Books Like “The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett

An unforgettable fresco of a golden age in fourteenth-century Barcelona, Cathedral of the Sea is a thrilling historical novel of friendship and revenge, plague and hope, love and war.

Arnau Estanyol arrives in Barcelona to find a city dominated by the construction of the city's great pride--the cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar--and by its shame, the deadly Inquisition. As a young man, Arnau joins the powerful guild of stoneworkers and helps to build the church with his own hands, while his best friend and adopted brother Joanet studies to become a priest.

With time, Arnau prospers and falls secretly in love with a forbidden woman. But when he is betrayed and hauled before the Inquisitor, he finds himself face-to-face with Joanet. Will he lose his life just as his beloved Cathedral of the Sea is finally completed, or will his brother save him?

In this novel, Sharon Kay Penman brings to life a dark period in English history, painting a canvas rich in the textures and colors of the era. Here is the pain and suffering of the innocents, the conniving and duplicity of the barons; here is the terrible reality of lawlessness - the burning towns, ravaged countryside, weary people. But above all, here are two extraordinary adversaries: A woman whose courage outran her common sense, who found that her skirts bound her more tightly than any rope. And a man of inordinate charm, as valiant in battle as he was able in friendship - but a man whose life was based on a broken oath and a treacherous lie, tragic flaws that would destroy him.
Beginning as friends, they ended in the bitterest enmity, their bloodiest wounds self-inflicted. And if Stephen lost the crown, Maude would never wear it.
But in a final irony for both, Maude would indeed be the mother of kings, for it was her eldest, Henry, who would establish the Plantagenet dynasty and, with Eleanor of Aquitaine, electrify the medieval world.

The towering story of five families through 100 centuries of turmoil, tyranny, passion and prosperity from Edward Rutherfurd, the author of London, Russka and New York.
In a novel of extraordinary richness the whole sweep of British civilisation unfolds through the story of one place, Salisbury, from beyond recorded time to the present day. The landscape - as old as time itself - shapes the destinies of the five families.
The Wilsons and the Shockleys, locked in a cycle of revenge and rivalry for more than 400 years. The Masons, who pour their inspired love of stone into the creation of Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral. The Porters, descended from a young Roman soldier in exile. And the aristocratic Norman Godefrois, who will fall to the very bottom of the social ladder before their fortunes revive.

There were three sorts of people. Those who ran, those who stayed, and those who were built in.

A Penguin Classic

Set in medieval England, The Spire tells the story of one man’s vision—the construction of an enormous spire onto a cathedral without foundations. Believing himself to be chosen by God, Jocelin, dean of the cathedral, insists that the spire must rise higher and higher. Told with an inventive narration that reflects Jocelin’s ever-increasing madness, The Spire is an astonishing portrait of obsession, betrayal, and arrogance. Jocelin’s vision produces terrible consequences for those around him; the human cost of one man’s folly.

After Lord of the Flies, William Golding wrote novels that further explored the complexities of human nature, not only social tendencies but the psychological underpinnings of human consciousness. This edition provides a Suggestions for Further Exploration section that identifies key themes throughout Golding’s novels—including The Spire, first published in 1964—and connections to classic and contemporary fiction, nonfiction, film, and television.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.