Customer Reviews

The Man from St. Petersburg

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This story is set London in early 1914 as Germany was mobilizing and war was inevitable to those that history would prove astute. France was in peril even if England assisted, and the British Empire itself would be at risk if the Germans prevailed. So, The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Winston Churchill of the Liberal government, armed with a note from King George, convinces The (conservative) Earl of Walden to negotiate a secret treaty with his wife's nephew, Alex Orlov, also nephew to the Czar, for Russia to enter into the fray. The anarchists learn of this plot however, and Feliks, The Man from St. Petersburg, has five pounds sterling and a determination to assassinate Alex Orlov on English soil.

This story is rich with the history that bored us in school, that stuff about Victorian pomp and starving Russian peasants floundering for a new political order, the prelude to communism. Follett gives us a sense of the debauchery bred from wealth and privilege, and the desperation born of inhumanities in an era gone by. He introduces us to men threatened by women's suffrage, others terrorized of government, and through them, we better understand why society changed, or perhaps mutated. That stuff is woven seamlessly into a story of intrigue without long speeches or tedious lectures. We get our lesson without having to take notes.

My only quarrel is Follett's propensity to interrupt with back-story, once with back-story within back-story if I'm not mistaken. It's a minor irritation though, one scratch and it's gone, because we are more worried about how his characters are going to sort out the mess they're in. And in the end, you're going to believe The Man from St. Petersburg might have been.

Like all of Follet's novels, `The Man from St. Petersburg' is a page turner and worth picking up if you like a good historical adventure. That being said, however, this novel is not that great when compared to `Eye of The Needle', `The Key to Rebecca' and his masterpiece `The Pillars of The Earth.' Follet is a good and sometimes great writer. The problem I find with his writing is that sometimes he edits down to 300 pages what would be a great-classic epic of 1500 pages (i.e., like `Pillars of the Earth'). Sometimes the shorter form works (i.e., `Eye Of The Needle' and `Key to Rebecca' where the action is close to real time), but sometimes he shortchanges himself and the reader (i.e., `Man From St. Petersburg' and `Place called Freedom') by limiting his scope and range to be under a certain number of pages. I don't know if this is a publishing thing or what?

If given more room for characters and historical detail, Follet gives us classic epic novels like `Pillars'. When he limits himself he sometimes succeeds and sometimes misses.

More longer Follet novels are better.

In many ways, this is vintage Ken Follett. It is fast-paced and keeps you wanting to see what is going to happen next. The writing is good and he does a good job of developing his characters and plot. He also seems to have a good feel for English society in the period immediately before WWI. Despite all this, however, I found myself less than satisfied with the overall result. He gives you Feliks, a Russian anachist and murderer who is on a misguided mission to stop an attempt to negotiate an alliance between Britain and Russia because he is convinced that millions of Russian peasants will die. It never seems to occur to him that the coming war will involve Russia anyway and that millions of peasants will die with or without an alliance. Then Follett tries to make Feliks a sympathetic character. He has been badly wronged in his life. Well, for me, it didn't work. Feliks was still a misguided terrorist bent on murder. Then you get the usual improbabilities: women whose misguided sympathies cause them to let Feliks get closer to his target than he ever would; Feliks miraculously escaping capture despite all odds; and Feliks resorting to a completely improbable tactic at the end. The climax finds Feliks resorting to a tactic that can best be described as using an elephant gun to kill a flea. He needs to flush out the Prince in order to get a shot at him, but Follett would have us accept that Feliks would endanger all that he seems to hold dear in the process. Churchill's action at the end to retrieve the situation was clever plotting, but seemed obvious to me as soon as it was clear what Feliks was going to do. I'm rather thought it would have occurred to Feliks, too. It would have been another good reason to not do what he did.

In many ways, "The Man From St. Petersburg" is a good read. For me, though, it asked me to go farther in suspending disbelief than I was prepared to go. The clever ending was a little too clever, and left me somewhat less than satisfied.

This incredible story has many parallelisms with Follett's "Eye of the Needle" novel. Instead of WWII this story takes place in the pre WWI era. England and Russia are in desperate need for a treaty in preparation of Germany's attack. A well known Russian anarchists has been sent to England to assassinate the negotiating Russian Prince hence destroying any faith between the two countries and to fulfill his quest of war against the Russian oppressed. "The Man from St. Petersburg" is more than a book filled with suspense, lust and lies-Follett makes the reader experience the hardships of Russian socialism and the glamour and prestige of the English monarchy. What is so interesting was at face value the two seem very distant, only to find out they share the same pain and turmoil. The author captures the reader with several twists of fate within the personal pasts of the anarchist's lover and now wife of a British Earl. The story leaves this reader full of questions about the hypocracy of British monarchy. It fully explains why distorting the truth to preserve one's pride of class and reputation can have devastating repercussions. This is a good read, a typical Follett masterpiece, regardless of its mirror image of "The Needle", "The Man From St. Petersburg" truely has its own identity.

The Man from St. Petersburg is a forgotten Follett classic. Simpler than his more recent works, a surprisingly thrilling historical novel that tells the story of a resilient Russian revolutionary who travels to pre-WWI England to try to create an international incident. Keeps the reader guessing until the end.

Follet is a Swiss watch-maker and this book a Rolex among thrillers. The plot ticks along with fantastic pacing and suspense. Secrets come out at incredibly tense moments. With apparent ease, Follet makes the reader care for all the main characters, and two of them want to kill each other. This novel has it ALL: great plot, great characters, great descriptions, great dialogue, great pacing, a great climax. No other novel in the thriller/espionage field comes close.

This is not a bad effort from the author but his recent books have been better. It sometimes seemed to me that the story line was moving away from the believable. The story did move very quickly and you can stay interested in the book for many hours at a time. The most fun I got out of the book was the descriptions of the time frame and the tradecraft used. If you are interested in reading some of his earlier works then I would suggest Triple or his best work Pillars of the Earth.

Ken Follett has done it again! The book is based in the early 1990's, the World War 1 as a backdrop. The protagonists are from Russia and England, two major players in the World War. Along with giving an interesting insight, into the politics carried out by leaders and influential people in a nation, which ultimately go on to determine the fate of the whole world, it delves deep into the psyches of the main players - common people with emotions and weaknesses not different from yours or mine. The best thing I liked about this book, is that the characters are so real.And there are no heroes or villains. You sympathise and empathise with each of the characters at various times as you read along. With the narration being of such a high quality, I wondered how Ken Follett would manage an ending which would do justice to the story so far. Ken Follett did not let me down.The ending could not have been better.

Follett does a great job of developing and describing the four main characters in the novel. He also does an excellent job of describing the setting and time in which the novel takes place (pre WWI). Once you begin this book you should set aside some time because you find yourself reading all day. This definitely ranks in my top ten.

The best part about this book is that halfway through the story, I couldn't figure out what ending to hope for. Follett does an excellent job of creating sympathy for each character, even the evil ones, a characteristic found in some of his other novels as well. All of them are in very precarious situations and each possible outcome spells disaster for some other character in the book. On the one hand, I wanted the assassin to carry out the murder for his own sake and for the prevention of WWI(even though it did happen), but I also wanted the Russian prince to survive because he is a good character and it would be disastrous for the entire Walden family. Rarely does an author present such a conflict, most resort to the hope of a happy ending which the reader knows is inevitable but this one is definitely unique. There is no true happy ending.

This is an all-around solid book. You really do feel for the characters and their dilemmas. The story never drags, each chapter has some kind of contribution to the overall quality and the high stakes involved ensure the reader's attention for the duration of the book. Worth the $8.