false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180025294m/988050.jpg 988050 7 The first plot line follows the old baron, Ansiau of Linnieres, as he goes on his last pilgrimage to the Holy Land. With companions he meets & loses on the way, we follow him first to southern France. There is a war going on against the heretics--if marauding bands of soldiers pillaging helpless villages in the name of god can be referred to as such--& Ansiau, mistaken for a soldier by the peasantry, barely escapes having his hands hacked off & being nailed to a tree. He gets thru this, & is able to make it, finally, to his destination, where his grim adventures continue. Constantly hungry, footsore, weary, robbed & beaten, they beg for alms wherever they go, along with thousands of other desperate people. His story ends in the Holy Land. It is not pretty. The other story line concerns Herbert, his son, now the Baron, & Herbert's son, Haugenier, now a knight, at Linnieres. Again, as with the first book, The World is Not Enough, their lives are dominated by religious superstition & strict social codes. Nobody in their class marries for love. Marriage is a political alliance. True love is always illicit. With the strict, gloomy eye of the Catholic Church brooding over everything, happiness is difficult to achieve. It is impossible for anybody to reconcile basic human desires with the strict codes governing their lives. Herbert, despairing early of ever achieving goodness, simply abandons the attempt, becoming a self-indulgent, evil man. Haugenier, the best of them, goes the other way, giving up everything: his home, his child & his true love, to become a monk.--Paul McGrath (edited) 973544 book 1953 La pierre angulaire total:13|5:6|4:6|2:1| 13 56 25 1 4 2 true false Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 1978 Sun Jul 13 20:52:44 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 13 20:55:42 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Tue Sep 22 22:28:37 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 23 15:22:27 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Dec 17 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Mon Sep 21 10:45:58 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 21 10:46:26 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jul 28 10:14:28 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 10:14:38 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Jul 26 11:30:57 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 26 11:30:57 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jul 05 14:53:57 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 05 14:53:57 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Jun 18 07:04:26 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 18 07:04:26 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jun 11 16:01:34 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 16:01:34 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jun 09 20:10:05 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 20:10:05 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun May 24 12:23:14 -0700 2009 Sun May 24 12:23:14 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Mon May 18 06:52:27 -0700 2009 Mon May 18 06:52:27 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon May 11 08:28:08 -0700 2009 Mon May 11 08:28:08 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Apr 15 20:02:16 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 15 20:02:16 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Apr 09 11:43:01 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 11:43:01 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Apr 08 10:17:25 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 08 10:17:25 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Feb 12 16:03:27 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 12 16:03:27 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Feb 09 20:53:56 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 20:53:56 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Feb 04 11:54:18 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 04 11:54:18 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Jan 07 18:22:53 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 07 18:22:53 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Dec 26 18:07:07 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 26 18:07:11 -0800 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=988050