In WOLF HALL, one of our very best writers brings the opulent, brutal world of The Tudors to bloody, glittering life. It is the backdrop to the rise and rise of Thomas Cromwell: lowborn boy, charmer, bully, master of deadly intrigue, and, finally, most powerful of Henry VIII's courtiers.
--back cover
I read some books and imagine that I might have written them, but not this. A whole imagined world that has to fit with history, use the historic characters as if they are dramatic fictional ones, and ring true but still be internally consistent with the nature of the author's versions of these characters. An extraordinary achievement. There is an oddity in the text where almost all references of "he" refer to Cromwell - confusing at first.
History is ever so fascinating, as long as the right person gets the job of telling it. Hilary Mantel's version of how King Henry VIII manages to declare himself the head of the English church is a captivating culmination of five years worth of research that will inspire any reader to learn more about English history.
The star of Wolf Hall is Thomas Cromwell, who Mantel depicts as a brillant thinker and a good person who tiptoes around his monarch to do both good for his country's government, while staying in the good graces of his king. He is the captain of compromise. Cromwell is the son of a commoner, son of a blacksmith who gathers a wealth of experience working in different industries in various European countries. By the time we meet Cromwell as a man, he is a multilingual lawyer who fully understands the law, banking, and the …
History is ever so fascinating, as long as the right person gets the job of telling it. Hilary Mantel's version of how King Henry VIII manages to declare himself the head of the English church is a captivating culmination of five years worth of research that will inspire any reader to learn more about English history.
The star of Wolf Hall is Thomas Cromwell, who Mantel depicts as a brillant thinker and a good person who tiptoes around his monarch to do both good for his country's government, while staying in the good graces of his king. He is the captain of compromise. Cromwell is the son of a commoner, son of a blacksmith who gathers a wealth of experience working in different industries in various European countries. By the time we meet Cromwell as a man, he is a multilingual lawyer who fully understands the law, banking, and the politics of Europe. He is also well versed in the scriptures, and it is rumored that he can recite the entire new testament from memory. Cromwell can argue any point and come out on top. Thomas Cromwell is, well, amazing.
Of course, he has his enemies, but during the 1530's, the decade in which this book takes place, Cromwell is at the top of his game, even earning an earldom, something unheard of for someone of such low birth. Mantel portrays many important people of this time period, gracing them with her novel impersonations of what they might have been like. Thomas More, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, William Tyndale, Anne Boleyn, Mary Boleyn, and all the rest. I was particularly interested to learn something of William Tyndale, since this is the first time I'd heard the name of the man who had first brought us The Bible in English. Much of Tyndale's wording survives to this day. He was eventually burned as a heretic, though Henry VIII was to encourage English translations of The Bible just four years after he condemned Tyndale to death.
Mantel's writing is also attractive; she doesn't write in the English of 1530, for it would be too hard for most of us to get through over 500 pages of that, but she does seem to adopt enough older phrases to make the narrative seem credible. Another quirk of her writing style within these pages was that the pronoun he, unless otherwise clearly stated, refers to Thomas Cromwell. At first, I found myself backtracking and reading passages twice, but once I got used to the rule that Cromwell was he with a small h, things were much clearer.
In the end, I feel as though I've had an inside peek at the lives of Henry VIII and his court during the 1530's, and it has become very clear why this very important decade was glossed over in junior high history class: there's too much sex, rumors of sex, and bloody, gruesome violence.
The narrative does not reach Ann Boleyn's untimely ending, much less Thomas Cromwell's. King Henry VIII is portrayed as a very volatile man who is too dependant on his advisors and not able to think clearly enough on his own. He (King Henry VIII) is a dangerous man to serve.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction
An entertaining, though long, book. While Thomas Cromwell is the main character, he doesn't seem to develop at all, just magnificently and wittily playing the Yes Man to whoever is his boss. Sometimes hard to follow as half the people a named Thomas, everyone has two sets of names, and she makes it intentionally not clear who is speaking at times. And, it being about Henry VIII, you know what's going to happen. In the end just needed a break from academia, and this fit the bill well.
This book is now on my list of favorite historical fiction. I love the way Mantel describes Cromwell's thought processes, and I have to admit, I LOVE the curses : "Oh, by the bleached bones of Becket." That's great writing, there. I read a review somewhere that said this book would be confusing to Americans, as we're all basically illiterate and ignorant (okay, that last part wasn't in the review, but it was inferred), but I think whether or not your knowledge of the Reformation and British royal bloodlines is up to par is somewhat irrelevant. This book was simply an amazing retelling of a pivotal moment in British history. Amazing stuff.
