Publisher: Pan Books
Pages: 1,088
Price: Rs 385
Eisha Sarkar
Posted on Mumbai Mirror on Monday, June 14, 2010 at 06:44:45 PM
"Nothing happens the way you plan it," this simple sentence in the introduction to British author Ken Follett's book, The Pillars of the Earth, sums up this classic masterpiece. Few thriller writers would think of penning down a book on cathedral building set in Medieval England. But Follett tried, persisted and was rewarded with success.
A look at the cathedral in Cologne, the tallest in Europe, and you know why this book had to be written. You marvel at the high arches and turrets that kiss the sky and you think about all those craftsmen, masons and builders who worked with stone for 500 years to build a monument such as this one. That Follett's book sells more copies in Germany than anywhere else may not be just a coincidence.
Set in twelfth-century England when civil war, famine, religious strife and battles over royal succession tore lives and families apart, The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of the building of a magnificent cathedral. On the face of it, it is a story is about a humble stonemason, Tom, who pledged to build a cathedral in the memory of his wife who died during childbirth in the middle of a forest in winter. Follett weaves in family drama, violent conflict and unswerving ambition into a wonderful epic. The characters are well defined - the outlawed Ellen who becomes Tom's second wife, Prior Philip whose only ambition is to build the cathedral at Kingbridge, the conniving Bishop Waleran Bigod and William Hamleigh, the Devil incarnate.
But look deeper and it's actually a commentary on a period of history we know little about - a time when the Church was as powerful (if not more) as any monarch, a time when earls could get away with putting fire to entire villages, a time when a thief could be hanged for stealing just on the basis of testimonies of three witnesses, a time when independent, self-sufficient women were rare or were unjustly labelled as witches and a time when love conquered all, if it was blessed, and destroyed all, if it was cursed.
The book is lengthy and is tedious at times when it comes to the technicalities and descriptions of architecture but it is also these details that makes the cathedral more real to the reader. The Pillars of the Earth also contains explicit sexual content that is not suitable for young readers. However, in spite of the number of pages, Follett ensures the reader's complete attention. You actually feel bad when the book ends. Follett has also done well to share his love for cathedrals and of how they were constructed in the Middle Ages in the book's introduction.
In the end, what makes The Pillars of the Earth an epic, is not the period it is set in or the size of this masterpiece, it's the sheer love that Follett has for the subject and the way he tells the story. It's a story you'll remember!
Pages: 1,088
Price: Rs 385
Eisha Sarkar
Posted on Mumbai Mirror on Monday, June 14, 2010 at 06:44:45 PM
"Nothing happens the way you plan it," this simple sentence in the introduction to British author Ken Follett's book, The Pillars of the Earth, sums up this classic masterpiece. Few thriller writers would think of penning down a book on cathedral building set in Medieval England. But Follett tried, persisted and was rewarded with success.
A look at the cathedral in Cologne, the tallest in Europe, and you know why this book had to be written. You marvel at the high arches and turrets that kiss the sky and you think about all those craftsmen, masons and builders who worked with stone for 500 years to build a monument such as this one. That Follett's book sells more copies in Germany than anywhere else may not be just a coincidence.
Set in twelfth-century England when civil war, famine, religious strife and battles over royal succession tore lives and families apart, The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of the building of a magnificent cathedral. On the face of it, it is a story is about a humble stonemason, Tom, who pledged to build a cathedral in the memory of his wife who died during childbirth in the middle of a forest in winter. Follett weaves in family drama, violent conflict and unswerving ambition into a wonderful epic. The characters are well defined - the outlawed Ellen who becomes Tom's second wife, Prior Philip whose only ambition is to build the cathedral at Kingbridge, the conniving Bishop Waleran Bigod and William Hamleigh, the Devil incarnate.
But look deeper and it's actually a commentary on a period of history we know little about - a time when the Church was as powerful (if not more) as any monarch, a time when earls could get away with putting fire to entire villages, a time when a thief could be hanged for stealing just on the basis of testimonies of three witnesses, a time when independent, self-sufficient women were rare or were unjustly labelled as witches and a time when love conquered all, if it was blessed, and destroyed all, if it was cursed.
The book is lengthy and is tedious at times when it comes to the technicalities and descriptions of architecture but it is also these details that makes the cathedral more real to the reader. The Pillars of the Earth also contains explicit sexual content that is not suitable for young readers. However, in spite of the number of pages, Follett ensures the reader's complete attention. You actually feel bad when the book ends. Follett has also done well to share his love for cathedrals and of how they were constructed in the Middle Ages in the book's introduction.
In the end, what makes The Pillars of the Earth an epic, is not the period it is set in or the size of this masterpiece, it's the sheer love that Follett has for the subject and the way he tells the story. It's a story you'll remember!
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