#1 New York Times BestsellerIn 1989, Ken Follett astonished the literary world with The Pillars of the Earth, a sweeping epic novel set in twelfth-century England centered on the building of a cathedral and many of the hundreds of lives it affected. World Without End is its equally irresistible sequel—set two hundred years after The Pillars of the Earth and three hundred years after the … of the Earth and three hundred years after the Kingsbridge prequel, The Evening and the Morning.
World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroads of new ideas—about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race—the Black Death.
Three years in the writing and nearly eighteen years since its predecessor, World Without End is a “well-researched, beautifully detailed portrait of the late Middle Ages” (The Washington Post) that once again shows that Ken Follett is a masterful author writing at the top of his craft.
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Follet’s series about world war 2 and how the first world war infuenced the second. Some of the best historical fiction I have read.
If you loved Pillars of the Earth, then you will love this book as well. Similar in scope and complexity, but with it’s own story set later in history with unprecedented challenges. Be prepared to be swept away!
Fabulous and couldn’t put it down. Want to visit Paris again – once we can!
It’s a classic!
Follett at his best!!!
Love all his books
Part of the wonderful Pillars of the Earth series. All are classics.
It was an all consuming book! I really enjoy this author tremendously! I have read the series of this era and am totally enthralled with them!
Excellent read! A book I would read again.
Excellent, well-written, and very educational story about a small town and its people during medieval times when the Black Plague devasted Europe, and how people lived and survived.
Ken Follet is one of the greatest writers of our time. Before I went to England, I read “Sarum” and “London” and was so glad to have all the historical information Mr. Follet wrote about; it really helped my view of this Country and all the dynasties that made up the monarchies on that country; The continuing story of a great cathedral was extremely interesting to read about. I felt it was somewhat sad that all the specialty craftsmen were not alive to see the final and glorious outcome of such a beautiful house dedicated to God.
Long but held my attention.
I wasnt as impressed as with the first book, Pillars of the Earth
I enjoyed this book, but it didn’t resonate with me in the same way that Pillars of the Earth did.
Great mixture of fiction and reality… very strong situations as part of a wild historic era… not for weak personalities… it takes you from anger to surprise…. characters full of passion and determination… read it, it will be on your top 20…
Really enjoyed readingthe History in the book.
Love all Follett’s books but especially his incredibly well researched and written Kingsbridge Series. All three novels are stand alone but I highly recommend reading all of them! They are fascinating!!
I would recommend that anyone interested in this book read Pillars of the Earth first, which like World Without End, is a marvelous book with terrific characters, plot twists, and surprises. I’m currently reading A Column of Fire and the entire series is rich with detail and a great sense of time and place.
I feel the “bookends” of Pillars of the Erath and Column of Fire are the better books but World Without End is still a 5-star novel. Just don’t rob yourself of the full series.
Loved this series
World Without End is a worthy follow-up to Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follet’s epic tale of medieval cathedral building.
World Without End isn’t strictly a sequel, though; the novel still takes place in Kingsbridge, a fictional English city, but the story begins in 1327, 150 years after Pillars of the Earth leaves off. The main characters from the first book—particularly Jack Jackson, Lady Aliena, and Prior Philip—are remembered, and a few of the new characters are even descended from them, but the only true carryovers are the city and the cathedral.
The plot begins with a mystery that winds through the narrative: why is a knight pursued into the forest by two men, and after he kills them, why does he bury a secret letter and join the Kingsbridge monastery? But answering these questions isn’t Follet’s focus. He also doesn’t structure the story around a central building project like he did in Pillars of the Earth (although there are several similar endeavors in World Without End). Instead, Follet delves even further into the lives of his characters.
They’re generally not complex. Most of the leads are essentially the same people as adults as they were as children. And in terms of archetypes, there’s a fair bit of overlap with the first book—the leads include a clever builder, a brutish fighter, and an enterprising woman who chafes against conventional wisdom. But over the course of three decades, we see the protagonists overcome fresh obstacles and setbacks, just as Kingsbridge does. Decisions echo down through the years. Rivalries linger. Love blooms and withers and blooms again. You can’t help rooting for these people (the good ones, anyway).
Follet’s writing isn’t complicated either. Authors sometimes talk about employing windowpane prose, meaning prose that provides readers a portal into the story without getting in the way. In most cases, those panes still have a tint, and the floweriest versions look like full-on stained glass. But Follet’s phrasings are almost always transparent, to the point that he’s often telling emotions instead of demonstrating them: “Caris felt a familiar, painful jumble of anxiety and helplessness.” “Anthony’s flat opposition had left him feeling shocked.” “She felt as if the world was ending.” “It made him feel panicky.” Relationships sometimes develop in the same fashion—as the years progress, we’re suddenly informed that two people are together rather than seeing it happen.
But to be fair, Follet can’t show all of this; World Without End is over a thousand pages as it is. And I wouldn’t want to lose any of the history, large (like brushes with the Black Death) or small (like the explanation of how chirographs, a medieval form of record-keeping, we’re used to document certain transactions).
The personal history is what drives the story, though. Follet even has one of his protagonists reflect on this near the end as she views Kingsbridge from above: “The sight … made [her] marvel: each individual had a different life, every one of them rich and complex, with dramas in the past and challenges in the future, happy memories and secret sorrows, and a crowd of friends and enemies and loved ones.”
It’s the telling of just a few of those lives that makes World Without End as epic as its predecessor.
(For more reviews like this one, see http://www.nickwisseman.com)