A True Pillar of Twelfth-Century Society? (The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett)

Member Name: mogdred

Product:	The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
Date:	04/05/09 (242 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good historical detail

Disadvantages: Too long, villains a bit pantomime, didn't always feel believable

After reading several recommendations of "The Pillars of the Earth" I thought that I would pick it up when I saw it in the library recently. All I knew about it was that it was about the building of a cathedral in twelfth-century England and that it was long. Having never read Ken Follett before I had no preconceptions about his writing style and didn't know what to expect.

This book was written in 1989 and went on to become Follett's best-selling work. It was listed no. 33 out of 200 books in the BBC's "Big Read" in 2003, which was a survey looking for the nation's most popular books.

The book begins with a short prologue about a hanging in 1123 - obviously this scene has significance but we don't know why until later in the book.
The book is then divided into six parts, each spanning a specific amount of time:

Part One - 1135 - 1136
Part Two - 1136 - 1137
Part Three -1140 - 1142
Part Four - 1142 - 1145
Part Five - 1152 - 1155
Part Six - 1170 - 1174

The gaps in time become progressively larger in the last two parts with fifteen years between parts five and six. This feels a bit rushed as the first four parts are kept quite close together.

The book follows several characters throughout this time span, showing how their lives change with the changing rulers of England. The politics of the time are wild and England is practically lawless after the death of Henry I without an heir.

This leads to a long and bitter civil war between Maud (Henry I's daughter - also known as Matilda) and Stephen (his nephew). This period of time (1135 - 1154) is actually known as The Anarchy. I had actually heard of the civil war between Matilda and Stephen before so was confused for a while about who Maud was!

The characters that we follow are Prior Philip - an ambitious but likeable monk who is trying to build the new cathedral for his monastery; Tom builder - an out of work stone mason whose dream is to build a cathedral; Ellen - a mysterious outlaw woman with a grudge against the Church; Ellen's son Jack - a talented young man who is hopelessly in love with an older woman; Aliena - daughter of an Earl who is convicted of treason and loses her standing in society and Richard, Aliena's brother who is determined to win his father's Earldom back.

We also follow the ebbs and flows of the villains of the piece such as Bishop Waleran, Prior Philip's bitter enemy and William Hamleigh, the oppressive Earl who ruins the countryside through rape and plunder - he has the Earldom previously belonging to Aliena and Richard's father.

The story is engaging as there are so many different characters and events going on at so many different levels. I felt that this book gave a clear and interesting view of the long and bloody civil war between Maud and Stephen. It really gave an accurate view of the results of civil war on the feudal twelfth century society.

Where this book falls down is the unbelievability of some plot aspects - Prior Philip always manages to outsmart his enemies just in the nick of time; Aliena always manages to survive and is an independent woman; All of the main characters have surprisingly long life-spans as well for twelfth century people.

William Hamleigh is the nasty villain of the story and commits vile acts throughout the book. However, by about halfway through the book he felt a bit like a pantomime villain - he just kept coming back! His motivations got a bit dull and repetitive - we know that he hates/loves Aliena, we don't need to be told countless times.

There was a lot in the book about architecture (obviously as they are building a cathedral somewhere in the middle of all the drama), which could get a bit dull if you're not interested in it. I tended to skip these parts as they weren't of much interest to me.

The other irritating aspect of this book was the amount of time dedicated to the love story. I didn't pick up this book to read a romance but unfortunately that was what I got in large doses - it got a bit sickly to be honest.

However, this was still a compulsive read and it helped explain to me a period of history that I was a bit fuzzy about. We learn how King Henry II comes to the throne and also about his argument with Thomas Becket. I thought that the addition of the death of Thomas Becket was inspired as it kept me reading towards the end.

The scene where we find out about the significance of the hanging in the prologue felt like somewhat of an anti-climax. We are given large hints about it throughout the plot and it just didn't feel very significant after the long build-up.

Reading back through this review I feel that I've been a bit negative about what is actually quite a good book but these were just the niggles I had about the plot.

Overall I thought this was quite compulsive reading as you wanted to know what would happen next. Despite the more irritating parts of the plot it was enjoyable and did give a good depiction of twelfth century England in some respects.

Overall I would recommend this for the historical detail about the civil war between Maud and Stephen and the argument between Henry II and Thomas Becket which led to Thomas' martyrdom and the curbing of Henry's powers by the Church.

If the silly plot details and romance will annoy you maybe it's not for you but it is an engaging read despite this.

Also posted on ciao.co.uk.

Summary: An interesting look at the twelfth century