Point of View

Sarum is written in the third person point of view, with the narrator being the author Edward Rutherford. This allows the author to provide the background detail and information that is required. This is very important in a historical novel of this kind. The novel covers ten thousand years of English history and tells the saga of five families. The author selects different points in time to write about and provides information about what has occurred during the intervening time periods. In this way, Rutherford is able to provide a continuum by always bringing the reader up to date on what has taken place in religion, wars and politics. He is also able to provide background details about what has happened to the circumstances of the different families during these periods. This would be difficult to do without the use of the third person, especially with...