Customer Reviews

Sarum: The Novel of England

5 star:		(98)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This overview of English history, full of characters to love and hate, begins with the earliest settling of the Salisbury Plain by primitive hunters and farmers. As civilization develops and flourishes, so the story, evolving into a saga of five families who shape and are shaped by the events of this bit of the British historical story.

The creation of Stonehenge will invade your imagination. Christianity comes and the Salisbury Cathedral is a result. Lives and loves of men and women with their triumphs and disappointments evolve against the parade of ages -- kings and their wars and kingdoms, plagues, revolutions, until we get to Queen Victoria and an age that developed faster than ever. The reader gets the impression of a snowball rolling downhill -- time begins with few people and slower development but one bit of progress inspires 30 more and on it goes, bigger and faster ad infinitum.

Rutherford's research is thorough but it doesn't impede his story. With narrative under strict control, his style is clear, descriptive and tight. Relationships wax and wane through the generations as families grow and change with the times.

Rutherford has said about this book that he admires James Michener and deliberately set out to accomplish for England what Michener did for Hawaii, Texas and others. I think he did it better.

This book is a rough read, but it is well worth the effort. The novel begins in prehistoric, ice age England and continues through the present day, as seen through the eyes of a number of English bloodlines. An ambitious project such as this is bound to have flaws, and this is not a perfect book. But it is an outstanding book, and truly gives the reader a "feel" for England and its history.

Some parts of the book are easy reads, and some aren't. The best parts are the parts dealing with stone age England, the Black Death era, Roman era England, and the times around the American Revolution. Some of the intervals in between the foregoing get pretty bogged down, and are tough sledding. But this is a book that is worth reading, worth finishing, and worth reading again.

Oddly, the book largely ignores the Napoleonic War era, one of Britain's most heroic times. It also does not dwell much on the British Empire at its height. It spends more time on histories of old English cathedrals than most of us care about. But what the heck, with a subject as ambitious as this one, criticism is inevitable.

This book will not disappoint, but it does require effort.

I love this book! I have since the first time I read it, and I've read it several times since then. I've been a fan of this genre of historical fiction, since James Michener's "Chesapeake" made the history of the area in which I was raised, not only palatable, but interesting and relatively easy to follow. My interest in that particular book was its' ability to teach me about my home. Well, as much as I am from the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., I am also a passionate anglophile. This book not only played well to that passion, it actually whetted my appetite for even more information about that lonely isle off the northwest coast of the European continent.

Edward Rutherford begins his tale in a time, before recorded time, as the last ice age retreated from northern Europe and severed Britain from the rest of the continent. Rooting two fictional family trees in characters from this era, he then takes broad strides through the history of Sarum, an ancient name for the area in and around modern Salisbury, England; right up through World War 2 and into the 1980's. Routinely rooting additional fictional families in characters, which arrive over the progression of ages, Rutherford floats a very human dramatic narrative of individuals, families, personalities and geneology on the real timeline, currents and subtleties of the true history of a fascinating region, country and people.

While focusing on a relatively compact region of England, this book offers some deep insight into the very unique, historically multi-cultural and yet, deeply reserved people that are the English. The history in this book is rich, while not overwhelmingly scholarly. Rutherford picks and chooses his timing, sometimes becoming quite detailed in his descriptions of technological advances or historic upheavals which may have changed the course of human development, and relaxing at other times to nearly "romance-novel" treatments of passionate relationships amonst his fictional characters. He uses mysterious Stonehenge and the beautiful 13th-century cathedral at Salisbury as lasting monuments to the character of a people who force tradition and a resolute slowness to change, at every turn; despite their being invaded and fundamentally changed repeatedly throughout their history.

Enjoy this book. Don't try to make too much out of it. Enjoy the light fiction and learn from the history given; this is a large book, and one without the other would've been too much.

As a casual traveller in Southern England, I walked into Salisbury and sensed the history before reading the book. "Sarum" (named for the Bronze Age hillfort settlement above modern Salisbury) puts historical dimensions on general knowledge of the people who lived during the various eras in Wiltshire over a span of 10,000 years. Weaving fictional family characters throughout the many ages of English history (and prehistory), Edward Rutherfurd provides a rich tapestry of human emotion on the backdrop of otherwise dry events and dates of historical note. A particularly interesting observation of family interaction over many generations is a depiction of many aspects of human nature which have affected the fortunes and misfortunes of individuals and family welfare. Rutherfurd manages to provide villans who "win" and good people who "lose" in the cycle of life's adventure, whether during Roman times or under Elizabeth I. History becomes understandable for this part of teh world because Rutherfurd makes it human. For anyone with English origins who is remotely interested in history, "Sarum" provides a terrific overview with a climax in the 1980's when it is decided to make extensive renovations in the Salisbury Cathedral, built 700 years ago. Since one cannot critically review history, it would be safe to give Edward Rutherfurd high marks for telling the story of his "home town".

Other reviewers have dealt with the plot, characters and themes, so I am going to concentrate on how to cope with this book.

At 1330 pages, it's very long. Allow 2 months to read it, and if you cannot clear at least 35 pages a day, don't pick it up that day. Run some contrasting short books alongside it (I read some Carson McCullers, for example) so that you won't feel bored/depressed/guilty while scrabbling along.

Is it worth reading? Definitely. It has its faults, but is an immensely worthy book. Is that enough? Sure. You will get some good stories and a lot of history.

Rutherfurd subtitled it "The Novel of England", asserting that "Sarum is a novel and to see it as anything else would be a mistake." 22,000 years of love, lust, envy, hatred, success, failure are chronicled in pot-boilerish narrative. It's mostly skilful, sometimes frankly two-dimensional. A couple of chapters run to as much as 150-200 pages, luckily with internal breaks. They have been compared to discrete novellas, but the fictional families unify the novel.

Rutherfurd sets his imaginary families "amongst people and events that either did exist, or might have done." People have questioned his selection of dates, but each enshrines a landmark of English history. Concerned with his characters' physical survival above all, there is admittedly too much on drainage and masonry.

But this is a minor quibble. Rutherfurd provides a terrific canvas of political, social, religious, cultural, and industrial events. Along the way, he brings in important figures like Charlemagne and major literary works, e.g., Beowulf. You might question some of the relevance, but it's mostly rewarding - and I assure you, there's plenty to be learned from this book.

Finishing it was a struggle, but I'm glad I did. Highly recommended.

Sarum tells the tale of the historic heartland of southern England, Salisbury. Originally founded as an Iron Age hill fort by the Romans, the Normans gave it the name Sarum. And when the action moved down the hill to the new settlement of Salisbury, the old site becomes Old Sarum.

Rutherfurd tells the history of the Salisbury area from earliest times in his standard style by following the fortunes of five families. Witness the history of Stonehenge, the Roman empire, the Salisbury Cathedral, the Black Death, and the Industrial Revolution.

I rank Sarum at the top of Rutherfurd's grand historical epics. A satisfying read for fans of historical fiction. Outstanding.

Sarum is a most impressive work. First of all it impresses merely by the daring scope of its story--thousands of characters set in an historically accurate retelling of English history from the Ice Age to the 1980's--but it also impresses by being as altogether good as it is! Set primarily in and around the Salisbury Plain from the period immediately at the point in the post-Ice Age when rising waters cut the island of Britain off from continental Europe, Sarum procceeds thru pre-history to the building of Stonehenge, the arrival of the Romans, the Dark Age Saxon period, the twelfth century, the construction of the awesome monument to Medieval genius that is Salisbury Cathedral, and then follows on into more recent times such as the Black Death, the age of the Tudors, the Civil War, the glorious eighteenth-century, Napoleonic times, the industrial and Victorian ages, and finally it ends its long, unforgettable journey after making last stops in the times of the world wars and finally concludes some 10,000 years after it began, reuniting 1940's-era lovers in happy circumstances in the town of Sarum in 1985.

This massive novel is the read of a lifetime and it manages to weave a delightful multi-generational story that never slows or becomes boring, never loses historical rectitude, and absolutely positively never, EVER, makes a reader sorry for starting the bold task of reading this gigantic achievement in novel writing.

Mr. Rutherfurd is a gifted writer who achieved little short of the biography of his native land. I recommend Sarum to anyone up to the challenge of devoting at least a fortnight to a journey thru the lives and times that have come to pass on our world's most amazing island nation.

I have often wondered about the almost endless stream of ancestors which have preceded me. Piecing together my own roots all the way back into prehistory is completely impossible; however, with Edward Rutherfurd I believe I have discovered the next best thing. Reading along through the ages with Rutherfurd's chosen families not only gives one an intimate view on technological advances, political changes, and religious upheavals. A careful reading also gives you a chance to see how your own family's history might have unfolded. I have always found that I enjoyed books best that not only drew me into their stories, but sparked my imagination to envision stories of my own. It would take me an entire lifetime to write a book this big; fortunately, it only takes me a few weeks to read one. I strongly encourage potential readers to take the plunge and not be put off by the book's length. Even after reading several hundred pages, you will still wish that you could find out more about the lives of many of the poignant characters he creates. As a bonus, the average person will find his or her knowledge of English history greatly, and entertainingly, enhanced.

I purchased this book when it was first published and I have just re-read it, something I cannot ever remember doing with a work of fiction.
To try to do a concise synopsis of the book is virtually impossible because this is an epic volume. Suffice to say that the book begins approx 7000 BC in the ice age and ends in modern times. The book covers the lives of 5 families through the centuries and while you are reading the gripping story you are also receiving a history lesson on the formation of the British Isles, its buildings and people, (if only they were like this at school).
Rutherford takes you through the centuries in a magical way, the main character in the book is not a person but a building (Salisbury Cathedral). The trials and tribulations of the people who lovingly build it and work in it.
If you are interested in historial novels, you have got to read this one.

Definetely NOT the best historical fiction I've ever read, but the book with a difference - it almost does not contain descriptions of events that changed the country, except for the main guidelines. They serve as a background for tracing destinies of 4 common families, back from the pre-historical mists till modernity. As you won't find here no heart-wrenching love stories, nor portraits of great historical persons, it might seem boring (and I was often lost in the debris of family trees of the main characters), and it often is. But after I have finished the book (it took me a couple of weeks), I felt a little sad, for human generations stem from immemorial times and generations ceaselessly go on, even if we, people of modernity, sometimes forget about it... Read the book, if you are in a philosophical or contemplative mood...