Oh, I feel I should point out (not that it’ll be any surprise) that as with most historical dramas, they’re playing fast and loose with some of the details here. Not: ‘um, no, fathers and daughters really shouldn’t be hooking up, honeypie, why don’t you go play with your dolls or something and dream of a future non-relative husband?’ Doubly creepy is her father’s answer-that’s nice, sweetie, but he wouldn’t have time to grow up before I die. Creepy! And also, not a scene in the book, so the writers, for whatever reason, just stuck that in there for no apparent reason other than to make viewers’ flesh crawl. At this point, the little girl pipes up, volunteering to marry Henry (who is, by the way, her father) and have his baby boy. Dude, it’s not like he had a force field around him to protect him from disasters at sea. “Not even my son?” Henry asks incredulously. The bishop speculates about the cause of the accident-hidden rock? Storm? Who knows? Although-a storm that sets a ship on fire? Well, I guess if it was struck by lightening… Whatever, I think the general historical consensus is hidden rock. A bishop in bright purple is breaking the bad news about the ship to the King, who’s sitting on a dais with a little blonde girl playing at his feet. (Not Yet Bishop) Waleran moseys into the throne room, where he takes up a position beside a woman with a birthmark on her face and a baby in her arms. Welcome to Winchester! Home of Jane Austen’s grave, the longest cathedral in Europe, and King Henry I’s court. This led to a long and crappy period of British history known as the Anarchy. This would be the famous White Ship Disaster, for all of you dying to run to Wikipedia and look it up. Oh, and in case we’re slow, we’re told that it caught fire and sank off the coast of England. Now we get some info-apparently this ship was carrying the only legitimate heir to the English throne. On an unrelated note, I’m pretty sure this exact “people screaming” soundtrack was used on a Titanic video game I used to play a lot. We break the surface to the sound of screams and wails and see a large, impressive ship spectacularly flaming out. Yes, folks, it’s 1120, and the royal booze cruise has officially begun to suck.
We open underwater, where the peace is rather rudely punctuated by the odd sight of a helmet on the Channel floor, then a sword slicing down, followed by a few bodies, some jewelry, and assorted pieces of human flotsam and jetsam. If they’d cast James Frain, I think my brain would have just melted. Nice to see Rufus finally playing a good guy. Plus, as an added bonus, they threw Rufus Sewell in as Tom Builder, upping my excited squealing to deafening levels. I figured seeing Al-freaking-Swearengen as Bishop Waleran (AWESOME casting) and Matthew McFayden as Prior Philip alone was worth the $10 a month I’ll be shelling out for the next eight weeks or so. So when I heard that it was finally being turned into a 10-part miniseries starring some of my favorite British Isles actors, I raced to add Starz to our cable package for the duration of the series. However, once you get past that part (or skip it, as I’ve done on subsequent readings), it’s a really good book, which I’ve enjoyed numerous times over the years and yearned to see on screen somewhere.
I don’t think I’ll recommend it to any 13-year-old girls I know. That’s the other reason I remember this book quite well.
And the many less graphic but still mind-warping and paranoia-creating rape scenes that follow. I can only assume that she forgot the rather graphic rape scene that figures prominently in the story.
I was 13 when I picked this novel up, at the suggestion of my mother. First, it was one of the first really “adult” books I ever read (and by “adult”, I mean book for adults, not that this is porn. I read this book several years ago, but it’s always stood out in my mind, for a few reasons. Pillars of the Earth, how I have missed thee.