Notre-Dame

September 23, 2019
In this concise and informative work, written to raise money for the restoration of Notre Dame after its recent fire, Follett (Eye of the Needle) focuses on six key dates in the cathedral’s history. These include 1163, when work first began on constructing a Gothic church; 1831, when Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame was published, helping to immortalize the structure; and 1844, when Viollet-Le-Duc began his controversial restoration of the crumbling building. Another significant date, 1944, was when Charles de Gaulle boldly faced snipers to walk 190 feet to the cathedral’s front pew to commemorate the ousting of the Nazis from Paris. Follett, whose novel The Pillars of the Earth concerns the building of a medieval cathedral, brings his expert scene building to these snippets of Notre Dame’s history. He packs a great deal into a short space, emphasizing that, starting as a Romanesque structure and ending with current post-fire rebuilding efforts, Notre Dame has never been a church unaltered; instead, the monument has been reinvented many times during its long history. Follett’s appreciative tribute provides comfort that the scars of the recent fire will pass, as well. This satisfying book will be a must-read for those interested in the rebuilding of Notre Dame.

Starred review from November 1, 2019
A survey of the storied history of Notre-Dame Cathedral, a victim of a devastating fire in April 2019. Follett (Edge of Eternity, 2014, etc.) knows a thing or two about medieval cathedrals, having structured his Kingsbridge series around the building of one such architectural wonder. It's for that reason that when Notre-Dame, the jewel at the heart of Paris, caught fire, the media flocked to the author for commentary. He began informally, he relates here, tweeting to friends and followers that it's not hard for a gigantic tower of stone to catch fire: "The rafters consist of hundreds of tons of wood, old and very dry. When that burns the roof collapses, then the falling debris destroys the vaulted ceiling, which also falls and destroys the mighty stone pillars that are holding the whole thing up." Though badly damaged, the cathedral's pillars held up, and French President Emmanuel Macron has promised that the damage will be repaired within five years. Follett casts some doubt on that optimistic timetable while noting, "it is always unwise to underestimate the French." In this slender essay, he connects the events of 2019 to the building of Notre-Dame over a century, beginning in 1163. It was, he writes, the equivalent of a space launch today, benefiting whole segments of the society and economy and yielding tremendous technological advances. However, he writes, "when you add up all the pragmatic reasons, they're not quite enough to explain why we did it." Indeed, generations of builders would die before the cathedral was finished in 1345, yet they threw themselves into the godly work. The proceeds from this book, which touches on such things as Victor Hugo's novelistic celebration of Notre-Dame and Charles De Gaulle's celebrated Te Deum there on the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation, are being earmarked for the restoration, another space launch-worthy mustering of our better angels. Fans of Follett and cathedrals alike will enjoy his exploration of the great Parisian edifice--and will want more.

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