Book Review: Sarum: The Novel of England, by Edward Rutherfurd

England: from the Paleolithic to the 1980s, by Jove!

Crown Books, 1987, 897 pages

In Sarum, Edward Rutherfurd weaves a compelling saga of five English families whose fates become intertwined over the course of centuries. While each family has its own distinct characteristics, the successive generations reflect the changing character of Britain. We become drawn not only into the fortunes of the individual family members, but also the larger destinies of each family line.

Meticulously researched and epic in scope, Sarum covers the entire sweep of English civilization: from the early hunters and farmers, the creation of Stonehenge, the dawn of Christianity, and the Black Death; through the Reformation, the wars in America, the Industrial Age, and the Victorian social reforms; up through the World War II invasion of Normandy and the modern-day concerns of a once-preeminent empire.

( Five families, 15,000 years. Give or take a few millenia. )

Verdict: Recommended for people who like big juicy historical doorstoppers. Sarum has a bit of romance, a bit of action, and a lot of religion, war, and economics, all of it narrated in the form of a multi-family drama. Great reading for those who like this kind of book; despite its length it never drags.

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