Um...how shall I put this? In the overall story, the major beats are more or less the same as the book. Just about every single detail is different, though.
Spoilers ahead...
Spoilers are ahead...
Okay, you've been warned - if you're still reading and you don't want to be spoiled, too bad! Mwu ha...er...yes.
World Without End - the novel - is a really subtle book about its characters living through events that change the world before their eyes. The book starts off with the characters having to replace a bridge and deal with a power struggle between the priory and the town. Then, the Black Death strikes midway through the novel, and the surviving characters are faced with adapting to the new world it created. The spire of the cathedral is rebuilt to be the tallest in England, but both the bridge and the cathedral spire are very much side-notes - the story does NOT revolve around them.
So, major differences in the details:
- Queen Isabella does not actually show up in person in the book, or hold a grudge against Kingsbridge. All of the political conflict comes from within the town and the priory.
- Earl Roland doesn't hang anybody upon his arrival in Kingsbridge - as I recall, he's already the Earl by the time he appears on the scene.
- Ralph and Wulfric have a fight where Wulfric breaks Ralph's nose (this is why Ralph is holding a grudge).
- Caris never gets married to Elfric. Elfric's daughter Griselda tries to get Merthin to marry her after seducing him and convincing him that he's the father of her previous boyfriend's child. The conflict from this is what gets Merthin kicked out of his apprenticeship before it's completed.
- Caris and Merthin have a love affair that results in an unwanted pregnancy, which she terminates. For the rest of the novel, she keeps thinking back wistfully to her child who never was (she is also rendered infertile by the abortion).
- Caris and Merthin eventually get engaged, and it is a week before their wedding that she is accused of witchcraft and has to join the convent.
- Petranilla doesn't kill anybody, although she does scheme.
- Edmund Wooler dies of old age after going senile (it's Caris' taking on his position as de facto alderman that causes Godwyn to try to have her executed).
- William, Earl Roland's son, dies of the Black Death.
- Prior to Ralph's rape trial, Merthin tries to get Wulfric to talk Annet into withdrawing her complaint with an offer of a settlement (she refuses).
- Mattie Wise does not get hanged for witchcraft. She discovers that she's going to be charged, and leaves town (and is not heard from again in the book).
As I said, the major plot points do get hit, but the details are pretty much entirely different. My theory is that this is a result of attempting to compress a 1000+ page book into an 8 part miniseries.
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Lefter
12 years ago
Thank you for the answer.
So it seems that the film-makers themselves decided to copy Pillars of the Earth and that Mr. Follett's approach was not the same.
So what do we learn from this: read the bloody book! :)
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