The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

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

by Ken Follett

An epic, spellbinding tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, The Pillars of the Earth is Ken Follett's historical masterpiece.

A Mason with a Dream
It is 1135 and civil war, famine and religious strife abound. With his family on the verge of starvation, mason Tom Builder dreams of the day that he can use his talents to create and build a cathedral like no other.

A Monk with a Burning Mission
Philip is the church prior of Kingsbridge. A resourceful man, he knows that if his town is to survive at all, it must find a way to truly thrive. He decides, then, to build Kingsbridge the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known.

A World of High Ideals and Savage Cruelty
As the prior recruits his mason, so begins a journey of ambition, anarchy and the struggle for absolute power. Facing enemies that would thwart them, they will stop at nothing to fulfil their grand plans of Kingsbridge. Soon build tensions between good and evil, turning church against state, and brother against brother . . .

The Pillars of the Earth is the first in The Kingsbridge Novels series, followed by World Without End and A Column of Fire.

Reviewed by Eve1972 on

4 of 5 stars

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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.

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  • Started reading
  • 1 March, 2009: Finished reading
  • 1 March, 2009: Reviewed