Book+reviews


 * THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH**

The Pillars of the Earth was written in the early 90’s by Ken Follet a famous Welsh author of thrillers and historical movies: this book was listed at No. 33 on the BBC’s Big Read in 2003 which was an attempt to find the “nation’s best loved book”. As many have mentioned, this masterpiece is regarded as a real page turner that leaves you utterly satisfied and enriched with its combination of love, pride, lust, humility, ambition and so on.

The Pillars of the Earth tells a story which takes place in Feudal England in the 12th century. A humble monk, who is a prior at a monastery in Kingsbridge (an unreal English town), has ambitions to build the greatest cathedral in England, the writer leads the reader to explore the lives of the characters who are involved in this construction so that all the characters are interconnected in some way. Dreams, labours and love of the main characters such as Tom (The master builder), Alliena (the young noblewoman), Philip (The prior of Kingsbridge) and Ellen (The woman in the forest) are brought vividly to life.

The environment of the old England which is full of castles, monasteries, vast forests gives to the story a touch of realism. However, it is a bit lengthy (900 pages) to go through and the description of the cathedral’s construction may be a little bit boring for some to follow. To conclude, The Pillars of the Earth is the type of book that ties up all the loose ends, an enormous work worthy of appreciation and applauses and it is without doubt the best choice for those who are passionate about historical fiction books. Once you have finished it, you will end up thinking that a thousand pages are still not enough.

**// Natalia Cifuentes Ayala //**

**Round the World in Eighty Days**

Round the World in Eighty Days is a classic book written by Jules Verne in 1873.The book was translated to English by H.E palmer. Basically, this book is about an adventure made by an English man around the world, in 1872.

The plot of the book is based on short and quick journey travelled by Phileas Fogg ,a resident of London along with his French servant named Passepartout in 1872. Mr Fogg bets with his friends at a Reform club that he can travel the world exactly in eighty days. Then, he starts his journey from London, together with his new servant Passepartout .While travelling through The Suez,India,Singapoor,Hongkong and America they have to face many dangers ,obstacles and unexpected delays .Mr Fix ,a detective of the British government tries to stop them everywhere so that he can arrest Mr Fogg ,who was suspected of being a thief. However, eventually ,Mr Fogg was able to win the bet and he happily gets married with an women named Aouda whom he had rescued from a Suttee while travelling through India.

Actually, the book is a mix of many interesting events that the travellers experienced on the journey .Every chapter has a twist in story that make s the book more compelling. Furthermore, it is really packed with various cultural, geographical and environmental information, which is very interesting.

Although, the book has many good aspects, the story looks like a bit more imaginary that is hard to believe. Another difficult aspect of the book is that it is too classic.

However, the book is well written and entertaining and some stories inside it are really touching. All in all it’s a great piece of literature.
 * Jamuna **