The building of the cathedral, with the almost eerie artistry of the unschooled stonemasons, is the center of the drama. From humble stonemason to imperious monarch, each character is brought vividly to life. Against this richly imagined and intricately interwoven backdrop, filled with the ravages of war and the rhythms of daily life, the master storyteller draws the reader irresistibly into the intertwined lives of his characters-into their dreams, their labors, and their loves: Tom, the master builder Aliena, the ravishingly beautiful noblewoman Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge Jack, the artist in stone and Ellen, the woman of the forest who casts a terrifying curse. The vast forests, the walled towns, the castles, and the monasteries become a familiar landscape. Follett has re-created the crude, flamboyant England of the Middle Ages in every detail. Although Ellen is a major character, the story is never presented from her viewpoint the reader is left to gauge her strictly.Ken Follett's most beloved and bestselling book tells the magnificent tale of a 12th-century monk driven to do the seemingly impossible: build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known.īut what makes The Pillars of the Earth extraordinary is the time-the 12th century the place-feudal England and the subject-the building of a glorious cathedral. The story alternates between Tom Builder's, Prior Philip's, Jack Jackson's, and Aliena's points of view. The protagonists are defined by the author by the fact that only their points of view are seen first-hand. This is an interesting choice by the author, and helps keep the reader personally involved with the characters as by necessity the characters' points of view cannot reach beyond their own immediate experience.

The reader sees all events through the present-moment point of view of the major characters.

Despite the novel being a historical-fiction period piece, there is no historical narrator. The storyline of The Pillars of the Earth is conveyed through a third-person narrative style, yet the point of view is completely confined to the characters in the book.

Pillars of the earth author