Question 1

Is The Pillars of the Earth historically accurate?

Accepted Answer

It is set in a period of actual historical crisis (the civil war between King Stephen and Empress Maud, known as "the Anarchy," from 1135 to 1153), and Follett researched medieval cathedral construction extensively; the physical processes of building a Gothic cathedral are described with considerable accuracy. The political events, the characters of the historical figures (King Stephen, Thomas Becket), and the social conditions of twelfth-century England are handled with care. But Pillars of the Earth is primarily a novel of character and plot — its protagonists are fictional, its main villain (Bishop Waleran Bigod) is fictional, and Follett has said he sacrificed historical accuracy when it conflicted with narrative momentum. It is more reliable as an introduction to the period than most popular historical fiction, without being a work of scholarship.

Question 2

Should I read the Kingsbridge novels in order?

Accepted Answer

Yes, though The Pillars of the Earth stands completely alone. The sequel World Without End (2007) is set two centuries later in the same town during the Black Death, with entirely new characters; it rewards reading The Pillars of the Earth first because references to the cathedral and its builders are more meaningful with that history. A Column of Fire (2017) requires reading the previous two even less (it is set another two centuries on during the Reformation), but the series is most rewarding read in order. The Kingsbridge novels are not a traditional series — there is no continuous plot — but a saga of a place and its recurrent patterns of conflict between power and principle.

Question 3

Why did it take Ken Follett so long to publish Pillars of the Earth?

Accepted Answer

Follett was already a bestselling thriller writer when Pillars of the Earth was published; his Eye of the Needle (1978) and The Key to Rebecca (1980) had established him as one of the most commercially successful thriller writers in the world. He had wanted to write a novel about the building of a medieval cathedral for years, but his publishers were skeptical that his thriller audience would follow him into historical epic. He spent years researching and planning the novel, and when it finally appeared — twelve hundred pages about the building of a fictional cathedral in twelfth-century England — it was turned down by many of his usual publishers, who thought it was too different from what his readers expected. It became one of the bestselling historical novels ever written.

The Pillars of the Earth Reading Order

Complete The Pillars of the Earth Book List