The Pillars of the Earth: A Novel (Kingsbridge) by Ken Follett (Epub)

Description

A departure for the bestselling thriller writer, this historical epic—a twelfth-century tale of the building of a mighty Gothic cathedral—stunned readers and critics alike with its ambitious scope and gripping humanity

User’s Reviews

From Publishers Weekly Set in 12th-century England, the narrative concerns the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge. The ambitions of three men merge, conflict and collide through 40 years of social and political upheaval as internal church politics affect the progress of the cathedral and the fortunes of the protagonists. “Follett has written a novel that entertains, instructs and satisfies on a grand scale,” judged PW. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review “Follett is a master.” —The Washington Post”Wonderful . . . will hold you, fascinate you, surround you.” —Chicago Sun-Times”A towering tale . . . a ripping read. . . . There’s murder, arson, treachery, torture, love, and lust.” —The New York Daily News”Ken Follett takes a giant step.” —San Francisco Chronicle”Enormous and brilliant . . . a great epic tale . . . crammed with characters unbelievably alive across the great gulf of centuries . . . touches all human emotion—love and hate, loyalty and treachery, hope and despair. See for yourself. This is truly a novel to get lost in.” —Cosmopolitan “With this book, Follett risks all and comes out a clear winner . . . a historical novel of gripping readability, authentic atmosphere, and memorable characterization. Beginning with a mystery that casts its shadow, the narrative is a seesaw of tension, suspense, impeccable pacing . . . action, intrigue, violence, passion, greed, bravery, dedication, revenge, and love. A love that entertains, instructs, and satisfies on a grand scale.” —Publishers Weekly”An extraordinary epic buttressed by suspense . . . a mystifying puzzle involving the execution of an innocent man . . . the erection of a magnificent cathedral . . . romance, rivalry, and spectacle. A monumental masterpiece . . . a towering triumph from a major talent.” —Booklist

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I’m a little sad to say that I could not finish reading this book; something I never do. I like the premise, the modified history doesn’t bother me. Lengthy descriptions are fine because they are written engagingly. But the rape scenes!!!! I get that William is a villain; he’s ruthless and cruel, but the loving adoration that Follett treats William’s inner thoughts with is disgusting and disturbing. He takes nothing but pleasure is describing the most depraved thoughts and acts with barely any understanding of the effects on the victims, much less us readers. If you want to be horrified to the point of nausea, this book is for you.

⭐ I ordered this by accident. My kids were telling me about it and I looked it up. Next thing I know I received notice that I’d ordered it.I tried reading it, the author is preoccupied with rape and sex. I won’t be finishing this read.

⭐ I see how people would like this and for the most part everything is there for this to be considered a great book, but. There’s a continuous cycle of things are going okay – let’s destroy everything. People pick themselves up from disaster and are going okay – let’s destroy everything. It just gets boring because you know what’s coming. Anytime something is going well you know that in a few pages that the worst thing in the world is going to happen. Like clockwork. It’s boring and I wished I hadn’t persisted to the end. And don’t get me started about all the girls having “hot bodies”. I didn’t know that was a term used back whenever. Weird

⭐ 725 pp.The Welsh author, Ken Follett, has written a tome about the building of a cathedral in the imaginary village of Kingsbridge, England, in the 1100s. He stipulates that he is not a believer and that his ambivalence about writing this historical novel lasted for years. However, at some point in his life, he became enamoured of and obsessed with cathedrals, and visited many of them prior to putting words to paper. The novel occurs within the context of ecclesiastical versus imperial power, as well as during the Civil War between King Stephen and the empress Maud. This setting is similar to the situation during which the Brother Cadfael novels occur.As mentioned in the title and the comment above, the overarching them of the book is the decades-long building of a cathedral at the Kingsbridge Priory, amidst much corruption, political manipulation, slaughter, and evil aimed at Prior Philip’s Benedictine monastery. However, Follett has created a novel that possesses stories within stories within the primary theme. In it, we meet some of the most loving, if sometimes eccentric, people, along with destructive, power-seeking, and envious ecclesiastical and political figures. Follett does not spare anyone her or his weaknesses and faults, including the most significant protagonists. Nor does he cease to decry the sheer brutality of Earl William and Bishop Waleran Bigod, the primate of Kingsbridge.The author creates a cast of many protagonists as well as antagonists who are central to creating destructive challenges for the Prior to build the cathedral. Church corruption is made clear, as is the use of political people and men-at-arms to effect the plans of Bigod to destroy Philip. Follett has clearly done considerable research, and blends historical persons with fictional characters very well.At times, I thought the author could begin to tie up the narrative but he elected to create yet one catastrophe after another. In the beginning of the novel, the writing could be described as simplistic, but it evened off later into a respectable and engrossing narrative. If one is interested in Medieval history, the role of Church and State during this era, and a plethora of characters, plots, and subplots, this book is recommended. One gets a sense of monastic living, the lives of serfs and peasants, and the overall life of clerics in this work. In addition, the age-old themes of good and evil underlie all the dynamics in the story.

⭐ Probably the best book I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a few (see my personal library… that’s just the paper backs.) The story weaves in and out of relationships and technology as it takes you through the lives of its characters. Follett writes stories of places in The Pillars of the Earth that you are easily able to visualize and whose characters seem to come to life before you! Love Folletts work!

⭐ I once read an interview by one of my favorite indie authors, Matt Schiariti, and he listed this book as his all time favorite. I bought this book later on this year, but put off reading it because IT IS OVER 1000 PAGES – OH MAI GAWD!But, wanting to look cool I decided to give it a try. Honestly, it didn’t sound like anything I’d be interested in… so I didn’t have any expectations.And then I started it, and whoa man. I got sucked in.There’s so much drama in this book. Right when you think one thing is resolved, something else pops up. Oh, and I cried. I don’t even know how many times. I also lost a lot of sleep.Despite the amount of pages, I flew through this book.This takes place over an amount of decades with lots of characters. But they’re all written so well, even the ones that only show up for a couple pages, that they are all distinctive. And there are so many intertwined stories, but there wasn’t any times where I was confused about what was going on.After finishing it, I brought it to my dad and told him he has to read it. I very rarely make recommendations to my father. (This is the second book I’ve told him to read in the last five years.)Major thing to point out – the woman in this story are ah-may-zing. Yes, it’s historical and things were different back then. But they were all written as strong, independent, and Ellen was totally the most sane character in the entire book. My only complaint is that there wasn’t enough focus on her.I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes drama and has any interest on 12th century England.

⭐ I was tentative about getting this book for over a year because I suspected it would be the book morons read to feel intelligent and that was re-enforced by the ‘Oprah Book Club endorsement.’. Against better judgment, I bought it used. And. It’s everything I figured it would be. This is basically like if Dan Brown wrote ‘a big grown up book’. I love the idea. The execution is juvenile. The language is boorish, predictable and redundant.All the characters have the same voice. There is no depth or personality present in any of them and if you can get past 150 pages of lame internal narration, obvious character arcs, and WB channel-esque clunkiness, I applaud you.If you want to read a masterwork story of considerable length, look at Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, or ‘Jerusalem’ by Alan Moore (a personal favorite).

⭐ I had hoped that Pillars of the Earth would shed more light on the fascinating period of the reigns of King Stephen and Empress Maude in England and present an interesting story about the founding of a cathedral while giving the reader compelling stories about the people whose lives were affected by them, but instead I got a whole bunch of 20th Century characters plopped in the 12th Century with 20th Century modern and postmodern values and beliefs, as well as two dimebsional characters, a moustache twirling villain, and a whole lot of graphic sex and violence (as well as graphic sexual violence). Follett’s characters just don’t read like 12th Century English folk. Jack Jackson is more of an avatar for Follett than he is a real Englishman of the high middle ages, and his sort of atheism places him squarely outside the realm of reality for the time. He just wasn’t believable as a character. Neither, for instance, was his adoptive father, who up and has sex with a strange woman shortly after his wife, the love of his life, dies. William, as a villain, is so one-dimensionally evil that he’s laughable when he isn’t downright horrifying in his treatment of others (especially women).I could keep going on about this book, but others have covered its mediocrity here well. I don’t recommend it.

⭐ This is a long tome, but it contains a story that becomes more engrossing as it moves along. Its complex play of characters, all of them entangled in plots and counterplots, slowly drew me into a book that I thought was dragging at first – drew me until I was totally hooked! It’s basically about the construction of a cathedral and the setbacks and triumphs of a pious young prior as he begs and schemes for money and permission to build his vision of a magnificent worshipping place. Please don’t judge this as a boring theme. While pacifist monks ply their wits against roguish bishops and earls and villagers contend with lordly pillagers, there are soul-searching, personal wars going on, too. And as a backdrop to all this snatching and grappling, an entire kingdom is up for grabs as a prolonged battle rages between those born to the title of king and a usurper. Whoever wins will determine the political climate and the success of the cathedral building project. As this vicious game of thrones enacts itself out, the human pluck of lesser folks must hold up against all the odds. There are many frustrating hindrances to overcome and wanting to know their outcomes kept me glued.

⭐ Nothing about this book recommends itself: gratuitous sex, rape scenes, weak history, and the writers voice does not match the historic tale he is trying to tell. I was hoping to gather some historic information but apparently the author has little regard for his audience and weaves the history between trite, simplistic human relationships, in language more suited to romance novels. A 5th grade read except for the PG subject matter.This was a Bookclub recommendation and on a 1 to 5 scale it received a 1.

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