Kingsbridge, the – fictional – city of his worldwide success “The Pillars of the Earth”, doesn’t let Ken Follett go. The author must have said to himself that there are other eras.
Anyone who believes that historiography has to be dry and boring has probably never been more wrong. For best-selling British author Ken Follett, history is a goldmine. With his new work, the British best-selling author returns to one of the most historic places in England – which doesn’t even exist: Kingsbridge.
Follett invented the city for his historical novel “The Pillars of the Earth”, a global success by which the author himself has had to be measured ever since. “The Weapons of Light” is the fifth novel in the series – a real Follett with weaknesses but also new strengths.
One of the book’s crucial sentences comes almost in passing: “Because of this senseless war, Amos thought, we are barely able to earn a living. And the workers are becoming more and more desperate.” This describes the time in which the new book is set – the war against Napoleon Bonaparte is raging, at the same time industrialization is gaining momentum, the nobility and rich citizens fear for their privileges and the workers are fighting for education and the right to their own opinion.
But the sentence also makes it clear that the Brit sees history as a lesson for today, in which a new war is raging in Europe, greed for money and growing poverty are dividing society, political decisions are incomprehensible for many people and the churches are always become more meaningless.
Class struggle and industrialization
Follett describes how ordinary people begin to revolt, form their first trade unions and work against a government that obviously wants to keep workers down with its legislation. Unlike the classic “The Pillars of the Earth”, the events in the new book do not take place within a human lifetime, but rather over a few years, approximately between 1792 and 1815.
It is a time of class struggles and industrialization: machines replace manual labor, plunge families into misery, while many manufacturers do not want to have any responsibility. The spinner Sal Clitheroe, her son Kit, cloth merchant Amos Barrowfield and the weaver David Shoveller stand against oppression and fight to impart knowledge to ordinary people.
“Aren’t we all dismayed when innocent people are killed for idiotic reasons?” Follett once asked. Because for poor people, oppression continues even in court. But the war that is affecting all of Europe is increasingly becoming the focus.
Follett is always strong when he can tell stories and create images in his readers’ minds. The daily lives of the poor farmers and textile workers, their misery, the struggle for survival, but also the economic hardship of small businessmen and manufacturers, all of this is described in such detail and color, as if Follett had experienced the long-gone era himself. The reason: The historical novel is meticulously researched – it’s not without reason that Follett thanks his team at the end.
The Battle of Waterloo
He is also fascinated by special inventions, such as spinning machines or looms powered by steam engines. This fascination carries over throughout the book, as was the case with the cathedral in “The Pillars of the Earth.” But the cathedral itself only plays a minor role in the new book.
In the meantime, Follett also allows for nuances in the figure drawing, which was not always the case in the past: The evil one, a cloth manufacturer from Kingsbridge, is not only evil, but completely human in his love for his grandson.
But towards the end, around the Battle of Waterloo, it becomes clear that the true story, which only forms the framework of the plot, threatens to overwhelm the author’s fictional story. Follett follows the course of the battle with fascination, the back and forth of the battle, the roar of cannons, the deaths of countless people, the much blood shed. Although he tries to weave his characters into the real story, this only succeeds with a lot of effort and often seems artificial. Basically he is writing an – easy to read – history book here.
– Ken Follett: The Weapons of Light. Bastei Lübbe, Cologne, 880 pages, EUR 36.00, ISBN: 978-3-7577-0006-5.