[Book] #22. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - Story about People behind the Cathedrals

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Title: The Pillars of the Earth
Author: Ken Follett
Other: Mini-series(8 episodes) drama was made based on this novel. There's a sequel "World without End", that takes place after 200 years.

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A Novel Inspired by Cathedrals, The Pillars of the Earth

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Writers can make anything into great story if they're inspired by it. Victor Hugo happened to discover a word engraved onto the wall of Nortre-Dam de Paris, ANATKH, which can be roughly translated into Faith. Who in the world carved "faith" onto the wall of the Cathedral? What kind of story do they have? This little thought inspired him so that he wrote "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". Louis Sachar also said after taking a walk on a very hot, stifling day, he thought how awful it must have been if you had to dig a hole in this weather, and that inspired him to write his famous novel "Holes".

Ken Follett said seeing fancy and grand cathedrals in Europe inspired him to write this novel, "The Pillars of the Earth". Anyone can be inspired, anyone can determine to make something out of that inspiration. But it's whole other story to actually make a great piece of art from that inspiration.

As you can guess, there is a cathedral in the very center of this story. But this book is not about religion or God. This is about building a beautiful cathedral and people behind it.

Cathedral is not just a building. It's a key factor in flourish of a village.

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It was 12th century in England. When the prince was killed in a shipwreck, it had to be decided who would become the new heir to the crown, and there were people who didn't hesitate a moment to kill people if they could inherit the throne. Naturally sister of the dead prince, Maud, had become the heiress. But since she was a woman, a nephew wanted to claim it instead, gathering many knights under his arms. The princess didn't want to make it easy for him, and a war seemed imminent between the two sides.

Regardless of this situation, there were people who had interest only in building big and beautiful cathedrals. A cathedral is not just a place where you worship God. It's a key factor in flourish and prosperity of a village. In order to build a cathedral, they need more than one hundred of builders, stonemasons, and plasters. To accommodate them and their families, they built more houses in outside of the village, which made the village grew bigger. Where there were people, there were markets. Markets attracted more people, and more people meant more tax and money to the village. If the village had become rich, its ruling knight had much more power. Building a cathedral takes several tens of years. Once you started to build a cathedral, it paved the road to flourish for the village.

Source: Goodreads
(Since it was made into mini series, you can see actors on the book cover. From the top left, Archdeacon Waleran, Prior Philip, Builder Tom, Earl Bartholomew. Bottom: Jack and Aliena, the daughter of Earl Bartholomew.)

After the cathedral in the small fictional village, Kingsbridge, was totally burned down, Prior Philip wanted to build a new cathedral. In order to do that he needed to get permission and blessing from the biship, to gather hundreds of builders and stonemasons. He also had to be friends with knights who owned mountains with quarries and lumbering licenses. Was he able to do all that? Once they started to build a cathedral, Kingsbridge would flourish and the neighboring village Shiring would fall apart. Knights and archdeacon in Shiring did their best to prevent Prior Philip from building a cathedral. Could Prior Philip build a new cathedral in his lifetime?

Builder Tom who loves building and dreams to build the most beautiful cathedral in the world, pious Prior Philip, Ellen who lived in woods, her son Jack who, in spite of having lived his whole life in the woods, still wanted to be a builder, Earl Bartholomew who never breaks his promises, his enemy Knight Percy Hamleigh, Aliena and her young brother Richard who had to suffer after the downfall of their family, Archdeacon Waleran who yearns for a bishop. They came across in various incidents, sometimes fought against, other times collaborated each other for a greater purpose. They argued, deceived, tricked, interrupted, temporarily won and then lost a battle, revenged, fell down, and got over it again. Add to this complicated story good and evil, power game of knights and Catholic priests, conflict of brothers, and of course, love. This book shows 40 years of good and bad times of people.

Long but gripping story

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I read this in a paperback. It was 987 pages total. Yes, it's not short. But it's really interesting and gripping, it's hard to put it down once you started get going. In the end I bet you'll end up loving all the characters in this book, and you don't want this story to end.

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A Few Good Lines from the Book

1.

Tom had been offered the post of builder to the Exeter castellan, repairing and improving the city’s fortifications. It would have been a lifetime job, barring accidents. But Tom had turned it down, for he wanted to build another cathedral.
His wife, Agnes, had never understood that decision. They might have had a good stone house, and servants, and their own stables, and meat on the table every dinnertime; and she had never forgiven Tom for turning down the opportunity. She could not comprehend the irresistible attraction of building a cathedral: the absorbing complexity of organization, the intellectual challenge of the calculations, the sheer size of the walls, and the breathtaking beauty and grandeur of the finished building. Once he had tasted that wine, Tom was never satisfied with anything less. (p. 23)

2.

What could be done? For a moment he was tempted to do nothing. Let Bishop Henry come and look, and make his own decision, he thought. If the cathedral is to be built at Shiring, so be it. Let Bishop Waleran take control of it and use it for his own ends; let it bring prosperity to the town of Shiring and the evil Hamleigh dynasty. God’s will be done.
He knew that would not do, of course. Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing that you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically. Philip’s holy duty was to do all he could to prevent the cathedral from falling into the hands of cynical and immoral people who would exploit it for their own aggrandizement. (p. 424)

3.

Then he thought of all the people who depended on him for support, protection and employment: the monks, the priory servants, the quarrymen, Tom and Alfred, the villagers of Kingsbridge and the worshipers of the whole county. Bishop Waleran would not care for them the way Philip did. Waleran seemed to think he was entitled to use people any way he chose in the service of God. Philip believed that caring for people was the service of God. That was what the salvation was about. No, it could not be God’s will that Bishop Waleran should win this contest. (p. 428)

4.

The first casualty of a civil war was justice, Philip had realized. (p. 482)

5.

“You know me, and you know my brother; and you’ve chosen Alfred. You know Prior Philip, and you know Earl William; and you’ve chosen William. All I have left to say to you is that you deserve everything you’re going to get.”

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Disclaimer) There's only first part of the storyline in this review to introduce the book. No major spoiler included.

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