While I enjoyed the book I had two problems with it. There were exceptionally cruel lords like Ralph in the book, but all lords had a oppressive, exploitative, violent relationship to the peasantry. Unfortunately the author tends to imply that the behaviour of the lords against their peasants is based on personality rather than resulting from their position inside society's structure. I was just disappointed the book finished before the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 when the people of Knightsbridge might have got some collective revenge. Nonetheless he reflects real history here. Follett tries to show how the decimation of the population by disease led to the breakdown of serfdom, though out of dramatic necessity he accelerates the process a great deal. The rich aren't simply oppressive - they are exploitative too. Again, like Pillars of the Earth, the book focuses very much on working people and their lives though in this case the actual feudal relationship between lord and serf in terms of land use is much more explicit. Chapters invariably end on cliff-hangers and characters tend to come and go, revolving around the key people. Her attitudes and approach incur further wrath from the hierarchy.Īs I noted in my review of the first book, the author structures the book like a mini-series or soap-opera. In the nunnery she uses forward thinking medical practices to treat the sick and prevent infection. Accused of witchcraft by a rival, she becomes a nun to escape execution. Caris is a young woman who refuses to let her gender hold back her desire to succeed in the world. The two main characters, Caris and Merthin, are on-off lovers, whose lives revolve around two central issues - the first is the Cathedral, the second the arrival of the Plague. Many of the main characters are very similar to characters in the first book, and the story hangs around the building, or rebuilding of part of the Cathedral. In many regards the book tells a very similar story. World Without End is a sequel set a couple of centuries later, and it is a sequel very much in the same vein. Set in the fictional town of Kingsbridge it follows the trials and tribulations of a families as the town's Cathedral is built in the Middle Ages. Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth is one of the most popular novels around today - a blockbuster that grew famous through word of mouth and has now spawned a TV series and a computer game.

Gwenda world without end