The Pillars of the Earth: A Novel (Kingsbridge, #1) (Oprah's Book Club)

by Ken Follett

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Oprah's Book Club Selection

The “monumental masterpiece” (Booklist) that changed the course of Ken Follett’s already phenomenal career.

Look out for the prequel, The Evening and the Morning, coming from Viking in September 2020.

“Follett is a master,” extolled the Washington Post on the release of The Pillars of the Earth. A departure for the bestselling thriller writer, the historical epic stunned readers and critics alike with its ambitious scope and gripping humanity. Today, it stands as a testament to Follett’s unassailable command of the written word and to his universal appeal. 
 
The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known . . . of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect—a man divided in his soul . . . of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame . . . and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state and brother against brother.
 
A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett’s historical masterpiece.

• ISBN10: 0451166892
• ISBN13: 9780451166890
• Publish Date: 9 July 1990 (first published 1 January 1989)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 29 January 2010
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 1024
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780451166890

Reviews

[empressbrooke]

I did not like this book. I finished all 870 pages because I wanted to be a good book club member. If I hadn't had that motivation, I would have dropped it pretty early on. I am going to be very specific with my complaints, so if you're really into the idea of reading this book without being spoiled first (but I really recommend you spend your time reading something else), stop reading now.

The writing is terrible. The prose is simplistic and filled with endless paragraphs of telling-not-showing. The characters are cardboard and mostly stupid. The main villain is sooo villain-y that it's painful. There are no complex antagonists whose humanity you feel all too keenly here à la [a:Guy Gavriel Kay|60177|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1218804723p2/60177.jpg]. No, here the main bad guy rapes and pillages and can only get aroused when he's abusing women. And in case you weren't quite sure about where he stands on the Holy Scale Of Goodness Or Badness, the author makes sure he rapes and rapes and rapes again.

Most of the other men in the book, even the "good guys," are particularly terrible. And not in ways that make them complex and interesting and relatable. They are just infuriatingly selfish and obtuse. Tom's wife dies in childbirth and his kids nearly starve to death because he refuses to settle down and work on something reliable but less exciting than his Gloriously Unrealistic Dream Job. Then within hours of his wife dying, he's banging the Manic Pixie Dream Girl Of The Forest who appeared out of nowhere and sat on his boner without preamble. Of course this was written by a man. Aliena's brother and father rope her into serving her brother's own Gloriously Unrealistic Dream Job and she spends the book being walked all over while her brother sits around huffing about how he can't be expected to wipe his own butt, because male reasons.

If it wasn't completely clear that it was a man writing this book, every sex or rape scene contains a rote description of the woman's breasts (almost unfailingly large), and her dark triangle patch of curls. And when I use those specific words, what I mean is that the author used those specific words every time. It feels like [a:Laurell K. Hamilton|9550|Laurell K. Hamilton|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1399387919p2/9550.jpg]'s copy-and-paste sex scenes where you start to wonder if the author has ever actually been around naked people before.

Aliena is actually even more infuriating than the male characters because her whole reason for existing is to get shit all over repeatedly by men, and I think we're supposed to feel vindicated and triumphant when she finally gets to be happy, but seriously, how cliché and tiresome is the whole, "Woman gets raped and then rises above it, isn't that sooo inspiring?" storyline? And then it gets hammered home when she does finally find happiness that while she had been a successful, wealthy, independent, respected businesswoman, she had actually been empty and emotionless and cold because what she really needed was A MAN TO LOVE HER.

How many ridiculous, overdone tropes are we up to now? I've lost track.

I'm sure that someone will defend this tripe and point out what era it takes place in and cite "Historical accuracy!!!" to excuse it. And that's just a cop-out, because historical accuracy doesn't require writing clichéd, wooden prose and characters. The aforementioned [a:Guy Gavriel Kay|60177|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1218804723p2/60177.jpg] writes epic, beautiful books that are everything Pillars Of The Earth wants to be. So if you had been planning on reading this and ignored my spoiler warning and are now cursing my name, just go pick up one of GGK's books instead. You'll thank me for helping you dodge a bullet.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

The Pillars of the Earth follows the building of a cathedral in the town of Kingsbridge, England in the middle of the 12th century. Set during the time of King Stephen and the Anarchy, it explores the lives of Tom Builder and his family as he finally gets to achieve his dream of being master builder for a cathedral. There are forces that are working against the completion of this church for reasons of power and greed.

Ken Follett was an author of trashy thrillers before turning his hand to the epic novels. So it is not surprising that the novel attempts to explore themes of intrigue and conspiracy against this historical event. I’ve only ever read one other Follett novel (The Eye of the Needle) and while I thought this was a better book they are very similar.

One of the biggest problems I had with both novels is Ken Follett’s approach to women. In particular his creepy schoolboy approach to breasts, I’m not saying I’m not a fan but the way Follett’s writes about them, reminds me of George R. R. Martin and Haruki Murakami. I don’t know about you but it felt like every woman in Kingsbridge has massive breasts and if they didn’t they will be forever alone. On the plus side they won’t be raped either; but all the large breasted women ended up married and the flat chested ones were left for bigger boobs.

One of the positives of this novel was the cathedral; it was the most interesting character in the whole novel. We get to witness the rise in gothic architecture in the Romanesque age and I found the insights into the architectural evolution were so interesting. This seems to be the most researched part of the novel and I think was the only reason to read this book.

My wife loves this novel and I can see why people will enjoy this novel but considering that her favourite novels include this and Outlander makes me worry. She seems to be interesting in epic novels with incredibly flawed men. I hope she isn’t trying to tell me anything but I can appreciate her passion towards these epics.

Every man in the novel seems overly flawed with the exception of the asexual Prior. I know Follett’s loves sexual frustrated men and he struggled to write Prior Philip’s so he decided to make him completely uninterested in sex. Which is a huge contrast to every other male in the book. At times I had to stop reading this novel out of frustration but managed to power through.

I think if you really love this epic you don’t mind how long this novel is but if not this feels like it could use a good editing. This book sits at over a thousand pages and there is so much padding that could have been cut out to bring this book back down to at least 750. The themes in this novel didn’t feel like they were executed properly; there are many medieval novels that talk about the corruption of the Christian church, abuse of power, greed and gender politics. What The Pillars of the Earth did that felt unique was explore passion and base an entire novel around the construction of this one cathedral. The passion and architecture is the key to this book and really without them it would have just been a thriller written as a historical novel.

While I had a lot of problems with The Pillars of the Earth, I did like parts of this novel and enjoyed raging at the other parts. I can know join in on the cultural conversation for this novel, but maybe I’m too late for this. I read Twilight for the same reason and do enjoy raging in reviews but I can’t say this was a bad read. I respect everyone who loved this book and I’m not saying that because my wife loved it, I just can see what would interest people here.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2013/09/29/book-review-the-pillars-of-the-earth/

[Eve1972]

I'll start off by saying that I am a sucker for a good historical fiction and this book did no disappoint! It sucked me in from page one and kept me hooked (for the most past) all the way through the 900+ pages. My favorite characters by far were Ellen, Jack and Aliena. I just felt most connected to their story and therefore most invested in what happened to them. I also enjoyed the Prior Phillip character and to a lesser extent Tom. I just found myself liking and being annoyed equally with Tom and just could never connect with the character, if that makes sense! I loathed William, which I suppose was the point of the character, but I found him to be a little to much of a characacher by the end. I wish perhaps the author had done something more with the character then just the typical one dimensional "bad guy" thing.

When I read a historical fiction novel I love to have a lot of details, what they ate, describe their clothes, buildings and things of that nature. There was a lot of that is this book and I just loved that, but I also found there was a little to much sometimes about the cathedral, a little TO much description that went on for page after page and after awhile I found myself sort of skimming over all that to get back to the dialogue between characters, but that is just a small criticism! Overall I really enjoyed the novel and will most definitely be reading World Without End and would recommend Pillars to anyone who loves historical fiction.

[ibeforem]

Phew! Epic doesn’t even begin to describe this one. I would consider this to be Follett’s masterpiece. It’s a little slow in parts, but soon you find yourself so sucked into it that you can’t stop. William is an outstanding villain — just when you think he can’t do worse, he does. And Phillip is very compelling as a monk who does not always make the right decisions. His own struggles with right and wrong are a perfect mirror of the struggles between church and state. I’m curious to see if the sequel, World Without End, lives up to Pillars.