The Pillars of the Earth

By: Ken Follett

Narrated by: Richard E. Grant

Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known...of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect - a man divided in his soul...of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame...and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state, and brother against brother.

A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of 12th-century England, this is Ken Follett's historical masterpiece.

©1989 Ken Follett (P)2007 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.

Critic reviews

"Wonderful . . . will hold you, fascinate you, surround you." (Chicago Sun-Times)

"Follett is a master." (The Washington Post)

"Ken Follett takes a giant step." (San Francisco Chronicle)

Excellent Historical Novel of the 12th Century

Follett weaves a clever story dealing with church, state, and the people of 12th century England during the time of King Henry and Thomas Beckett. It's a fun, but scary ride back to the Middle Ages where the peasants are at the mercy of the sovereign, and justice moves slowly.

Great Book

Beautifully written and narrated. One of my favorites yet.

Not as good as the book

This was one of my favorite books and I was looking forward to listening to the story again. Sadly, the story was edited to the point that it was mutilated. The reader was quite good but he couldn’t fix the story.

Powerfull Story - 10 hour version

This is a quality story about people. Struggle, intrigue, politics, character - it has it all. One of Follet's best.
Not religious. I recommend it - you will not want to turn your car off.

Reader Tries To Hard

Love the book but the reader here tries to hard to distinguish between the characters.

Takes you on a journey

This book takes you in a journey of love, lost, happiness, triumph, trials, tribulations, sadness, victory, infact humanity. It also gives us a glimpse into the power struggle between the crown and church. However, I believe that performance captured the characters to the core which brought the characters to live. it made so vivid and real. A great listen, you won't be disappointed.

Warning...this version is abridged!!!

It's fine. I enjoyed listening to it except...it kept skipping large sections of the book. I've read the book at least twice, once in hard cover and once in the Kindle edition. I thought there was something wrong...that my phone was playing it after I disconnected my bluetooth devices from it. Anyway, I went to buy the Audible version of World Without End and that's when I realized there are two versions; one abridged, one not. I don't see anywhere in the description where it says this is abridged. Perhaps I missed it. I think it's a disservice to Mr. Follett that it isn't clearly marked on audible.com. That said I love the narrator. He did a great job and I wish he had also done the unabridged version. I don't know if I could have really followed what was happening had I not read the whole book before listening to the this version. Maybe so, maybe not. I just wanted people to be aware of the two versions on Audible. That's why three stars for Overall.

Richard E. Grant is a Great Storyteller

Yes, Ken Follett wrote the novel but Richard E. Grant is the one who tells the story and he does so marvelously well, bringing characters and scenes to life in such an engaging way. He rivals the reader of the Harry Potter books for his ability to give each character their own voices. I could hardly bring myself to turn the novel off!

Am now off to look for the other books read by Richard E. Grant.

I loved it!

I had read this book many years ago, but the Audible version is possibly even better.

Pillars is one of the great Historical Novel, abridged into mediocrity

Who ever undertook the task of shortening Ken Follet’s Crowning Achievement had a nearly impossible assignment and did not succeed. Some of what was left out was not significant but leaving out much of the Evil done by William Hamlegh and the rise of the Earldom under Alina made the final scenes hollow at best!