Reddit reviews The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge)

There was hardly any leisure time on a country-side homestead. Even in the dead of winter, farmers had tasks to accomplish--mending clothing, cutting wood, cleaning root vegetables, milling grains and baking bread (very important), churning butter, healing the sick/elderly/young/wounded, patching the roof for leaks, keeping tools and weapons sharp and well-oiled, skinning whatever animals one happened to hunt. Mostly in-door work, but work nonetheless.

While I am not an expert on country life, my research on Spanish monastic life in urban settings (think Toledo and Seville) reveals that daily tasks for monks and nuns, particularly the ones that required one to remain quiet (like lace-making, very pretty) were regarded as an exercise in solitude, discipline, and communion with God.

I will give you an example of monastic rule, which encouraged austerity, hard work, and contemplation, especially during holidays. The Carmelites, whose rule by St. Albert (here is the multi-lingual Carmelite site) encouraged the above traits in the followers, including those not fully associated with the order.

>[10] Each one of you is to stay in his own cell or nearby, pondering the Lord's law day and night and keeping watch at his prayers unless attending to some other duty.

"Attending to some other duty" actually took up most of the day. Those duties were comprised of what we might call "domestic tasks." A lively portrayal of monastic "duties" can be seen in Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and Ken Follet's The Pillars of the Earth (for those that like their history with some drama).

The main raisin d'etre for the Carmelite reform in the 16th century, initiated by Teresa of Ávila & Co., resided in the leniency acquired by nuns and monks over the ages (think "you can eat meat only if you are sick" and then "we shall all be eating in the infirmary now"). She wanted a return to St. Albus' austerity and hard work. The woman and her followers travelled constantly, funding numerous convents per year, and you can imagine the administrative and bureaucratic mayhem involved in running a peninsular organization, with dozens of local chapters, without the resources more established (and non-stigmatized) orders had.

Why am I bringing Spanish monasticism in here, you ask? Well, seeing that your question was about labor on holidays, I wanted to give you one of the most religious communities as an example of "there is always work to do." Whether that work was motivated by an intense desire to serve a greater purpose, the domestic necessities of a cloistered community performing daily tasks, or the administrative demands inherent therein does not matter much. Even on "rest" days, like Christmas or Sunday, even the most religious had to work. How does a nun or a monk excuse this? Why, think about God in the meantime. San Juan de la Cruz says in his intro to "Subida al Monte Carmelo"

> Ni aun mi principal intento es hablar con todos, sino con algunas personas de nuestra sagrada Religión de los primitivos del Monte Carmelo, así frailes como monjas, por habérmelo ellos pedido, a quien Dios hace merced de meter en la senda deste Monte, los cuales, como ya están desnudos de las cosas temporales deste siglo, entenderán mejor la doctrina de la desnudez del espíritu (S Pro. 9, 366) (Jesús, Crisógono de. Vida y obras completas de San Juan de la Cruz. Ed. Madias del Niño Jesús and Lucino del Santísimo Sacramento. 5ta ed. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1964. Print.)

Translation/simplification: "it is not even my principal attempt to address everyone, but instead some people of our Sacred Religion of the primitives of Mount Carmel, friars as well as nuns, since they have asked it, for whom God in his mercy has placed on the road to the Mount, who, as they are already naked from temporal things of this age, will better understand the doctrine of nakedness of the spirit.

How does one "clean" the spirit from "temporal things" and make it ready for "out sacred Religion of the primitives of Mount Carmel"? According to Juan, a lot of HARD WORK. Not only physical tasks like walking barefoot from Seville to Granada to solve some issues with the local prior, but remaining humble, pacific, kind, compassionate, even though the world is cruel. Tough. Fucking. Work. I can hardly brush my teeth in the morning without quietly remarking that I would rather go back to sleep.

In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (which are the same thing. These people did not just wake up one day saying "well now this is going to be the rebirth of things that never died"--periodization sucks) peasants, urbanites, religious personnel, and, yes, even nobles always had something to do, though tasks might grow less strenuous with higher social status.







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For those who are interested, here is a bibliography for pertinent work philosophy in the time period we just talked about:

Aaron, N. Graca. Thought and Poetic Structure in San Juan de la Cruz's Symbol of the Night. New York: Peter Lang, 2005. Print.

Alonso, Dámaso. La Poesía de San Juan de la Cruz (desde esta ladera). Valencia: Tipografía Artística, 1958. Print.

Aquino, Tomás de. Summa Theologiae. Ed. Enrique Alarcón Alarcón. N.p., n.d. Corpus Thomisticum. Universidad de Navarra, 2011. Web. 5 May 2012. <http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/iopera.html>.

Aristóteles. On the Soul. Trans. J. A. Smith. N.p., n.d. The Internet Classics Archive. Ed. Daniel Stevenson. Massachuets Institute of Technology, 2009. Web. 5 May 2012. <http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/soul.html>.

Agustín. De Genesi ad Litteram libri duodecim. N.p., n.d. Convento Agostiniano della Basilica di San Nicola da Tolentino, 31 Jan. 2010. Web. 5 May 2012. <www.augustinus.it>.

Baruzi, Jean. San Juan de la Cruz y el problema de la experiencia mística. 2nd ed. Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 2001. Print.

Bryne, Susan. El Corpus Hermeticum y tres poetas españoles: Francisco de Aldana, fray Luis de León y San Juan de la Cruz. Conexiones léxicas y semánticas entre la filosofía hermética y la poesía española del siglo. Newark: Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs, 2007. Print.

Campbell, Thomas. "Blessed Albert." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 10 May 2012 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01261a.htm>.

Chapman, John. "Doctors of the Church." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 10 May 2012 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05075a.htm>.

Cuevas García, Cristóbal. "Aspectos teóricos de la poesía de San Juan de la Cruz." Edad de Oro 11 (1992): 29-42. Web. 28 Apr. 2012. <http://bib.cervantesvirtual.com/FichaObra.html?Ref=39676&portal=291>.

Delgado Gómez, Ángel. "Introducción." Cartas de relación. Ed. Hernán Cortés. Madrid: Castalia, 1993. 9-72. Print.

Di Camillo, Ottavio. El humanismo castellano del siglo XV. Valencia: Fernando Torres, 1976. Print.

Ficino, Marsilio, trans. Corpus Hermeticum. Mercurii Trismegisti Poemander, seu de Potestate ac sapientia divina. Aesculapii definitiones ad Ammonen Regem. Paris: Adrien Turnebe, 1554. Print.

Ficino, Marsilio. Three Books on Life. Ed. Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark. Binghamton: The Renaissance Sopciety of America, 1989. Print.

Howells, Edawrd. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. Mystical Knowing and Selfhood. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2002. Print.

Jesús, Crisógono de. Vida y obras completas de San Juan de la Cruz. Ed. Madias del Niño Jesús and Lucino del Santísimo Sacramento. 5ta ed. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1964. Print.

Lerner, Isaías. "La visión humanística de América: Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo." Las Indias (América) en la literatura del Siglo de Oro. Ed. Ignacio Arellano. Kassel: Edition Reichenberger, 1992. 3-22. Print.

Moliner, Jose Maria. San Juan de la Cruz. Su presencia mistica y su escuela poetica. Madrid: Ediciones Palabra, 1991. Print.

Padron, Ricardo. The Spacious Word. Cartography, Literature, and empire in Early Modern Spain. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Print.

Plato. The Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. N.p., n.d. The Internet Classics Archive. Ed. Daniel Stevenson. Massachuets Institute of Technology, 2009. Web. 4 May 2012. <http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.html>.

Sanson, Henri. El espíritu humano según San Juan de la Cruz. Trans. Candido Cimadevilla. Madrid: Ediciones Rialp, 1962. Print.

Shumaker, Wayne. The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance. A Study of Intellectual Patterns. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972. Print.

Vega, Garcilaso de la. Obra poética y textos en prosa. Ed. Bienvenido Morros. Barcelona: Editorial Critica, 2001. Print.

Vercelli, Alberto de. "Regla "primitiva" de la Orden de la Bienaventurada Virgen María del Monte Carmelo, dada por San Alberto, patriarca de Jerusalén, y confirmada por Inocencio IV." Orden Carmelitos Descalzos. Curia General del Carmelo Teresiano. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 May 2012. <http://www.carmelitaniscalzi.com/index.php>.

Zimmerman, Benedict. "Salmanticenses and Complutenses." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 1 May 2012 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13401c.htm>.

. "St. John of the Cross." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 1 May 2012 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08480a.htm>.

. "The Carmelite Order." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 1 May 2012 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03354a.htm>.

"Pillars of the Earth" is about the masons who made castles and cathedrals. Historical Fiction but gripping read.

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet

It is staggeringly good, epic in the true sense of the word, and during reading it you're going to experience a whole range of emotions and feel a true connection with many of the characters. There were several points in the book where I found myself despising the villains. And not just "they're bad people" but actually venomously hating them as if they were real flesh-and-blood. Hating them as people, not just as characters in a book.

Try Fall Of Giants by Ken Follett. It's the first in a planned trilogy that starts around the outbreak of World War I and will end around present day.

I also read Pillars Of The Earth, also by Ken Follett, and really enjoyed it. There's a sequel to it called World Without End that I've yet to read.

Pillars of the Earth

Pillars of the Earth!!! One of my favorites!

No dragons or any of that sci-fi shit just an amazing story about a stonemason's life building a cathedral. Please check it out and report back to me when he's finished.

I re-read Louis L'Amour's series "The Sacketts" about every 3 years (link here).

I also re-read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet (link here) every 2 years or so.

If you like How to Kill a Mockingbird, you should like other classics like The Pillars of the Earth or Grapes of Wrath. But sometimes it's good to take a break from fiction entirely and read a good biography or science book.

I just finished The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. Highly recommended.

http://www.steamcommunity.com/id/zipeater

I love historical fiction as well - these may not meet the romance criteria, but they are interesting and entertaining. They are some of the more gender-neutral historical fiction books I have enjoyed - I usually stray towards military historical ficiton.

The Physician by Noah Gordon

The Sand Reckoner by Gillian Bradshaw

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

I'm glad you asked! I know you said you like American and more modern history but I'm going to suggest something from a little bit further back.

One of my personal favorites is "A Conspiracy of Paper" by David Liss. It's set in the 1700s in London so it's not too extreme of a culture shift and it's an action/mystery novel that I couldn't put down. It's also really well researched and has a lot of history about one of the earliest stock markets in the world.

http://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-Paper-Ballantine-Readers-Circle/dp/0804119120/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_b

If you're feeling a little more bold, check out Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. It's set in the 12th century and it traces the growth of a town into a city over about 100 years. If you like fantasy as a genre, this might be more your thing and it is also has a lot of history about what life was like during the Middle Ages and its a cool mystery/drama to boot.

http://www.amazon.com/Pillars-Earth-Ken-Follett/dp/045123281X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331181793&sr=1-1

Lastly, this is less historical and more of a just a really good read but check out The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. It's a collection of war stories from Vietnam and really gets you into the mindset of what it was like to fight over there and then come home. I read it years ago and loved it.

http://www.amazon.com/Things-They-Carried-Tim-OBrien/dp/0618706410/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331181955&sr=1-1

Let me know if you end up liking any of these! Everyone has different tastes so you may find something else you like better but these are the first three that popped into my head.

Don't worry too much about Catch-22, it's a bit of an odd book.


The key is finding books that interest you, since that will give you the incentive to continue reading them. My son loved stories but didn't care for reading. I'd read him books at or above his reading level and then, just when we got to a really good part, close the book (with a book mark) and leave it with him. "Lights out in 15 minutes -- you can read a bit more if you like, but I have to help Mom with the dishes." Worked like a charm.


There have been a lot of recommendations for Tolkien, which is great, but there are a lot of other good books out there. Take a look at Tom Clancy's earlier books, like Hunt for Red October, for good spy novels.


Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth is a great story that's very readable, and you'll pick up a good bit of history and architecture along the way.

I would also suggest cross-posting this to r/booksuggestions.

Also, I love historical fiction so a few of my recommendations:

• A - Aztec
  
• B - Book Thief, The
  
• F - First Man in Rome
  
• P - Pillars of the Earth, The

You might like this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Pillars-Earth-Ken-Follett/dp/045123281X