This story is rich with the history that bored us in school, that stuff about Victorian pomp and starving Russian peasants floundering for a new political order, the prelude to communism. Follett gives us a sense of the debauchery bred from wealth and privilege, and the desperation born of inhumanities in an era gone by. He introduces us to men threatened by women's suffrage, others terrorized of government, and through them, we better understand why society changed, or perhaps mutated. That stuff is woven seamlessly into a story of intrigue without long speeches or tedious lectures. We get our lesson without having to take notes.

My only quarrel is Follett's propensity to interrupt with back-story, once with back-story within back-story if I'm not mistaken. It's a minor irritation though, one scratch and it's gone, because we are more worried about how his characters are going to sort out the mess they're in. And in the end, you're going to believe The Man from St. Petersburg might have been.


Entertaining, But...   January 20, 2001
 19 out of 20 found this review helpful

In many ways, this is vintage Ken Follett. It is fast-paced and keeps you wanting to see what is going to happen next. The writing is good and he does a good job of developing his characters and plot. He also seems to have a good feel for English society in the period immediately before WWI. Despite all this, however, I found myself less than satisfied with the overall result. He gives you Feliks, a Russian anachist and murderer who is on a misguided mission to stop an attempt to negotiate an alliance between Britain and Russia because he is convinced that millions of Russian peasants will die. It never seems to occur to him that the coming war will involve Russia anyway and that millions of peasants will die with or without an alliance. Then Follett tries to make Feliks a sympathetic character. He has been badly wronged in his life. Well, for me, it didn't work. Feliks was still a misguided terrorist bent on murder. Then you get the usual improbabilities: women whose misguided sympathies cause them to let Feliks get closer to his target than he ever would; Feliks miraculously escaping capture despite all odds; and Feliks resorting to a completely improbable tactic at the end. The climax finds Feliks resorting to a tactic that can best be described as using an elephant gun to kill a flea. He needs to flush out the Prince in order to get a shot at him, but Follett would have us accept that Feliks would endanger all that he seems to hold dear in the process. Churchill's action at the end to retrieve the situation was clever plotting, but seemed obvious to me as soon as it was clear what Feliks was going to do. I'm rather thought it would have occurred to Feliks, too. It would have been another good reason to not do what he did.

In many ways, "The Man From St. Petersburg" is a good read. For me, though, it asked me to go farther in suspending disbelief than I was prepared to go. The clever ending was a little too clever, and left me somewhat less than satisfied.


Another Triumph for Follett!!   February 26, 1999
 17 out of 20 found this review helpful

This incredible story has many parallelisms with Follett's "Eye of the Needle" novel. Instead of WWII this story takes place in the pre WWI era. England and Russia are in desperate need for a treaty in preparation of Germany's attack. A well known Russian anarchists has been sent to England to assassinate the negotiating Russian Prince hence destroying any faith between the two countries and to fulfill his quest of war against the Russian oppressed. "The Man from St. Petersburg" is more than a book filled with suspense, lust and lies-Follett makes the reader experience the hardships of Russian socialism and the glamour and prestige of the English monarchy. What is so interesting was at face value the two seem very distant, only to find out they share the same pain and turmoil. The author captures the reader with several twists of fate within the personal pasts of the anarchist's lover and now wife of a British Earl. The story leaves this reader full of questions about the hypocracy of British monarchy. It fully explains why distorting the truth to preserve one's pride of class and reputation can have devastating repercussions. This is a good read, a typical Follett masterpiece, regardless of its mirror image of "The Needle", "The Man From St. Petersburg" truely has its own identity.


A good read all around   July 4, 2006
 11 out of 12 found this review helpful

Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others

THE STORY:
Its WWI and England faces the fact that Germany may invade France and eventually England. They turn to an alliance with Russia in order to avoid this but people like Feliks don't want to see Mother Russia pulled into a fight that will leave the common man killed and the old regime in tact. So Feliks, the Man from St. Petersburg, sets out to stop the people trying to make the alliance.

THE SETTING:
When most World War stories take place they seem to revolve around WWII, not the first one. It was a nice change of pace and even "funny" on some levels to see characters like Winston Churchill play a part in the plot.

THE CHARACTERS:
Feliks - the anarchist who sets out to stop the alliance
Stephen Walden - a British aristocrat asked to help negotiate the alliance
Lydia - Stephen's wife with a past
Charlotte - Lydia and Stephen's 18 year old daughter who is starting to discover a world that her parents have isolated her from

All the characters are vivid and one's we can relate with on some level. At no point are you left wishing a scene with a specific character would hurry up and end because the reader gets engaged by them all.

THE PLOT:
A bit of cat-n-mouse story during a historic periods of time. The story presents information ("lessons") in philosophy and history, both of which I wished my school books presented the same theories in such fictionalized writing in order to make it interesting and not boring or slow as with this well paced, easy to read story. The book also has plenty of action for those that just want to get to it.

CONTENT:
Little memorable vulgarity. Some sex, though not as descriptive as most books, but definitely not shy either. The violence is mostly "off-screen", leaving it to your imagination.

OVERALL:
I've read 3 books by this author (Eye of the Needle, Hammer of Eden and this one), and this was more enjoyable for me on several levels than the other two. My experience with this book was going to be the deciding factor if I ever read a book by this author again as I was ok with the other two books. I'd be willing to read more from this author after this read.



Engrossing read   May 11, 2001
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Ken Follett has done it again! The book is based in the early 1990's, the World War 1 as a backdrop. The protagonists are from Russia and England, two major players in the World War. Along with giving an interesting insight, into the politics carried out by leaders and influential people in a nation, which ultimately go on to determine the fate of the whole world, it delves deep into the psyches of the main players - common people with emotions and weaknesses not different from yours or mine. The best thing I liked about this book, is that the characters are so real.And there are no heroes or villains. You sympathise and empathise with each of the characters at various times as you read along. With the narration being of such a high quality, I wondered how Ken Follett would manage an ending which would do justice to the story so far. Ken Follett did not let me down.The ending could not have been better.