The story is well summarized in the back cover: "In England the twelfth century ravaged by war and famine, beings struggle to secure power, glory, holiness, love, or simply enough to survive. The battles are fierce, the prodigious chance, the cruel nature. The frescoes are painted with swords, the fates are carving with axes and cathedrals are built with blows of miracles and holy ... wiles. Hatred reigns, but love too, constantly bullied, hurt sometimes, but finally won when a God, indeed often too distracted, consents to be touched by the faith of men.
Abandoning the world of espionage, Ken Follett, the master of suspense, we book with The Pillars of the Earth monumental aeuvre whose plot, the incessant rebounds, relies on an extraordinary historical work. Walked hangings murders, the English caeur forests of Andalusia, Tours in Saint-Denis, the reader is irresistibly caught in the vortex of a great romantic epic which he would like her would not end . "
Reading is exciting. The author captivates, creating multiple twists, playing the strengths and weaknesses of his characters, endearing or repulsive. If the psychological subtlety is not exactly the height of the author, however, sometimes some intuitive flashes allow (less towards the end of the novel) to divert the anticipation felt by the actions of player characters.
Ken Follett is not a historian. It is philosophical university education. However, it has clearly documented, showing a spiritual Middle Ages, builders, rich in humanity, struggling against the savagery of the warriors (especially civil war period), seeking to improve agricultural techniques in order to fight against the famines and get rich. The major importance of the monasteries in the rural and commercial development is magnified in the book. The need also to protect a market for it exists, the course bases confidence, but also regulations is naturally explained (see the Market Square économiqueLa work of Michel Henochsberg).
Readers interested in further reading can refer to the following other books (not exhaustive):
- The Woman in the time of the cathedrals of medieval historian Régine Pernoud, which shows the image that modern man has a woman at that time is totally distorted by the bourgeois, the secluded woman of the nineteenth century - she was not at all in the Middle Ages;
- William Marshal, or the best knight in the world medievalist Georges Duby;
- The passer light novelist Bernard Tirtiaux;
- Medieval Man under the direction of medievalist Jacques Le Goff / The Church permeates life in the Middle Ages, in the design of the company (monasticism), gradually promoting the development of art (many artists were members of the clergy), intellectual life (initially clerics), in representation of the marginal (literally lives in the margins of the community) and social role of women (the Church has been the advocate birth control).
The dealer announces the advent of capitalism in its brutality. The detestable image of the merchant in society (its lack of morality, his life oriented towards profit, money, wear), yet its need to supply the cities, led an interesting theological evolution of the design Purgatory - the place of forgiveness of sin, but souls who can be saved - which were meant to destine the souls of merchants.
- Heroes and wonders of the Middle Ages by the same author describes the imaginary of women and men of our time "- The castle, largely a creation of the countryside by distinguishing the cathedral is and urban , rooted in the soil of feudalism / -. "The imagination of the cloister, it is that of the fence, in the Christian imagination linked to that of the garden. The quintessential medieval garden is an enclosed garden, and this fence protects both grassland and fruit production monks that space spirituality which will be privileged way related, from the XI-XII centuries, the image of Lady. "-p.120 Similarly, the monk etymology," mono "means" one "and refers to the cloister, instead of individual devotion, personal prayer.
- History of food fears: From the Middle Ages to the early twentieth century Madeleine Ferrières;
- Ladies of the twelfth century by Georges Duby, "which enhanced the status of women, it was the realization that she may be, as Madeleine or as Heloise, shown as an example to men because it is sometimes stronger they. This force originates in the abundance of his animal nature, his sensuality that makes it quick to ignite, burning love. " It becomes object and subject of love. The woman emerges imperceptibly stricter barriers which kept the male potency.
