Title: Fall of Giants

Author: Ken Follet

Pages: 1020

Hi all,

Do you have an author that you have heard of before, but haven’t read a book of yet?

This was one author to which this situation applies. It was a name I passed by in the library, but never took an interest in before. Now, however, as I am in a new league (i.e. library member who can borrow any book and doesn’t need to buy all the books that I want to read) I thought to give it a try.

There were a couple on the shelf and all not very thin so I was fortunate by choice. However I elected to go with this one since it dealt with the First World War, a topic I had encountered in two previous fascinating books (019-2022 The Downfall of Money and 005-2020 1917).

Since the book this size follows the storyline of multiple characters I sat quite a while wondering what the best way would be to write a good review, but not too lengthy. I hope that the approach I followed below does it justice.

It is broken down into the following chapters:

• Prologue (pg. 12)
  • Chapter 1 – 22 June 1911 (pg.15)
• Part One – Shadow in the Sky (pg. 40)
  • Chapter 2 – January 1914 (pg. 43)
  • Chapter 3 – February 1914 (pg. 102)
  • Chapter 4 – March 1914 (pg. 136)
  • Chapter 5 – April 1914 (pg. 157)
  • Chapter 6 – June 1914 (pg. 186)
  • Chapter 7 – early July 1914 (pg. 210)
  • Chapter 8 – mid-July 1914 (pg. 236)
  • Chapter 9 – late July 1914 (pg. 272)
  • Chapter 10 – 01.-03. August 1914 (pg. 303)
  • Chapter 11 – 04. August 1914 (pg. 324)
• Part Two – The War of the Titans (pg. 344)
  • Chapter 12 – August 1914 (pg. 347)
  • Chapter 13 – September – December 1914 (pg. 385)
  • Chapter 14 – February 1915 (pg. 413)
  • Chapter 15 – June – September 1915 (pg. 445)
  • Chapter 16 – June 1916 (pg. 478)
  • Chapter 17 – 01. July 1916 (pg. 509)
  • Chapter 18 – Late July 1916 (pg. 535)
  • Chapter 19 – July – October 1916 (pg. 551)
  • Chapter 20 – November – December 1916 (pg. 571)
  • Chapter 21 – December 1916 (pg. 604)
  • Chapter 22 – January – February 1917 (pg. 633)
  • Chapter 23 – March 1917 (pg. 656)
  • Chapter 24 – April 1917 (pg. 707)
  • Chapter 25 – May – June 1917 (pg. 727)
  • Chapter 26 – Mid-June 1917 (pg. 748)
  • Chapter 27 – June – September 1917 (pg. 763)
  • Chapter 28 – October – November 1917 (pg. 795)
  • Chapter 29 – March 1918 (pg. 817)
  • Chapter 30 – Late March – April 1918 (pg. 836)
  • Chapter 31 – May – September 1918 (pg. 849)
  • Chapter 32 – October 1918 (pg. 865)
  • Chapter 33 – 11. November 1918 (pg. 882)
• Part Three – A New World Order (pg. 900)
  • Chapter 34 – November – December 1918 (pg. 903)
  • Chapter 35 – December 1918 – February 1919 (pg. 915)
  • Chapter 36 – March – April 1919 (pg. 929)
  • Chapter 37 – May – June 1919 (pg. 947)
  • Chapter 38 – August – October 1919 (pg. 967)
  • Chapter 39 – January 1920 (pg. 976)
  • Chapter 40 – February – December 1920 (pg. 991)
  • Chapter 41 – 11. – 12. November 1920 (pg. 1007)
  • Chapter 42 – December 1923 – January 1924 (pg. 1015)

The list of characters is included below:

From this list we will mainly follow the following for the book review:

• American
  • Gus Dewar
• German and Austrian
  • Walter von Ulrich
  • Otto von Ulrich
• English and Scottisch
  • Earl Edward Fitzherbert
  • Elizabeth Fitzherbert (wife)
  • Lady Maud Fitzherbert (sister)
• Russian
  • Grigori Peshkow
  • Lew Peshkow
  • Katherina
• Welsh
  • Ethel Williams
  • Billy Williams

Before we jump in, I thought I would add some events from this time period for additional context to the story:

• Overall
  • 28 July 1914 – Start of World War 1
  • 11 November 1918 – End of World War 1 –> Armistice signed
  • 29 June 1919 – Peace treaty signed
  • 24 August 1921 – separate Peace treaty signed with USA
• Russia
  • 8 March 1917 – February Revolution –> Establishment of Russian Republic
  • 7 November 1917 – October Revolution –> Establishment of Bolshevist Sowjet
  • 15 December 1917 – Armistice agreement signed
  • 3 March 1918 – Brest-Litovsk Agreement signed –> Sowjet and Central Powers sign separate peace treaty to mark Russia’s exit from the war.
    • With this treaty in place the Central Powers wanted to send all troops to the Western Front and strike a winning blow against the Allied Nations.
• Germany
  • 29 October – 9 November 1918 – First revolt –> Fall of the monarchy
  • 03 November 1918 – 11 August 1919 – Second revolt –> Establishment of the Weimar republic
• American
  • 06 April 1917 – America ends its neutrality and enters the war

For additional important dates during World War 1 (or The Great War) you can find them here: https://www.loc.gov/collections/stars-and-stripes/articles-and-essays/a-world-at-war/timeline-1914-1921/

Ethel Williams

Ethel Williams and Billy Williams both grow up in Aberowen. Billy becomes a mine worker for the mine owner Earl Fitzherbert. Ethel becomes a maid in the earl’s household. She is good at her job and learns more skills that she eventually becomes the main house keeper. Lady Maud, a suffragette, takes a liking to Ethel because Lady Maud wishes to bring forth some reforms in her era. Ethel, growing up in a household with a father that is a representative of the working class of the local mines, soon develops a greater interest in the local politics and exchanges her views with Lady Maud. However, she also takes a liking to the Earl and they soon have a secret relationship with each other. Unfortunately, they are not careful enough and she becomes pregnant. The earl can only have a son with his wife Bea (Elizabeth) become his heir and therefore Ethel decides to leave Aberowen and get a job in London. She starts off as a seamstress but soon enters into a partnership with Lady Maud to publish a newspaper that is a critic to the current government. They were not intent to be critics, but the newspaper never published the full truth about the war and politics and therefore they sought to show their readers the truth. They publish reports of soldiers that were stationed at the front and their reports differ quite significantly than what the other newspapers share with their readership. After the war has ended, the Entente (Allied Nations) have suddenly stationed their soldiers around Russia and are in a secret mission to fight off the Bolshevists (the Red Army) in order to re-establish the monarchy. Ethel and her brother bring forth this shocking news to their readers and the Entente are forced to retreat. She has borne a son to the Earl and named him Lloyd George. In the next book, the story will continue with his character.

Lady Maud

She was born into an aristocratic family but is not content with what privileges their class enjoys above the worker class. Thus, she is not afraid to voice her reforms demands. Her strongest point is for women to obtain voting rights. She and the German diplomat Walter von Ulrich meet at one of her brother’s hosting events and they take an instant liking to each other. However, when war is about to be declared they secretly marry each other. For the duration of the war they cannot exchange letters with one another, except through the neutral countries of Switzerland and Sweden. Lady Maud actively works with Ethel to expand their newspaper to bring to light matters that the government are not doing properly until they have a falling out and Ethel joins a political party to work for them. After the war, Lady Maud meets Walter again in France, where he is accompanying the peace treaty party. He brings her a proposal, to come with him so they can start their family. She accepts.

Earl Fitzherbert

He is the earl to the estate and head of the house. He is a decent man and gives his sister lots of freedoms, contrary to how other fathers/brothers would do. He is also actively engaged in politics and a member of the Conservative Party and in the House of Lords. As the war continues he becomes more aggressive, has more affairs and becomes more and more irritated by the worker class demands. All these cost money. He also works for the secret service since he is acquainted with the Russian language.

Walter von Ulrich

He is the junior diplomat for Germany in London. He regularly meets with the higher class to build his network and his career. When war breaks out he can no longer pursue his relationship with Lady Maud, but they do end up secretly getting married. During the war he is stationed at both the Western and Eastern Front at different times. During the latter part of the war he is stationed at the Eastern Front and even engages in espionage activities to try and attain peace with the Bolshevik Russians so that all their efforts can focus on the Western Front. His contact is Lenin, whom he manages to gain a permit to travel from Switzerland through Germany all the way to Finland and eventually into Russia. He concludes a transaction with Lenin, promising to send a certain amount monthly so that these funds may be used to advance his party’s goals. After the war, he is a party of the peace treatyand meets up with Maud. She agrees to come with him and live in Germany.

Grigori Peshkow

Grigori and Lew grew up in the countryside until one day the early of their region (earl Andrej, brother to Elizabeth Fitzherbert) killed their father and mother. Therefore, they moved into the city and have worked there ever since. Life under the Tzar is cruel, which is why Grigori has worked and saved many years so that he can buy a ticket to America. He wants to live in the free world. However, on the day of his departure, his brother has been in trouble with the police and therefore Grigori hands him his own ticket so he may not be punished by the police. When the war broke out Grigori is recruited to join the soldiers on the Eastern Front. He proves himself to be a good soldier and survives without being badly injured. He is sent back to Russia earlier to stem the population that has become more and more outraged daily due to the rations and bad living conditions. He joins the Bolshevists in their revolution and they manage to overthrow the monarchy. He becomes a high-ranking member in the party and a close co-operator to Lenin. The revolution progresses and he believes that they are continuing to shape Russia into the world they wanted to have. However, he soon realizes that the party that now runs the country is not what it seems as their ways to rule are now also very brutal.

Lew Peshkow

Lew never really was a responsible person and he was fortunate that his brother gave up his trip to America to him. He first lands in England and works there for a few months, since his ticket was a scam and not a trip to America as planned. However, after saving and further gambling he has enough money for the trip across the Atlantic. there, he becomes appointed by a wealthy Russian businessman. He sees that Lew is a tough person and therefore hires him to be his chauffeur instead. However, since Lew is irresponsible, he impregnates his boss’ daughter Olga, who then gives birth to a daughter Daisy. After the war, Lew and his father-in-law had another fight, which resulted in the latter’s death. Lew first decides to flee, but then comes back and takes over the business instead. He wants his daughter to grow up well and not be destined for poverty.

I know the descriptions above are very brief, but I hope that you managed to get a good idea of what awaited you in the novel :).

Summary:

A lengthy novel, a novel about a time that we wish to forget, but a novel that shows how people observed the war from their view. Once you start to get to know the names and the other small intricacies of each character you can clearly see how each character is developing into a different person from who they were before. You can also clearly see what the war does to people and to countries. Also important, it shows that there was so much more going on than just a mere war. Governments weren’t always truth sayers and that has not changed much. Therefore, I am giving the book a rating of 4.5/5.

Keep well!