In the Beginning

The Pillars of the Earth is an international bestseller and has been recommended by many people. It was even on Oprah's Booklist. The author, Kent Follett, has written other bestselling books, such as On Wings of Eagles, but The Pillars of the Earth is his most successful yet. The book is about the time period when gothic cathedrals were just being built. Medieval England is in temporary tranquility after the death of King Henry, but trouble is coming in the foreseeable future. There is controversy over who will take the throne, and a civil war is brewing. The main charcters of this story are a mason named Tom Builder, and a monk named Philip. They both have to deal with the hardships of the times including poverty, politics, and the bad decisions of those in power.

Tom, his pregnant wife Agnes, their daughter Martha, and son Alfred start out wandering from town to town, looking for work. Eventually, as they move through a forest, Agnes needs to stop because her water broke. She is forced to give birth in the middle of the forest in the cold winter air. Tom and the children try everything they can, but Agnes dies while giving birth, although the baby lives. The three remaining family members are forced to leave the boy in the woods because he will die without milk from his mother. Eventually they learn that a monk picked up the baby and brought him to a nearby monastery. Tom leaves the baby there because he knows the monks will tkae good care of his son, and the boy will grow up to become a monk, which most people must pay to have happen for their sons. Tom then finds a woman named Ellen, who he falls in love with and wants to marry. Ellen has a son, Jack, and the two join Tom and his two children. They travel for weeks, and many days have to go without food, for there isno money to buy food with. Eventually Tom finds work at a castle where he is hired to improve the building, work in a quarry, and hopefully earn enough to support his family. Soon after his hiring, however, the castle is attacked and taken by a wealthy family called the Hamleighs. When the battle is over, the Hamleighs control the castle, Earl Bartholemew has surrendered, and Tom is once more out of work. He plans to travel to Kingbridge hoping to find work on the cathedral there. I think Ellen and Tom will try to get married at the Kingsbridge cathedral, but someone there won't let them. It seems that Ellen has been to Kingsbridge priory before, and she had reason to be apprehensive about returning.

Philip is a monk who has live nearly his entire life in monasteries. He is currently running for election to be the Prior of Kingsbridge. This would make him the top ranking monk in the entire county, and would give him the power to reform the declining cathedral and the priory as well. He is the priorof a small cell of Kingsbridge, St-John-in-the-Forest, which was full of undisciplined monks, and had dilapidated old buildings. He immediately set about reforming the small priory and the land around it. Now in just a few short years the cell that was once dependent on Kingsbridge for food was supplying Kingsbridge with food, goods, and more.

I think Philip will become Prior of Kingsbridge because of large support from the monks of Kingsbridge and the support of the bishop's archdeacon, Waleran Bigod. Remigius, the other candidate, will try to rebel and build his own group against Philip after the election is over to try an maintain his power. I also think that Philip and Tom Builder will meet at Kingsbridge because Philip will need people to repair the cathedral there, and that Tom will have a chance to work and to see his son that was left with the monks at the cell called St-John-in-the-Forest. If Tom tells Jonathan, his lost son, that he was left for dead, then the monks found him, how will Jonathan view his father?I think the relationship would be ruined and Tom would never come to know his son. Tom should wait until Jonathan is an adult, then Jonathan will be able to appreciate the pressures put on his father. So far this story has set the stage for complex character relationships, an intricate plot, and has already given a lot of excitement and surprises. It has lived up to the praise of others and my own expectations, and hopefully will continue to develop into a great story.