Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy #1)

Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy #1)

by Ken Follett
Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy #1)

Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy #1)

by Ken Follett

Paperback(Mass Market Paperback - International edition)

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Overview

Ken Follett’s magnificent new historical epic begins, as five interrelated families move through the momentous dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women’s suffrage.

A thirteen-year-old Welsh boy enters a man’s world in the mining pits.…An American law student rejected in love finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson’s White House.… A housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with a German spy.…And two orphaned Russian brothers embark on radically different paths when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution.

From the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty, Fall of Giants takes us into the inextricably entangled fates of five families—and into a century that we thought we knew, but that now will never seem the same again.…


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780451232854
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 09/04/2012
Series: The Century Trilogy , #1
Edition description: International edition
Pages: 960
Sales rank: 202,467
Product dimensions: 4.20(w) x 6.80(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

About The Author

Ken Follett was twenty-seven when he wrote Eye of the Needle, an award-winning thriller that became an international bestseller. After several more successful thrillers, he surprised everyone with Pillars of the Earth, about the building of a cathedral in the Middle Ages, which continues to captivate readers all over the world. Its long-awaited sequel, World Without End, was a national and international bestseller. Follett's new magnificent historical epic, The Century Trilogy, opened with the bestselling Fall of Giants, which introduced readers to five interrelated families navigating the 20th century. He lives in England with his wife, Barbara Follett.

Hometown:

Hertfordshire, England

Date of Birth:

June 5, 1949

Place of Birth:

Cardiff, Wales

Education:

B.A. in Philosophy, University College, London, 1970

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER TWO
(Continues…)



Excerpted from "Fall of Giants"
by .
Copyright © 2011 Ken Follett.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher


“Follett is masterly in conveying so much drama and historical information so vividly…grippingly told.”—The New York Times Book Review

Fall of Giants is classic Follett.”—USA Today

“Follett conjures the winds of war.”—The Washington Post

“Grand in scope, scale, and story.”—The Associated Press

“A suspenseful epic.”—The Seattle Times

“Tantalizing.”—Newsday

“Fascinating, in a big way.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Reading Group Guide

INTRODUCTION

Fall of Giants is his magnificent new historical epic. The first novel in The Century Trilogy, it follows the fates of five interrelated families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—as they move through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage.

Thirteen-year-old Billy Williams enters a man's world in the Welsh mining pits… Gus Dewar, an American law student rejected in love, finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson's White House… two orphaned Russian brothers, Grigori and Lev Peshkov, embark on radically different paths half a world apart when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution… Billy's sister, Ethel, a housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts, takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German embassy in London…

These characters and many others find their lives inextricably entangled as, in a saga of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, Fall of Giants moves seamlessly from Washington to St. Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty. As always with Ken Follett, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. It is destined to be a new classic.

In future volumes of The Century Trilogy, subsequent generations of the same families will travel through the great events of the rest of the twentieth century, changing themselves—and the century itself. With passion and the hand of a master, Follett brings us into a world we thought we knew, but now will never seem the same again.

 


ABOUT KEN FOLLETT

Ken Follett is the author of seventeen bestsellers, from the groundbreaking Eye of the Needle, and is one of the world's most popular novelists. He has sold approximately 90 million books. He lives in England with his wife, Barbara.

 


DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
  • Before reading Fall of Giants, what did you know about World War I? Did you learn anything new upon finishing the novel?
  • Is there a custom or practice from the book's early twentieth-century time period that you wish existed in our modern day? What would it be, and why do you think it should have a place in today's world?
  • Is it significant that Fall of Giants begins with the stories of Billy and Ethel Williams? Would the novel have been different if other characters' stories opened the book, such as those of Grigori and Lev Peshkov, or Gus Dewar?
  • Talk about the historical figures that appear throughout Fall of Giants, such as Woodrow Wilson, King George V, Vladimir Lenin, and others. What did you think of Ken Follett's depiction of them? Do you like seeing notable people such as these come alive in fiction, or do you prefer reading about them in a strictly historical context?
  • When you first read about Billy Williams in chapter one, did you anticipate how his life would unfurl—for example, that he would end up in running for Parliament? What about other characters: Could you guess what some of them would end up doing or being at the book's end?
  • Do you enjoy reading epic novels such as this one? What makes them so appealing to readers, in your opinion?
  • In continuation of the above question, if you had to identify one of the main characters' stories as one that would make a good "stand-alone" novel, which would it be? Why do you think his/her story would make an enjoyable book on its own?
  • Think about the main characters and what place faith held in their lives. Did religion help or hinder their respective circumstances? What is the overall role of religion in Fall of Giants?
  • Along these lines, discuss the characters who abandoned their respective faiths. What caused them to walk away from their beliefs? To what end?
  • Follett depicts life in the early twentieth century through a series of detailed and imagery-rich scenes: the pitch-darkness of a Welsh coal mine, the opulence of an English country manor, the austerity of pre-industrial Russia, the horrors of a French battlefield. Which scenes stood out for you? Why did they make such an impression?
  • Follett writes from the vantage points of people whose home countries come to the brink of—and finally enter into—a world war. What was it like to read the perspectives of enemies as they embark on battle with one another? Did you find yourself taking sides in any way? Did reading about World War I through fiction cause you to think differently about the conflict?
  • Follett populates this novel with several strong female characters. Compare/contrast some of them; who was your favorite? Which one did you like least? Apply the same question to the book's male figures. When considering those of different backgrounds and social classes, were any of the male figures similar to one another?
  • Discuss Maud and Ethel's relationship. Did you expect them to form such a lasting bond, considering they met as mistress and servant? What did you think of the circumstances surrounding how their friendship ultimately dissolved?
  • Also contemplate Ethel and Maud's work as women's rights advocates. Were there aspects of each woman's personal life that seemed at odds with her commitment to advancing the cause of women?
  • Go back to the Aberowen mine explosion in chapter two. Do you think it's a metaphor for any of the novel's themes? How do things change in Aberowen, and elsewhere, after this disaster?
  • Discuss examples of the disparity between how women and men were treated during this era. Were women regarded better, or worse, than you imagined they'd be? How far have women come since the early 1900s? What inequalities between the sexes still persist today?
  • Think about the ways the main characters' lives intersected throughout the book. Were there any characters that didn't meet over the entirety of the novel that you wished did? Who, and why?
  • What did you think of Earl Fitzherbert at the beginning of Fall of Giants? How did he evolve as a man throughout the course of the narrative? Did your opinion of Fitz change from your initial impression of him?
  • Consider the book's title. Who or what are the "giants" of the story? How did they fall?
  • What did you think of the book's ending? Did the author succeed in wrapping up the many threads and strands in Fall of Giants? Which of the characters in Fall of Giants do you expect to be reading about in books two and three of The Century Trilogy?

Interviews

What was the motivation for following five different families, as opposed to a single family in the Century Trilogy.
I wanted my characters to be involved in all the major upheavals of the century—wars, revolutions, riots, and so on. It was quite difficult to achieve this with only five families. With one it would have been impossible.

When do you expect readers to see the last book?
Autumn 2014, if I finish it in time.

How was writing about the two World Wars different? Did it require changing gears to write about one versus the other. Was one more interesting to you?
We think of the Second World War as a crusade against evil, and no one is in any doubt about who the good and bad guys are. World War One is different: there are no good or bad guys, and our question is: How did we let this happen?

How many of your books have been adapted for film? Which was your favorite film? And do you have any favorite actors in those films?
I was very pleased with the movie of Eye of the Needle. The miniseries of The Pillars of the Earth is also terrific. Donald Sutherland was in both! I'm looking forward to seeing the miniseries of World Without End this autumn.

In Pillars of the Earth, you immerse the reader in the role of cathedrals in society. Does that interest date from your childhood, or did you come to in later in life?
Later. Like many youngsters I never looked at the buildings around me. In my twenties I started to be curious about buildings in general and cathedrals in particular. While studying cathedral architecture I began to read about the people who built these huge churches. Around the same time I was trying to make it as a novelist, and pretty soon I had the idea of writing a novel about building a cathedral.

What your favorite band? And what's the name of your band?
Lately I've been listening to the Black Keys, a guitar band with vocal harmonies, which is what I like best. I play bass in Damn Right I Got The Blues, which is an amateur blues-rock band made up of people like me who have a career and don't want to be in the music business except for fun. I play occasionally in a folk-rock band called Clog Iron.

And have you met the Queen?
Yes. She shook my hand and said nothing.

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