![the pillars of the earth the pillars of the earth](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51MGShD+ENL.jpg)
And, as others have mentioned, the long graphic rape scenes were just disgusting. These characters talk and think like 20th Century Americans, not medieval Europeans. People in the 12th Century just didn't think this way. The endless talk about all people wanting "freedom" from kings or noble overlords is equally absurd.This kind of thinking comes from the 18th Century Enlightenment.
![the pillars of the earth the pillars of the earth](http://www.armchairanglophile.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/haley_atwell-aliena-Pillars-of-the-Earth4.jpg)
The entire concept of atheism would have been completely incomprehensible to the medieval mind. NO ONE in the middle ages did not believe in God. For example, there are characters who say they don't believe in God. But anyone who thinks they are getting a genuine understanding of the medieval world is being sadly misled. Maybe I'm too picky about this, since my undergraduate degree was in the history of medieval England. The characters do no behave or have world views that are remotely like people of the middle ages.
#The pillars of the earth series
The plot consists of an endless series of contrived catastrophes which befall the good people, usually at the hands of the bad people, with no apparent point other than to prolong the book. And there is no one in between - the place real human beings inhabit. The characters are cardboard and cartoonish.
![the pillars of the earth the pillars of the earth](https://images.gog-statics.com/8ba45d18970aae0fa4b97fa204af52d8fe1326278c2fba64d706eebe68b247a0_product_card_v2_mobile_slider_639.jpg)
I am astonished at all the great reviews of this book.