishment, the cathedral its grand opening and the future its path forward. It's easy to see why fans clamoured for more but hard to understand why it took Follett another 20 years to accommodate them. Once he did, he figured out what butters his bread and now there's no stopping him as he has written 5 or so sequels in 14 years.

This book will appeal to readers who like their lines between good and evil clearly marked, their heroes unambiguously good, their villains irredeemably bad, and their plots linear and well lit like an airport runway. Those who seek something focussing more on the conflict between church and crown, or the complex role of religion in medieval life will want to look elsewhere.

I was disappointed. Characters were either good guys or bad guys (or, in the case of women, all good, strong, highly competent, independent–fighting off rapists while becoming successful businesswomen). Hints of a mystery pop up here and there, then fade away for another 150 pages, until the mystery is solved anticlimactically near the end of the book. No attempt is made to give the characters the sensibilities of their own time–Philip, as the prior of the monastery, probably comes the closest, simply because being the prior of a monastery is a rather medieval thing to be. And at 900 pages, the book is flabby. A lot happens in that 900 pages, but not all of it is interesting or significant. I was expecting something gorgeous, like Edith Pargeter's The Heaven Tree (which some web sites recommend to people who liked Pillars of the Earth), a story about moral conflict and being true to oneself. Instead, I thought this book was more like a novel you'd buy at the supermarket.

A wonderfully sweeping historical saga that is irrevocably marred by the author's lack of faith in his readers' mental acuity and insistence on recapping the plot for them at every turn. Very distracting and a little offensive; I was paying attention, Mr. Follett, I promise.

The villain character is empty, boring, just exists because the story needed a villain. He's just a gross despicable dude I absolutely DREADED having to go back to after spending some time with the “good guys”. The villain literally only exists in conflict scenes. He has zero background or personality.

There aren't many things left to say when it comes to Ken Follett's masterpiece. The Pillars of the Earth is one of the most beautiful, haunting, exquisitely well-written novels of all time. It is a ‘‘showstopper'' book not only in the Historical Fiction genre, but in Literature in general. Still, for an obsessed reader of historical novels like yours trully, it can become the standard by which all other historical sagas are measured. I don't know whether this is just and right, but it does happen to me every so often.

It is a rare occassion when you have a multitude of characters and every single one of them has something to offer and attract the reader's interest. Not even A Song of Ice and Fire in all its glory has achieved this, in my opinion. However, here we have good characters with whom we agonize over their fates, evil characters whom we hate with passion, and characters that stand in a gray area, driving the story forward. Aliena is one of the best female protagonists in Literature, and Waleran with William Hamleigh fight for the title of the ‘‘best villain'' in the genre. The TV-series adaptation was really good, with a plethora of excellent casting choices. Ian McShane, Matthew McFadyen, Rufus Sewell and David Oakes steal the show.

If you haven't read it yet, a) under which rock have you been hiding?, and b) read it as soon as you can. Thank me later;)

Great read for a summer vacation. Historically it does not feel too artificial, which is quite a feat. I dislike Folletts thrillers, but I love his historical novels.

This was a reread for me. Just as good as the first time!

Giving up. Sorry Raija, hating it. Boring, obscene and overly dramatic. On to the next.

I have occasionally thought, while reading, that my time would have been better spent on another non-fiction book about the middle ages, but eventually liked the way human and ‘small' events came to focus together with ‘big' historical events.

imma be so honest I’m gonna put this one down for a while. It’s fine but really not my favorite and has just been dragging for so long. I normally enjoy a slow book but I don’t even care about any of the characters so it’s just not working for me right now. I’ll update if I do finish.

This book reads like it could have been one of the inspirations for Game of Thrones. With all the intrigue, political games, maniacal masculinity, and graphic descriptions of some pretty disturbing imagery, it is only missing the fantasy elements.

I went through this book in just a couple of weeks, and as soon as page 20 I wasn't able to put it back down. The way this book presents its story as lived by different characters didn't feel forced, and gave it all a good balance and pace.

All in all, very nice read.

This is a challenging book to review, mostly because there was just so much of it. The setting was very Robin Hood vibes. I really enjoyed the characters and thought that they were believable, if a little black and white. The good guys always ended up doing the right thing and the bad guys never stopped being terrible, self-serving, and unlikeable. I loved the story, how it carried over the decades that it took to build the cathedral, and getting to see each stage in the process. And the author seemed to do a great job portraying the political and religious environment of the 1100's, which I found very interesting to learn more about. That was my favorite part of the book: getting to see such a detailed picture of life in an ancient era and all of the small differences I would never have considered. I was interested and entertained all the way to the end of the book. Overall, I would definitely say it was worth the read ONLY if you're willing to skip over some parts.

I do, however, have some complaints. I truly HATED reading the primary antagonist's POV. He was vile, completely self-absorbed and using his power to take whatever he wanted from people and do whatever he wanted to people. It was so frustrating, seeing this character without a single redeeming or positive quality continue to maintain power and destroy in moments the hard work of hundreds of others. Maybe that's the point of his character, but I hated reading from his perspective. Connected with that complaint, this book has an unnecessary amount of adult content. I think I probably skipped 10-15 pages total, which is a small percentage of the book, but way way more than was necessary for the author to include. Lastly, towards the end it just felt a little unbelievable that so many major world events happened to connect to one small town in England and a few specific people.

Age range: 18+
Very violent, medieval combat. Graphic depictions of SA, and some non-violent adult content. Strong language that honestly felt a little out of place for a story that took place 900 years ago, pretty modern cursing.

religion murder intrigue rape murder religion murder intrigue omg quarry omg

Strange thing to say about a medieval historical fiction but this felt dated. The perspective on relationships was so very masculine and unrealistic. ;[;I have clearly changed since my first reading thirty years ago. Still liked the details of the cathedral building however.

Surprised people didn't make me read this years ago. It has the town-building and character writing of Stephen King, the aesthetic of A song of Ice and Fire (HotD is based on this civil war), the historical detail of Bernard Cornwell, and the brutality and emotions of all three.

The journey this book takes you on is grand and by the time I reached the end, I was kinda awed at how much happened while also in the individual moments feeling like I was right there in the middle of each minor and major conflict. Each of these major characters felt very real and well drawn and the things that happened to them were visceral. The last quarter had me surprisingly emotional at multiple times, and I was constantly gripped to the page.

The book is not without flaws, though. It has some of the worst “man writing women” tendencies that I've ever seen. The few female characters are well written (Aliena is my favorite character) but by all that is holy, Ken Follett never saw a scene he couldn't add a rape to and then failed to do so. There are a lot of sexual assaults in this book and most are extremely gratuitous (did you know the bad guy is BAD?!?!) and even the one that is “relevant” is so over the top brutal. Even taking the assaults out of the equation, the sex scenes are cringy and the constant talking about boobs and nipples felt so juvenile. It clearly didn't ruin the book for me but so often I was just rolling my eyes at these scenes. Literally the third to last page is a man considering how his wife's boobs have morphed throughout the years. Relax, Ken, relax.

But besides that, I don't have any complaints with this book. I definitely understand why it's considered one of the greatest historical fiction novels and based on my experience, I'd agree.

One of the best novels I've ever read and automatically makes any book Follett has written a must read. It's a historical fiction book about building a fictional cathedral in 12 century Britain, but there is so much more to this story. I've never read a book that could move me emotionally as well as Robin Hobb. Every death is a gut punch, every character you will care about deeply, and every enemy you will loathe with every fiber of your being. There is romance, there is violence, there is political/religious exploitation, drama, and tribulations from nature.

I went into this with very little knowledge of what it's about and I think everyone should as well. Just go read it and thank me later!

From the center of it all, the building of a church, from that, the spiral of this whole picture of the mid ages, the harshness and cruelty of it, the politics and scheming of the people in power and the day to day life problems of citizens, the relationship between the church and the crown, the exploration of Christianity and it's effect on people, it even has some epic, and beautiful romance stuff in between.

And it's all intertwined in this wondrous story that spans so many years, hardships and revelations, every moving part influences the other, every character with its own motivations and distinct roles and personalities, and it all comes constantly full circle in so many different ways in such a perfect manner that makes so much sense.

Even the moments of explaining how the church is built never felt like a chore and never went longer than they needed to be.

It's just a masterpiece, 10/10.

Medieval soap opera with violent sex scenes. A high school boy might like this book.

I actually read the “prequel” first ([b:The Evening and the Morning 49239093 The Evening and the Morning Ken Follett https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585140756l/49239093.SY75.jpg 73816656] and I do feel it works better as a book than this one - less ambitious but more focused in its plot line. Pillars has to be admired for the courage to be written out of love of the subject when everyone is telling you are a WW2 novelist. I loveed the attention to the bulding the Cathedral, but i disliked how he would pack great detail in a one year period and then skip 10 years and abandon or wash over characters. In the end this is Historical escapism, crafted well but not in the top bracket, but for as long as it was it never dragged and i never thought I was not being entertained (and learned a few things about the reigns of Stephen and Maud. ( I thought the Thomas Beckett part was a gratuitous epilog, but i do admit I went off and read more on the subject when i finished the book.

A book about the life of common folk in medieval Europe. Well written and researched, excellent character development, but not interesting to me. I like stories to have, if no intellectual components, then at least something extraordinary. That's why I read fantasy and science fiction. This is historical fiction, and the pacing is too slow for my taste.

Judging by what I heard of the book, it will have a lot of really well fleshed out characters, and their stories will all connect somehow. Indeed I felt empathy for the protagonists, which is very good.

The first character if a mason worker, the father of 2 children that he must provide for. His wife is expecting another child, and if he doesn't find work soon, by winter they will starve. He is fascinated by the building of cathedrals, and will put his livelihood at risk to find the job he loves the most.

We get to experience his strive to survive, the risks he takes to get paid when his employer tries to back down, the passion for his work and the devoutness to his family. We feel the the agony of him being refused work town after town and the danger of traveling between towns in the woods, where outlaws live.

Eventually he fails to get a job, his wife dies during birth and he abandons his newborn in the forest, because he doesn't have money to feed him.

His story stops here for now, and another protagonist comes into play, a priest who lives in an isolated monastery. His life is about to change with the arrival of a newborn baby that another priest found in the woods. They decided that this was a sign of god, and must therefore take care of him.

Now the priest story is unfolded, we learn how he lost his parents to English soldiers who butchered them in their houses even after the war was over, and so on.

Read 3:59/40:55 10%

I had heard a lot of praise for this book. I found that some of it is deserved but the book also fell flat for me in some ways.

Some characters such as william hamleigh we flat 2 dimensional characters that did not show any growth or development while others like Aliena were written well and showed development.

I found the story to be very cyclical and repetitive in many ways and while each new problem was different it was a constant build a church, something gets in the way, build some more, something stops them etc

So for me it loses some points for repetitive writing and flat characters it wins points for the good characters and their individual stories.

There was good opportunity to wrap things up probably 200 pages before the end of the book but I felt follet failed to do so.

So it was ok. Not terrible but not great. To be honest I am split 50/50 I have certainly read worse books but I have also read much better.

El mejor libro que nunca leí.

This is a great story with a passionate cast of characters. Follett has a gift for writing from the perspective of characters you just cannot like - he does it so masterfully.

I had to go back and read some history alongside and after this book because that is the way with historical fiction. There are quite a few adult scenes in the story. I heartily recommend it's for all who are not concerned by that.

Bellissimo libro sul medioevo e sulla societa'

So this book has some obvious flaws, and it's not for the faint of heart, but darn it, i couldn't put it down.