Fall of Giants (Century Trilogy, 1)

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Lenin remains in hiding to avoid arrest. The two men begin plans to storm the Winter Palace and arrest the ministers of the provisional government. When the assault is complete and the Winter Palace is in control of the Bolsheviks, Grigori stands on the spot where his mother died and sees the revolution as his own personal revenge against the tsarist government. He is undone when he finds that Lenin has settled for compromise with the moderate Mensheviks, but the agreement falls apart and the Mensheviks walk out, leaving the Bolsheviks in control. Walter tells Maud that France has rejected neutrality and is beginning to mobilize her army. He will be leaving Britain to join his regiment as Germany invades France. From September to December 1914, Fitz works in France as an interpreter to help maintain the peace between the French and British members of the military. He learns that most of the government has fled Paris, leaving a man named Gallieni to defend it. Fitz is angry that the British are choosing to retreat instead of fighting, and he is introduced to French General Lourceau who convinces the British general to keep fighting. However, their advancements are slow and Gallieni uses taxis to move the French men to the front lines. While Britain is slow, the German advance is stopped and they fight until December 24th where the men call an unofficial truce and Walter asks Fitz to tell Maud he was thinking of her.

What did you think of the book's ending? Did the author succeed in wrapping up the many threads and strands in Fall of Giants? Which of the characters in Fall of Giants do you expect to be reading about in books two and three of The Century Trilogy? Follett writes from the vantage points of people whose home countries come to the brink of—and finally enter into—a world war. What was it like to read the perspectives of enemies as they embark on battle with one another? Did you find yourself taking sides in any way? Did reading about World War I through fiction cause you to think differently about the conflict? The book is redeemed to an extent by some great descriptions, the delivery of casulty telegrams being one good scene.For the last thirteen years my friends have been running Britain, as members of parliament and peers and cabinet ministers. That has certainly given me a strong sense of the way political conflicts are resolved and decisions are made. The fact that Barbara has been part of the British government obviously gave me special insight. I could not have created a character such as Ethel Williams if I had not known Barbara. Is there a custom or practice from the book's early twentieth-century time period that you wish existed in our modern day? What would it be, and why do you think it should have a place in today's world? a thirteen-year-old boy, Billy Williams, begins working down the mines as George V is crowned king. The escalating arms race between the empire nations will put not only the king but this young boy in grave danger. Billy and Tommy, now sixteen years old, are working when they hear the explosion. They go down to rescue the trapped workers. It becomes clear that changes to the safety conditions required by recent laws have not been implemented. Billy gains a reputation as a hero for his efforts in the rescue operation.

Ethel discovers that she is pregnant. When she tells Fitz, he tells her that Bea is also pregnant. Fitz’s main concern is for his heir, who can only be by his wife.

Fitz attends a political dinner where the talk turns to women’s suffrage. Perceval Jones, once mayor of Aberowen and now its representative in Parliament, says Conservatives support the current bill because it shuts out the young women laborers who are usually socialists. Fitz is against the whole thing and, like his sister Maud, is not in favor of compromise. In April 1914, Walter and his father Otto talk with a Mexican ambassador, Diaz, about helping equip the government with munitions during the civil war. Walter worries about angering America, but Diaz agrees to speak to his president. When Walter introduces Otto to Maud, Otto calls her disgraceful for running a clinic for husbandless women with a Jewish doctor. Meanwhile, Gus takes a call in the West Wing and wakes up President Woodrow Wilson. He learns that Germany’s ships are on their way to Veracruz and Wilson demands they invade to stop it. Unfortunately, Germany issues a formal protest as there was no declaration of war and America is forced to apologize. Maud later learns that this was an embarrassment for America and that the ship went to another city anyway. Her relationship with Walter grows.

Bea tells Fitz that she wants to go to Russia to see Andrei. Fitz sees this as an opportunity to observe conditions in Russia for the Foreign Office. Ethel views the House of Commons victory for women’s suffrage with some regret that she and Maud are no longer championing the cause together. Passing by, Fitz warns her that it will be defeated in the House of Lords. Billy and the Aberowen boys are shipped to Vladivostok. Fitz is in command and explains that their mission is to protect Allied arms now that the Russians have declared peace with Germany. They are secretly going to Omsk to support the anti-Bolshevik movement. Billy is upset that their mission has not been approved or even announced to Parliament.Woodrow Wilson narrowly wins re-election as Gus Dewar watches nervously. Rosa Hellman, an anarchist, visits him; she warned him when he became engaged to Olga and was proved right. She tells him that Olga gave birth to a girl and that Lev runs one of Vyalov’s nightclubs. It takes twenty-three days for Billy and the Aberowen Pals to reach Omsk. Billy finds the countryside unexpectedly beautiful. Omsk is the headquarters of the anti-Bolshevik movement, and the citizens exuberantly greet the American soldiers.

The Germans are now forced to fight on two fronts, but the British army remains too timid. The French must compensate but do not have the resources to move the soldiers to the Front. French taxis are commandeered to transport personnel from the city to the war zone. On September 9, the German army begins to retreat. Thirteen-year-old Billy Williams enters a man’s world in the Welsh mining pits… Gus Dewar, an American law student rejected in love, finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson’s White House… two orphaned Russian brothers, Grigori and Lev Peshkov, embark on radically different paths half a world apart when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution… Billy’s sister, Ethel, a housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts, takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German embassy in London…Walter blames his father and his father’s generation for the prolonged war. The American Expeditionary Force landed in France in June 1917, despite the arrogant assurances of the German leadership that it would not. All now depends on Russia withdrawing from the war. From May to June 1919, Walter writes to Maud as German delegates travel to Versailles. The peace treaty is much worse than any of them expected and includes a war guilt clause where Germany must take full responsibility for the war. Their counterproposal is seen as impudent by the French. Walter then finds Maud in a park and the two rent a home nearby to stay together while the treaty is being discussed. They decide to release news of their marriage through one of the papers in Britain as Walter must return to Berlin. Gus and Rosa meet during this time and the two confess their love for each other. Maud faces hatred in Britain for marrying a German man and ends up agreeing to go with Walter to Berlin.