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Thomas Cromwell #1-3
Three-Book Edition: Three novels by the Booker Prize-winning and bestselling author of the Wolf Hall trilogy
From the twice Man Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror & The Light a collection of three A Place of Greater Safety, Beyond Black and The Giant, O’Brien.
A Place of Greater Safety is a spellbinding, epic historical novel which recounts the stirring but blood-thirsty events of the French Revolution, as seen through the eyes of the Revolution’s three protagonists – Georges-Jacques Danton, Maximilien Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins
In The Giant, O’Brien, Charles O’Brien, bard and giant, is led from Ireland to seek his fortune beyond the seas in England. The cynical are moved by his flights of romance; the craven stirred by his tales of epic deeds. But in London is famed surgeon, John Hunter, who buys dead men from the gallows and babies’ corpses by the inch – and he wants the Giant’s bones.
In Beyond Black we meet Alison Hart – medium by trade. With her flat-eyed, flint-hearted sidekick, Colette, she tours the dormitory towns of London's orbital road, passing on messages from dead ancestors. But Alison's ability to communicate with spirits is a torment rather than a gift and behind her plump, smiling and bland public persona is a desperate woman.
A Place of Greater Safety is a spellbinding, epic historical novel which recounts the stirring but blood-thirsty events of the French Revolution, as seen through the eyes of the Revolution’s three protagonists – Georges-Jacques Danton, Maximilien Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins
In The Giant, O’Brien, Charles O’Brien, bard and giant, is led from Ireland to seek his fortune beyond the seas in England. The cynical are moved by his flights of romance; the craven stirred by his tales of epic deeds. But in London is famed surgeon, John Hunter, who buys dead men from the gallows and babies’ corpses by the inch – and he wants the Giant’s bones.
In Beyond Black we meet Alison Hart – medium by trade. With her flat-eyed, flint-hearted sidekick, Colette, she tours the dormitory towns of London's orbital road, passing on messages from dead ancestors. But Alison's ability to communicate with spirits is a torment rather than a gift and behind her plump, smiling and bland public persona is a desperate woman.
1703 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 7, 2013
64 people are currently reading
3457 people want to read
About the author
Hilary Mantel
125 books7,882 followersHilary Mantel was the bestselling author of many novels including Wolf Hall, which won the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Bring Up the Bodies, Book Two of the Wolf Hall Trilogy, was also awarded the Man Booker Prize and the Costa Book Award. She also wrote A Change of Climate, A Place of Greater Safety, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, An Experiment in Love, The Giant, O'Brien, Fludd, Beyond Black, Every Day Is Mother's Day, Vacant Possession, and a memoir, Giving Up the Ghost. Mantel was the winner of the Hawthornden Prize, and her reviews and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
December 30, 2022
I found this trilogy utterly engrossing, so much so that I binged it. Reading it took one full month, almost to the day.
I am not a historian, and I would not dare to comment on its factual authenticity, although, to be honest, I don't even care about that. Based on my cursory Googling efforts, it seems to be at least hung upon the real bones of the bizarre story of Henry VIII's disposable wives. And it renders that bizarre tale understandable—albeit complex, self-contradictory, and unlikely—in fundamental ways. Given that she is writing about events that occurred inside the black box of the king's inner sanctum 500 years ago (!!!), I call that a win.
Equally impressive is the fact that this trilogy could have been written as a lens into understanding the Trump presidency, but the first book was published in 2009, when DJT was still just a reality-TV loser with bad hair. Ironically (or not?), Wolf Hall's Henry comes out looking much more sympathetic than DJT despite sharing his narcissism, foolishness, vagaries, and dangerous moodiness. After all, Henry was raised to believe he was anointed by God to be sovereign...which seems like a good excuse for his eagerness to believe his most deplorable acts were, in fact, God's will. Add to that the constant presence of advisers who all have their own agendas (various combinations of religious, acquisitive, and vengeful) and who go in and out of the king's chambers and in out of his esteem and what you have is a very Trump-ish set of circumstances. (Let us all be glad that the Constitution does not allow the President to order beheadings, because I think it's safe to say "the former guy" would have made full use of those powers. Twitter is brutal, but it's no executioner's sword.)
Not to belabor what is, ultimately, an accidental set of parallels, but it's also interesting to me that the king's person in these books becomes the location of great religious (and class) strife in ways that feel queasily familiar. Of course, Henry was busy distancing himself from the Pope and from Catholicism because he didn't like the Pope's rules about marriage, but many of his advisers (Cromwell among them) encouraged this rift (and enabled Henry's actions) for reasons that were, at least in part, a matter of genuine faith and principle. As Mantel tells the story, Cromwell never truly believed that it was right to annul Henry's first marriage, much less to execute Ann Boleyn and all of her purported consorts, but he was sympathetic to the cause of Luther and to the burgeoning Protestant movement, which held that people should be allowed to read the scriptures for themselves and that much of their interaction with the Catholic Church served purely to divest the common people of their money while enriching the Church. He was prepared to do the wrong thing for a few people in order to offer "true" religion to England. By the end of the books, it's clear that Cromwell's motives are a mixed bag, but his sympathy with the common people and belief in the Reformation were well-represented in that bag.
This is just one similarity that offered me what felt like real insight into the historical moment that we have just lived through/are now living through. And the view was ugly and pathetic in an utterly mundane way. All this talk of "unprecedented" this and that over the past 4 years? Nonsense. This is still the same old story repeating itself. That's what history or very good fiction or (as in this case) a mix of the two can do: it can let you see your own moment in time as though you are looking at it from far off. And there are things you can see from far off that you can't see from up close.
Of course, if this were actually just a pre-telling/re-telling of the tragedy of King DJT, I would certainly not have had the appetite for reading a bazillion pages of it. But that's not primarily what it is. It's an underdog story about a common-born man who rises to the highest ranks and then loses his head. He is smart and ruthless, loyal and loving, resourceful and resentful, and I was very sad indeed to see him meet his inevitable end.
I should also say, given that this is a book review, that the writing itself is lovely. There are sentences in each of these books that knee-capped me. The writing is so muscular and musical, but it never feels like it's trying too hard. It doesn't feel like hard work. Even the loveliest lines seem like throwaways. If I could ever write one such sentence, I would expect to be awarded an instant Pulitzer. To write in such fresh and unexpected ways about a world so far in the past that we can now only see it as through a glass darkly (if at all)...well, I'm awfully impressed.
I am not a historian, and I would not dare to comment on its factual authenticity, although, to be honest, I don't even care about that. Based on my cursory Googling efforts, it seems to be at least hung upon the real bones of the bizarre story of Henry VIII's disposable wives. And it renders that bizarre tale understandable—albeit complex, self-contradictory, and unlikely—in fundamental ways. Given that she is writing about events that occurred inside the black box of the king's inner sanctum 500 years ago (!!!), I call that a win.
Equally impressive is the fact that this trilogy could have been written as a lens into understanding the Trump presidency, but the first book was published in 2009, when DJT was still just a reality-TV loser with bad hair. Ironically (or not?), Wolf Hall's Henry comes out looking much more sympathetic than DJT despite sharing his narcissism, foolishness, vagaries, and dangerous moodiness. After all, Henry was raised to believe he was anointed by God to be sovereign...which seems like a good excuse for his eagerness to believe his most deplorable acts were, in fact, God's will. Add to that the constant presence of advisers who all have their own agendas (various combinations of religious, acquisitive, and vengeful) and who go in and out of the king's chambers and in out of his esteem and what you have is a very Trump-ish set of circumstances. (Let us all be glad that the Constitution does not allow the President to order beheadings, because I think it's safe to say "the former guy" would have made full use of those powers. Twitter is brutal, but it's no executioner's sword.)
Not to belabor what is, ultimately, an accidental set of parallels, but it's also interesting to me that the king's person in these books becomes the location of great religious (and class) strife in ways that feel queasily familiar. Of course, Henry was busy distancing himself from the Pope and from Catholicism because he didn't like the Pope's rules about marriage, but many of his advisers (Cromwell among them) encouraged this rift (and enabled Henry's actions) for reasons that were, at least in part, a matter of genuine faith and principle. As Mantel tells the story, Cromwell never truly believed that it was right to annul Henry's first marriage, much less to execute Ann Boleyn and all of her purported consorts, but he was sympathetic to the cause of Luther and to the burgeoning Protestant movement, which held that people should be allowed to read the scriptures for themselves and that much of their interaction with the Catholic Church served purely to divest the common people of their money while enriching the Church. He was prepared to do the wrong thing for a few people in order to offer "true" religion to England. By the end of the books, it's clear that Cromwell's motives are a mixed bag, but his sympathy with the common people and belief in the Reformation were well-represented in that bag.
This is just one similarity that offered me what felt like real insight into the historical moment that we have just lived through/are now living through. And the view was ugly and pathetic in an utterly mundane way. All this talk of "unprecedented" this and that over the past 4 years? Nonsense. This is still the same old story repeating itself. That's what history or very good fiction or (as in this case) a mix of the two can do: it can let you see your own moment in time as though you are looking at it from far off. And there are things you can see from far off that you can't see from up close.
Of course, if this were actually just a pre-telling/re-telling of the tragedy of King DJT, I would certainly not have had the appetite for reading a bazillion pages of it. But that's not primarily what it is. It's an underdog story about a common-born man who rises to the highest ranks and then loses his head. He is smart and ruthless, loyal and loving, resourceful and resentful, and I was very sad indeed to see him meet his inevitable end.
I should also say, given that this is a book review, that the writing itself is lovely. There are sentences in each of these books that knee-capped me. The writing is so muscular and musical, but it never feels like it's trying too hard. It doesn't feel like hard work. Even the loveliest lines seem like throwaways. If I could ever write one such sentence, I would expect to be awarded an instant Pulitzer. To write in such fresh and unexpected ways about a world so far in the past that we can now only see it as through a glass darkly (if at all)...well, I'm awfully impressed.
December 12, 2023
I’m still in a bit of a daze, having finally finished this series. As I said in my review of Volume III: The Mirror & the Light, I think the whole thing is (without wishing to be too dramatic) basically just a work of genius — and that’s true regardless of whether you view it as one large tapestry or as three independent stories. Mantel was riding a 15-year wave of inspiration: the result is a collection of novels that add up to what is almost certainly the most formidable thing written by a British person this side of the millennium (I can’t say “best” because my heart will forever lean towards Harry Potter, and because the pure towering genius of Dr. Alan Statham’s recorder dancing scene from Episode 3 of Green Wing is something that exists in this world too — also, I haven’t read nearly enough to be able to pass off a grand sentiment like this without revealing myself to be a fool — yawn!). Anyway, I, personally, thought The Mirror & the Light the ultimate cherry on the top of Dame Hilary’s cake, but all three of her volumes are, in truth, equally spectacular. Not much more to be said. Chef’s kiss, m’lady. Bon voyage.
“But it is no use to justify yourself. It is no good to explain. It is weak to be anecdotal. It is wise to conceal the past even if there is nothing to conceal. A man's power is in the half-light, in the half-seen movements of his hand and the unguessed-at expression of his face. It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.” — Wolf Hall
“What is the nature of the border between truth and lies? It is permeable and blurred because it is planted thick with rumour, confabulation, misunderstandings and twisted tales. Truth can break the gates down, truth can howl in the street; unless truth is pleasing, personable and easy to like, she is condemned to stay whimpering at the back door.” — Bring Up the Bodies
“All your life you tramp the empty road with the wind at your back. You are hungry and your spirit is perturbed as you journey on into the gloom. But when you get to your destination the doorkeeper knows you. A torch goes before you as you cross the court. Inside there is a fire and a flask of wine, there is a candle and beside the candle your book. You pick it up and find your place is marked. You sit down by the fire, open it, and begin your story. You read on, into the night.” — The Mirror & the Light
“But it is no use to justify yourself. It is no good to explain. It is weak to be anecdotal. It is wise to conceal the past even if there is nothing to conceal. A man's power is in the half-light, in the half-seen movements of his hand and the unguessed-at expression of his face. It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.” — Wolf Hall
“What is the nature of the border between truth and lies? It is permeable and blurred because it is planted thick with rumour, confabulation, misunderstandings and twisted tales. Truth can break the gates down, truth can howl in the street; unless truth is pleasing, personable and easy to like, she is condemned to stay whimpering at the back door.” — Bring Up the Bodies
“All your life you tramp the empty road with the wind at your back. You are hungry and your spirit is perturbed as you journey on into the gloom. But when you get to your destination the doorkeeper knows you. A torch goes before you as you cross the court. Inside there is a fire and a flask of wine, there is a candle and beside the candle your book. You pick it up and find your place is marked. You sit down by the fire, open it, and begin your story. You read on, into the night.” — The Mirror & the Light
April 27, 2020
27 hours of listening time.
This audiobook is one of those rare delights. All three books in the trilogy, expertly narrated with a separate additional listening guide.
Not having read the first book since it was first released, and plodding my way through it at the time, this was the perfect way to work my way through the whole story from start to finish.
Difficulties I had with being bogged down with the wordiness back then were solved with this tight edited narration that gave all three books a riveting and entertaining pace.
Best way to listen to this is on a guaranteed quite weekend, with as few interruptions as possible.
I only had a hardcover copy of the 3rd book and it was impossible to read along because of the changes in the editing. Wasn't a concern because I will still go back and read it word for word and very sure I'll enjoy that experience too.
The third book has the high quality of the previous 2, so will be a very strong contender in this years prizes.
Highly recommended.
This audiobook is one of those rare delights. All three books in the trilogy, expertly narrated with a separate additional listening guide.
Not having read the first book since it was first released, and plodding my way through it at the time, this was the perfect way to work my way through the whole story from start to finish.
Difficulties I had with being bogged down with the wordiness back then were solved with this tight edited narration that gave all three books a riveting and entertaining pace.
Best way to listen to this is on a guaranteed quite weekend, with as few interruptions as possible.
I only had a hardcover copy of the 3rd book and it was impossible to read along because of the changes in the editing. Wasn't a concern because I will still go back and read it word for word and very sure I'll enjoy that experience too.
The third book has the high quality of the previous 2, so will be a very strong contender in this years prizes.
Highly recommended.
November 4, 2025
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
An excellent, different perspective of Henry VII and those around him that I enjoyed very much
Some warning seems required- after writing some lines about the novel, however indirectly, I realized that I have the urge to veer into territory that may be without interest to anybody- not that otherwise the notes would be long expected by- again- anyone…
There are a few reasons to be happy after reading this book.
The first and most important is that I have enjoyed it, in spite of the augury that was not promising, when I tried to start with Bring Out of the Bodies, by the same author.
Another motive for rejoicing is the fact that, coming after the happy experience of finishing The Inheritance of Loss, it may confirm- Insha’Allah!!- That I am able to dig what happens in Man Booker Prize winning books- and more important- enjoy them.
Then there is the minor matter of the new approach, method of reading that helped me conquer the bad omens that preceded this novel.
I have a small sauna at home, vestige from the days when business was doing well- or at least we thought it did- which I do not often use.
In fact, it has been more than a year since the last series, because it uses ceramic panels and I prefer and have access at the club where I am a member to traditional sauna.
My daughter has had a two week holyday, which deprives of the reason I have Monday through Thursday to go down town…of course I could go anyway, but I hang around with Puccini and Balzac- not the ghosts of the geniuses, but their Macaw namesakes.
Five days ago, I remembered I have this small sauna and that I should use it, calculated or cheap, as my spouse often puts it, I calculated that the cost of going downtown to the club where I have access- included in the yearly fee- would just about match the electricity consumed with the ceramic panels.
With that decision, I hit the jackpot.
The use of forgotten facility always brings a smile on the face of L’Avare, but there is also the joy of high temperature, which I have learned that even Hippocrates lauded, saying something like
- Give me a high temperature and I will cure anything- or was it a lot of diseases?
- The main point seems to be that a high temperature is good for the body, in the context of saunas and that famous man referred to it in the manner of the other scientist- more or less- who referred to the earth and a point of support
Jackpot because with the sauna, I decided to listen to the audio book Wolf Hall, in the silence offered by that small box that I keep in the garage- with the macaws around, I need a book that really hits me in the head to keep concentrated, otherwise my mind wonders off, with the birds making noises, kicking each other and so on…
One quandary that kept me suspicious concerned the difference between fiction and reality, what Hilary Mantel envisaged and what really happened.
There are so many differences among the various Henry VIII that I have seen or heard over the years that every time he seems to be a different man, and he is, since every time the character is what another writer, screenwriter or playwright imagines about the historical personage.
I have even seen recently, on the History Viasat channel, a documentary on the body, health, diet- or better said lack of what we would call today diet- and the effects on the evolution of the man and the downfall.
As I have read again these days about the impact that various chemical have upon our brain, I wonder what influence serotonin, dopamine had on the history of England and the amount of game that the king consumed for that matter.
Henry VIII is very different in this book…but so is Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell…indeed all the personages that I have met in other literary works.
It bothered me at times to keep thinking-
- Was he really like that?
- I like Thomas Cromwell, but wasn’t he a negative character in the other books I have read?
But then I rested my case thinking that I know how very subjective I am, and, for instance- if Richard Burton- a favorite of mine, with the best voice I heard for some time- played Henry VIII I loved the king, in spite- or is it because of – his philandering, that I sympathized with, if for no other reason that I did it too and when I did not, I wished I did…
From here I look forward to Bring Up the Bodies, which I have already tried without success and deterred by the long list of characters- that are kind of familiar now that I have been through the first part of the saga.
An excellent, different perspective of Henry VII and those around him that I enjoyed very much
Some warning seems required- after writing some lines about the novel, however indirectly, I realized that I have the urge to veer into territory that may be without interest to anybody- not that otherwise the notes would be long expected by- again- anyone…
There are a few reasons to be happy after reading this book.
The first and most important is that I have enjoyed it, in spite of the augury that was not promising, when I tried to start with Bring Out of the Bodies, by the same author.
Another motive for rejoicing is the fact that, coming after the happy experience of finishing The Inheritance of Loss, it may confirm- Insha’Allah!!- That I am able to dig what happens in Man Booker Prize winning books- and more important- enjoy them.
Then there is the minor matter of the new approach, method of reading that helped me conquer the bad omens that preceded this novel.
I have a small sauna at home, vestige from the days when business was doing well- or at least we thought it did- which I do not often use.
In fact, it has been more than a year since the last series, because it uses ceramic panels and I prefer and have access at the club where I am a member to traditional sauna.
My daughter has had a two week holyday, which deprives of the reason I have Monday through Thursday to go down town…of course I could go anyway, but I hang around with Puccini and Balzac- not the ghosts of the geniuses, but their Macaw namesakes.
Five days ago, I remembered I have this small sauna and that I should use it, calculated or cheap, as my spouse often puts it, I calculated that the cost of going downtown to the club where I have access- included in the yearly fee- would just about match the electricity consumed with the ceramic panels.
With that decision, I hit the jackpot.
The use of forgotten facility always brings a smile on the face of L’Avare, but there is also the joy of high temperature, which I have learned that even Hippocrates lauded, saying something like
- Give me a high temperature and I will cure anything- or was it a lot of diseases?
- The main point seems to be that a high temperature is good for the body, in the context of saunas and that famous man referred to it in the manner of the other scientist- more or less- who referred to the earth and a point of support
Jackpot because with the sauna, I decided to listen to the audio book Wolf Hall, in the silence offered by that small box that I keep in the garage- with the macaws around, I need a book that really hits me in the head to keep concentrated, otherwise my mind wonders off, with the birds making noises, kicking each other and so on…
One quandary that kept me suspicious concerned the difference between fiction and reality, what Hilary Mantel envisaged and what really happened.
There are so many differences among the various Henry VIII that I have seen or heard over the years that every time he seems to be a different man, and he is, since every time the character is what another writer, screenwriter or playwright imagines about the historical personage.
I have even seen recently, on the History Viasat channel, a documentary on the body, health, diet- or better said lack of what we would call today diet- and the effects on the evolution of the man and the downfall.
As I have read again these days about the impact that various chemical have upon our brain, I wonder what influence serotonin, dopamine had on the history of England and the amount of game that the king consumed for that matter.
Henry VIII is very different in this book…but so is Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell…indeed all the personages that I have met in other literary works.
It bothered me at times to keep thinking-
- Was he really like that?
- I like Thomas Cromwell, but wasn’t he a negative character in the other books I have read?
But then I rested my case thinking that I know how very subjective I am, and, for instance- if Richard Burton- a favorite of mine, with the best voice I heard for some time- played Henry VIII I loved the king, in spite- or is it because of – his philandering, that I sympathized with, if for no other reason that I did it too and when I did not, I wished I did…
From here I look forward to Bring Up the Bodies, which I have already tried without success and deterred by the long list of characters- that are kind of familiar now that I have been through the first part of the saga.
June 1, 2023
This triology was a mighty long endeavour, dense, had far too many characters called Thomas, and my lack of tudor specific knowledge probably meant that a lot went past me, yet, I'd still heartily recommend if you like history and like deep characters
June 29, 2024
Read all 3 books again! Just so brilliant. It’s like being in a play unfolding before your eyes and seeing all the characters perform in front of you. Poignant, witty, extreme, dramatic, funny, cruel and ruthless, terrifying and beautiful.
June 8, 2020
The first, Wolf Hall, was the best. I could not put any of them down, though. Got the first two from the library; had to actually buy the third (The Mirror and the Light) when the library's HOLD list would have meant a wait of . . . months at least.
Hillary Mantel's talent in building Thomas Cromwell's multi-faceted, devious, caring, loyal, savvy, vengeful, talented & brilliant character, coupled with compelling well-paced plotting, made this series--all three--truly unputdownable. ALL of the characters are well-drawn in nuanced ways. The writing is brilliant.
And who knew Cromwell was a foodie? Cromwell's musings on food throughout the three books, though not by any means a dominant thread, are so well written you can almost taste the offerings.
I had just one problem throughout the three books, similar to those reading Russian classics--I could not keep the characters straight when sometimes they were "Duke of Suffolk" & other times their given names were used. The character list at the beginning of each book helped, but not entirely. Who wants to keep flipping back to refer to the list?
But this is a very minor quibble & the fault of my own faulty memory. I highly, highly recommend this series. All three.
Hillary Mantel's talent in building Thomas Cromwell's multi-faceted, devious, caring, loyal, savvy, vengeful, talented & brilliant character, coupled with compelling well-paced plotting, made this series--all three--truly unputdownable. ALL of the characters are well-drawn in nuanced ways. The writing is brilliant.
And who knew Cromwell was a foodie? Cromwell's musings on food throughout the three books, though not by any means a dominant thread, are so well written you can almost taste the offerings.
I had just one problem throughout the three books, similar to those reading Russian classics--I could not keep the characters straight when sometimes they were "Duke of Suffolk" & other times their given names were used. The character list at the beginning of each book helped, but not entirely. Who wants to keep flipping back to refer to the list?
But this is a very minor quibble & the fault of my own faulty memory. I highly, highly recommend this series. All three.
June 3, 2023
I wanted to write a separate review for the entire trilogy because Mantel deserves that. I firmly believe that this is the best piece of historical fiction I have ever read and may ever read. Daring, bold, and a tribute to the history itself, Cromwell's story thrives in these novels.
That's not to say the series was perfect. I was left wishing I had gotten a little more of Thomas' early days (Wolf Hall was the hardest for me to get through). There was not a single moment I could have told you who Francis Bryan was, or why Suffolk was ever important. A lot of the politics was lost on me, which is a shame because I'm sure that many of the lessons I could have grasped about loyalty during times of political crisis or learning to navigate uncharted times would have been much clearer if I had known exactly what was going on. But, it was written perfectly. The sheer pleasure of reading Mantel as she jumped between Cromwell's present day, his thoughts, his hopes for the future of England and shackles to his personal past, revealed so much about not only Cromwell, but also each character inserted into the narrative. It was innovative and fresh in a way I never expected a story about the well-explored Tudors to be. A masterclass in writing and presenting history in a way that speaks to us today.
One final shout-out to Rafe Sadler. His first scene, when Cromwell brings him home though the storm, wrapped in sodden wool that steams by the hearth, was one of the few chapters that stood out to me in Wolf Hall. When Mantel references that scene again in the final pages of The Mirror and The Light, I cried like a baby.
That's not to say the series was perfect. I was left wishing I had gotten a little more of Thomas' early days (Wolf Hall was the hardest for me to get through). There was not a single moment I could have told you who Francis Bryan was, or why Suffolk was ever important. A lot of the politics was lost on me, which is a shame because I'm sure that many of the lessons I could have grasped about loyalty during times of political crisis or learning to navigate uncharted times would have been much clearer if I had known exactly what was going on. But, it was written perfectly. The sheer pleasure of reading Mantel as she jumped between Cromwell's present day, his thoughts, his hopes for the future of England and shackles to his personal past, revealed so much about not only Cromwell, but also each character inserted into the narrative. It was innovative and fresh in a way I never expected a story about the well-explored Tudors to be. A masterclass in writing and presenting history in a way that speaks to us today.
One final shout-out to Rafe Sadler. His first scene, when Cromwell brings him home though the storm, wrapped in sodden wool that steams by the hearth, was one of the few chapters that stood out to me in Wolf Hall. When Mantel references that scene again in the final pages of The Mirror and The Light, I cried like a baby.
August 17, 2023
I decided to read the trilogy when I heard its author, Hilary Mantel, died last year. I'm not into historical novels - not until now anyway - but I decided to give the trilogy a go. It's excellent!
The trilogy consists of three historical political novels set during the reign of Henry VIII and his chief minister Thomas Cromwell. I have just finished the last one, The Mirror and the Light, and even the ending is not disappointing. Of course, you know what's going to happen to the main character from the onset, but it's still riveting.
I started with the audiobooks, but it was an abridged edition so I returned it and switched to the ebooks on Scribd. It was a bit difficult to follow who's who, especially because Mantel does not stick to one name for any of her characters; she uses two or three different names or titles and it gets a bit confusing sometimes, but nothing too distracting.
Hilary Mantel won the Booker Prize for both the 2009 novel Wolf Hall and its 2012 sequel Bring Up the Bodies. The last one, The Mirror and the Light, published in 2020, was longlisted for the same prize.
The trilogy consists of three historical political novels set during the reign of Henry VIII and his chief minister Thomas Cromwell. I have just finished the last one, The Mirror and the Light, and even the ending is not disappointing. Of course, you know what's going to happen to the main character from the onset, but it's still riveting.
I started with the audiobooks, but it was an abridged edition so I returned it and switched to the ebooks on Scribd. It was a bit difficult to follow who's who, especially because Mantel does not stick to one name for any of her characters; she uses two or three different names or titles and it gets a bit confusing sometimes, but nothing too distracting.
Hilary Mantel won the Booker Prize for both the 2009 novel Wolf Hall and its 2012 sequel Bring Up the Bodies. The last one, The Mirror and the Light, published in 2020, was longlisted for the same prize.
December 8, 2022
Well. This was quite the experience. Full disclosure I listened to the abridged audiobooks which came in at a sweet 26 hours, but I did also get a couple of the hard copies to see what I was missing. I am enjoying my WOTR/ Tudor deep dive and Hilary was a very talented writer. Rip cremwell x
January 1, 2022
Borrow Box for the first two volumes, Audible for the third.
December 9, 2023
bbbbrrrrilliant listening. I have painted the cornices of my house while listening to this book, as well as listening in the car. I know exactly where on the cornices Anne was beheaded, and exactly where I was driving for Thomas dismal and drawn-out end. I am now listening to the whole thing again.
April 7, 2020
Mantel on form. Her prose is a joy, the characterisation complex and credible. No way is this potboiler historical fiction. Although everyone knows the ending and indeed the events of the entire trilogy, she sustains suspense throughout.
Perhaps only the English can understand their particular version of “Reformation”, if it can be so described, so messy and murderous to my Scots eyes.
No doubt about it, Henry VIII was a monster, even from an anglocentric point of view, an early exponent of “thought crime”. It’s a mercy that UK has had the monarchy tamed for the last two centuries or thereabouts and that nobody has held that level of power ever since (although we can never be complacent in these strange times of Brexit and pandemic!)
Perhaps only the English can understand their particular version of “Reformation”, if it can be so described, so messy and murderous to my Scots eyes.
No doubt about it, Henry VIII was a monster, even from an anglocentric point of view, an early exponent of “thought crime”. It’s a mercy that UK has had the monarchy tamed for the last two centuries or thereabouts and that nobody has held that level of power ever since (although we can never be complacent in these strange times of Brexit and pandemic!)
April 21, 2021
There is so much more to these books than story, or history, or biography or any of the other things that normally propel a narrative. There is so much to fit in, too, and for big books, fat books, full books, they are in many ways an exercise in spareness. Descriptions are no more and no less than is necessary, and often plain, e. g. "Jane Seymour, like a little jointed puppet as she walks beside the king"; or Cromwell's son Gregory, in whom "great books like boulders have rolled into his head then out of it again." It is as much about viewpoint and voice, and giving a perspective to one of history's supposed villains, portraying him as the shrewd and laconic observer he must surely have been. As Mantel herself says of the research she did, with history there is always the question 'who is telling me this? And why would they want me to believe it?'
And why would we want to believe Cromwell was anything other than the villain he has been almost universally painted? Probably because of the tiny details Mantel uses, insignificant in themselves, but which add up to a convincing portrait. Of Anne Boleyn: “What was once sinuous had become angular”; Katherine of Aragon's final resting place: “Well, if you’re dead Peterborough is as good a place as any!”; the Duke of Norfolk "stumps away on his little legs"; Jane Seymour’s eyes “like deep ponds on a still day”; the grooms "dart and swerve like early swallows". It’s the thought world that matters, the mind of the man at the centre of things, the books, the court, the church, the realm . It’s a lesson in how much you can say in so few words.
Each word is weighed, plump with meaning. You'd think it was the ultimate triumph of style over substance until you realise, the style is the substance. The style of a man at the heart of things, on the inside but never an insider: a foreigner in a foreign country of the petulant King's court observing everything as closely and as dispassionately as the eternal outsider would, especially if he wants to succeed, to get on, to live.
But in the end, everyone's life is subject to the whims of a very fickle fate, and questions of whether God can be "baked into bread?" lie ready to trip you up and bring down the curtain, or the executioner's axe. As Mantel herself says: "Five rash minutes of boasting in one ungratified life and, like nervous tradesmen, the gods send in their accounts at once."
And why would we want to believe Cromwell was anything other than the villain he has been almost universally painted? Probably because of the tiny details Mantel uses, insignificant in themselves, but which add up to a convincing portrait. Of Anne Boleyn: “What was once sinuous had become angular”; Katherine of Aragon's final resting place: “Well, if you’re dead Peterborough is as good a place as any!”; the Duke of Norfolk "stumps away on his little legs"; Jane Seymour’s eyes “like deep ponds on a still day”; the grooms "dart and swerve like early swallows". It’s the thought world that matters, the mind of the man at the centre of things, the books, the court, the church, the realm . It’s a lesson in how much you can say in so few words.
Each word is weighed, plump with meaning. You'd think it was the ultimate triumph of style over substance until you realise, the style is the substance. The style of a man at the heart of things, on the inside but never an insider: a foreigner in a foreign country of the petulant King's court observing everything as closely and as dispassionately as the eternal outsider would, especially if he wants to succeed, to get on, to live.
But in the end, everyone's life is subject to the whims of a very fickle fate, and questions of whether God can be "baked into bread?" lie ready to trip you up and bring down the curtain, or the executioner's axe. As Mantel herself says: "Five rash minutes of boasting in one ungratified life and, like nervous tradesmen, the gods send in their accounts at once."
0-not-to-read-or-did-not-finish
April 19, 2021I found this Law & Liberty review by Eleanor Schneider particularly helpful in determining that I do NOT want to read this popular trilogy.
An excellent review should educate the reader and help them determine whether they want to invest the time/ treasure in the work discussed. Eleanor Schneider has written an excellent review. This is not to say the book does not have value. For the right reader, it may be a pleasure. Although I'm Protestant, I'm not interested in reading an all-Catholics-evil-because-Cromwell-good perspective. Therefore, I am not the right reader for this historical fiction. Based on the awards won and number of books sold, there are apparently many other readers to whom this series is well suited. Read Eleanor's Schneider's excellent review and find out if you are one of them - or not.
Law & Legacy, "A Wolf for All Seasons," Eleanor Schneider, April 19, 2021.
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/a-...
An excellent review should educate the reader and help them determine whether they want to invest the time/ treasure in the work discussed. Eleanor Schneider has written an excellent review. This is not to say the book does not have value. For the right reader, it may be a pleasure. Although I'm Protestant, I'm not interested in reading an all-Catholics-evil-because-Cromwell-good perspective. Therefore, I am not the right reader for this historical fiction. Based on the awards won and number of books sold, there are apparently many other readers to whom this series is well suited. Read Eleanor's Schneider's excellent review and find out if you are one of them - or not.
Law & Legacy, "A Wolf for All Seasons," Eleanor Schneider, April 19, 2021.
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/a-...
July 28, 2023
Esta reseña podría subtitularse "el sueño que se convirtió librería, en libro y en familia", porque sin querer desvelar mucho de la historia, de alguna forma no pueden existir el uno sin el otro y sin la una. Y es que, desde hace apenas un año, somos muchos los que hemos podido descubrir ese rinconcito mágico que es la librería de Amapolas en Octubre en la calle Pelayo.
Desde que abrió quise hacerme con el libro, pero a veces las cosas pasan por un motivo, y entre que no había podido ir, y no me había dado tiempo, no lo he leído hasta esta semana. Ahora sé que es porque los libros nos escogen, una de las cientos de frases que he subrayado en el libro, porque tenemos que estar preparados para abrazar lo que el destino nos trae.
Me pasa con los libros que tengo que encontrarles un ritmo, y en esta ida tan frenética que llevamos, y de la que nos hemos visto obligados a hacer un parón por culpa del Coronavirus, a veces lo pierdo. Como con la bici, encontrarle el ritmo a leer es cuestión de volver a empezar, nunca se olvida, y sabía yo que esta semana santa me lo iba a devolver... me alegro mucho de que haya sido con Amapolas en Octubre.
No quiero contar mucho del argumento (podéis encontrar el oficial al final del post), porque quiero que resulte un descubrimiento tan especial para vosotros como lo ha sido para mí. Se trata una historia intimista y auténtica, llena de sueños, de literatura y de cuentos, que gira en torno a una desgracia familiar a través de la que vemos crecer a la protagonista y a los personajes que la rodean. Una oda a la literatura y a la vida, que en el caso de Carolina (la protagonista) son la misma cosa, porque es a través de los libros que nos puede contar su historia y la de sus sueños que se convierten en realidad.
Lo que más me ha gustado del libro, es que me he descubierto en muchas de sus frases. Lápiz rojo en mano (de esos con doble punta, una azul y otra roja), he destacado frases y párrafos enteros que me han hablado desde las páginas del libro como si hubieran salido de mí misma. Frases sobre la pena, los recuerdos y muchos sentimientos que a veces decidimos enterrar para sobrevivir, aunque sea eso mismo lo que nos lastre. Frases que me han llenado los ojos de lágrimas de emoción y que me han hecho correr por sus páginas queriendo al mismo tiempo que se acabe y que no se acabe nunca.
Qué regalo de libro... qué regalo para estos días en los que creemos que nos falta todo, cuando no es verdad... los que somos afortunados ya lo sabíamos, pero a veces hace falta que nos den un empujoncito. Que este libro lo sea para vosotros.
Argumento
Entre una habitación de hospital y una librería de ensueño, llamada JO, discurre la vida de una mujer, Carolina, que, a punto de alcanzar la cuarentena, se encuentra en una auténtica encrucijada: sus padres, alrededor de los cuales gravita su vida entera, han sufrido un terrible accidente. Su padre ha fallecido y su madre, consciente pero sin habla, se recupera en una clínica.
Aunque lo podéis comprar a través de las plataformas online de siempre (La Casa del Libro, Amazon y Cía.) os recomiendo que vayáis a Amapolas en Octubre, en la calle Pelayo y os perdáis en su paraíso de libros, que bien podría ser un salón de casa. Conocéis a Laura, su dueña y autora del libro, y os lleváis el placer de charlar con ella, que os envuelva el libro e incluso os lo dedique, porque además es fantástica.
Cómpralo
En estos días tan difíciles en que no pueden ir a la librería y hacer envíos, han ideado una buena alternativa: comprar tarjetas de regalo que redimir cuando volvamos a las calles. Sólo tenéis que escribir un email a amapolaslibreria@gmail.com indicando que queréis comprar una, y Laura os dirá cómo.
Desde que abrió quise hacerme con el libro, pero a veces las cosas pasan por un motivo, y entre que no había podido ir, y no me había dado tiempo, no lo he leído hasta esta semana. Ahora sé que es porque los libros nos escogen, una de las cientos de frases que he subrayado en el libro, porque tenemos que estar preparados para abrazar lo que el destino nos trae.
Me pasa con los libros que tengo que encontrarles un ritmo, y en esta ida tan frenética que llevamos, y de la que nos hemos visto obligados a hacer un parón por culpa del Coronavirus, a veces lo pierdo. Como con la bici, encontrarle el ritmo a leer es cuestión de volver a empezar, nunca se olvida, y sabía yo que esta semana santa me lo iba a devolver... me alegro mucho de que haya sido con Amapolas en Octubre.
No quiero contar mucho del argumento (podéis encontrar el oficial al final del post), porque quiero que resulte un descubrimiento tan especial para vosotros como lo ha sido para mí. Se trata una historia intimista y auténtica, llena de sueños, de literatura y de cuentos, que gira en torno a una desgracia familiar a través de la que vemos crecer a la protagonista y a los personajes que la rodean. Una oda a la literatura y a la vida, que en el caso de Carolina (la protagonista) son la misma cosa, porque es a través de los libros que nos puede contar su historia y la de sus sueños que se convierten en realidad.
Lo que más me ha gustado del libro, es que me he descubierto en muchas de sus frases. Lápiz rojo en mano (de esos con doble punta, una azul y otra roja), he destacado frases y párrafos enteros que me han hablado desde las páginas del libro como si hubieran salido de mí misma. Frases sobre la pena, los recuerdos y muchos sentimientos que a veces decidimos enterrar para sobrevivir, aunque sea eso mismo lo que nos lastre. Frases que me han llenado los ojos de lágrimas de emoción y que me han hecho correr por sus páginas queriendo al mismo tiempo que se acabe y que no se acabe nunca.
Qué regalo de libro... qué regalo para estos días en los que creemos que nos falta todo, cuando no es verdad... los que somos afortunados ya lo sabíamos, pero a veces hace falta que nos den un empujoncito. Que este libro lo sea para vosotros.
Argumento
Entre una habitación de hospital y una librería de ensueño, llamada JO, discurre la vida de una mujer, Carolina, que, a punto de alcanzar la cuarentena, se encuentra en una auténtica encrucijada: sus padres, alrededor de los cuales gravita su vida entera, han sufrido un terrible accidente. Su padre ha fallecido y su madre, consciente pero sin habla, se recupera en una clínica.
Aunque lo podéis comprar a través de las plataformas online de siempre (La Casa del Libro, Amazon y Cía.) os recomiendo que vayáis a Amapolas en Octubre, en la calle Pelayo y os perdáis en su paraíso de libros, que bien podría ser un salón de casa. Conocéis a Laura, su dueña y autora del libro, y os lleváis el placer de charlar con ella, que os envuelva el libro e incluso os lo dedique, porque además es fantástica.
Cómpralo
En estos días tan difíciles en que no pueden ir a la librería y hacer envíos, han ideado una buena alternativa: comprar tarjetas de regalo que redimir cuando volvamos a las calles. Sólo tenéis que escribir un email a amapolaslibreria@gmail.com indicando que queréis comprar una, y Laura os dirá cómo.
February 20, 2021
I'll give it all stars, although I warn you it's challenging. The first book is brilliant, but the author has a strange style. In the first of the three, she ignores the rules around pronouns and their antecedents, and makes abrupt leaps between times and settings. But it's worth it.
In the second book, she's made the pronouns clear and doesn't toss her readers violently from one cliff to the next. This one is the best. By the third, I struggled. There are a massive number of characters, and their names shift. Sometimes Mantel uses their names, sometimes their titles, and their titles change as their fortunes rise and fall, and worse yet, they largely have the same names. The sameness of their names can't be helped, since the English appeared to have a serious name shortage back then. Sometimes King Henry the VIII is Henry, sometimes Harry, sometimes the Prince. Argggh! But the characterization, and psychology are plausible and compelling. Despite King Henry having a bad reputation when it comes to wives, young women from ambitious families are still keen to be his next choice: "Brides frisk like silly sheep to the slaughter".
Despite Anne Boleyn being manipulative and cruel, she is depicted as fully human and worthy of compassion. After years of scheming to get Henry to denounce his first wife, Anne is barely capable of standing or even of enduring the weight of the crown, once it's placed on her head in a ceremony where she is small and vulnerable.
King Henry is lonely but arrogant. He bemoans that he and Thomas Cromwell were never able to go on a friendly outing together to meet the iron masters to see how they crafted weapons. Thomas consoles him by saying they should just imagine how it could have happened. "Let us say the ironmasters gave us their best welcome, and opened their minds to us, and showed us all their secrets." "They must have, ' Henry says. 'No one could keep secrets from me. It is no use to try'".
The writing sparkles. "...the air as damp as if the afternoon had been rubbed with snails." Much earlier in the series, Princess Mary is described as having a face like a thumbnail. Her personality suits her appearance, small, fragile, and inexpressive. Once she's been fed, she gains her strength and gets mean.
Although Cromwell has risen from his family background of blacksmiths and merchants, and he eventually becomes not just an Earl, but the King's best friend, he has actually created a tight prison for himself. He realizes that laws that he wrote and made into policy will eventually lead him to the executioner's platform.
Of course this novel reminded me of certain political elements in the hear and now. Aides who assist and enable frivolous and dangerous leaders come to regret their involvement, sooner or later. Loyalty does not exist among people like Henry the VIII or his present day iteration.
In the second book, she's made the pronouns clear and doesn't toss her readers violently from one cliff to the next. This one is the best. By the third, I struggled. There are a massive number of characters, and their names shift. Sometimes Mantel uses their names, sometimes their titles, and their titles change as their fortunes rise and fall, and worse yet, they largely have the same names. The sameness of their names can't be helped, since the English appeared to have a serious name shortage back then. Sometimes King Henry the VIII is Henry, sometimes Harry, sometimes the Prince. Argggh! But the characterization, and psychology are plausible and compelling. Despite King Henry having a bad reputation when it comes to wives, young women from ambitious families are still keen to be his next choice: "Brides frisk like silly sheep to the slaughter".
Despite Anne Boleyn being manipulative and cruel, she is depicted as fully human and worthy of compassion. After years of scheming to get Henry to denounce his first wife, Anne is barely capable of standing or even of enduring the weight of the crown, once it's placed on her head in a ceremony where she is small and vulnerable.
King Henry is lonely but arrogant. He bemoans that he and Thomas Cromwell were never able to go on a friendly outing together to meet the iron masters to see how they crafted weapons. Thomas consoles him by saying they should just imagine how it could have happened. "Let us say the ironmasters gave us their best welcome, and opened their minds to us, and showed us all their secrets." "They must have, ' Henry says. 'No one could keep secrets from me. It is no use to try'".
The writing sparkles. "...the air as damp as if the afternoon had been rubbed with snails." Much earlier in the series, Princess Mary is described as having a face like a thumbnail. Her personality suits her appearance, small, fragile, and inexpressive. Once she's been fed, she gains her strength and gets mean.
Although Cromwell has risen from his family background of blacksmiths and merchants, and he eventually becomes not just an Earl, but the King's best friend, he has actually created a tight prison for himself. He realizes that laws that he wrote and made into policy will eventually lead him to the executioner's platform.
Of course this novel reminded me of certain political elements in the hear and now. Aides who assist and enable frivolous and dangerous leaders come to regret their involvement, sooner or later. Loyalty does not exist among people like Henry the VIII or his present day iteration.
August 14, 2022
I was going to log each of the books of this trilogy separately (I’ve got an annual goal to reach after all!) until I realised that I was listening to an abridged version. As other readers have noted, this could definitely have been made clearer when purchasing but, unlike others, I actually enjoyed this lighter-touch, dramatic version. I have read the full version of Wolf Hall and found it dragged for me in places and felt repetitive, so I very much enjoyed this shorter highlights reel. Perhaps this was aided for me personally as I do have a good understanding of these historical events and the general background, so didn’t feel like I lost a great deal by trimming the description and focusing on the key plot.
Wolf Hall chronicles the rise of Cromwell from an astute merchant boy who is good with numbers in the doomed Cardinal Wolsey’s house to the Master Secretary of the land. He rises alongside Anne Boleyn and succeeds precisely because he is able to assist Henry in finding a way out of his previous marriage to Catherine of Aragon. In Bring Up The Bodies, he must perform similar legal wizardry again, but this time to free Henry from Anne to marry the demure, unassuming Jane Seymour who is her polar opposite. Finally, The Mirror and the Light summarises the reign of the Seymours and the events which follow Jane’s death, notably Henry’s annulled marriage to Anne of Cleves. The novel climaxes with Cromwell’s own death at the hands of the people and system he built to give Henry all that he had ever desired.
Mantel described her goal in writing these books as wanting to show a different, or perhaps a “real”, view of Thomas Cromwell, who is often vilified by history. She certainly achieved this masterfully, laying bare his motives and conflicts in serving a fickle and foolish king, where the only way to ensure your survival was to deliver what he wanted when he wanted it. Cromwell is portrayed as the ultimate self-made man, whose only mistake was in becoming almost as powerful as the king he served. He played a huge role in shaping the nation we live in today, both for good and ill. Even abridged the trilogy was almost 30 hours long so, like the history it describes, this is pretty epic but well worth a listen.
Wolf Hall chronicles the rise of Cromwell from an astute merchant boy who is good with numbers in the doomed Cardinal Wolsey’s house to the Master Secretary of the land. He rises alongside Anne Boleyn and succeeds precisely because he is able to assist Henry in finding a way out of his previous marriage to Catherine of Aragon. In Bring Up The Bodies, he must perform similar legal wizardry again, but this time to free Henry from Anne to marry the demure, unassuming Jane Seymour who is her polar opposite. Finally, The Mirror and the Light summarises the reign of the Seymours and the events which follow Jane’s death, notably Henry’s annulled marriage to Anne of Cleves. The novel climaxes with Cromwell’s own death at the hands of the people and system he built to give Henry all that he had ever desired.
Mantel described her goal in writing these books as wanting to show a different, or perhaps a “real”, view of Thomas Cromwell, who is often vilified by history. She certainly achieved this masterfully, laying bare his motives and conflicts in serving a fickle and foolish king, where the only way to ensure your survival was to deliver what he wanted when he wanted it. Cromwell is portrayed as the ultimate self-made man, whose only mistake was in becoming almost as powerful as the king he served. He played a huge role in shaping the nation we live in today, both for good and ill. Even abridged the trilogy was almost 30 hours long so, like the history it describes, this is pretty epic but well worth a listen.
July 20, 2022
In a way, this is a whole new "genre" for me. This is a rather well edited abridged version (I of course missed this on Libby at first). I didn't really "get" abridged recordings before, especially not abridged versions of fiction. Did this trilogy change anything?
Yes and no.
On the one hand, I do commend the editing. The story was easy enough to follow even though the originals are pretty dense (I've read the first book some years before). I think it was still a good piece of writing.
Then again, some plot points obviously won't punch as hard if things are accelerated (about 2-3-fold). And I do like all the stuff that makes historical fiction lengthy - the setting and little details and everything. And I liked the first two narrators more than the last one.
So was it a big mistake to listen to this? Nope, I don't think I would have been interested enough to read all three books - there's a bit too much political intrigue. And I don't think listening to the audiobook would stop me from going for the full versions either.
The books themselves - some of the best historical fiction ever written, highly recommended of course!
Yes and no.
On the one hand, I do commend the editing. The story was easy enough to follow even though the originals are pretty dense (I've read the first book some years before). I think it was still a good piece of writing.
Then again, some plot points obviously won't punch as hard if things are accelerated (about 2-3-fold). And I do like all the stuff that makes historical fiction lengthy - the setting and little details and everything. And I liked the first two narrators more than the last one.
So was it a big mistake to listen to this? Nope, I don't think I would have been interested enough to read all three books - there's a bit too much political intrigue. And I don't think listening to the audiobook would stop me from going for the full versions either.
The books themselves - some of the best historical fiction ever written, highly recommended of course!
June 3, 2021
There are three books in this series, Wolf Hall being the first. I intend to read the other two also. Mantel is a gifted writer. The story is loosely based on the life of Thomas Cromwell who became an advisor and friend to Henry VIII. I say loosely because historians don't really know that much about him and a lot of Mantel's story is speculation, as is most hisorical fiction. But what a story she weaves. It takes us from Cromwell's childhood up to the early few years of Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn. What a woman she was, as portrayed here. My only difficulty with the book was with keeping names straight. It was like a Russian novel, various people would be referred to by their Christian name, or their family name or their title. And there are a lot of characters. I wish I had kept a notebook of names.
December 18, 2023
I am just finishing reading the last of the Wolf Hall Trilogy (The Mirror and the Light). What a ride these books have been. All 3 books are quite large but so engrossing that you are on to the next book before you know it. I wish there were more as I've become attached to the characters. This being a historical fiction series, you know that the people are real but the portrayal of characters is fictional because you can't know what they said for sure in real life, only what they allegedly did.
All I can say is that I'm glad that we have moved on from those Tudor times as they were pretty grim.
I highly recommend these books. I am usually not that interested in history per se but these books were a romp. I am slowly reading the last pages of the last book because I don't want to part with the characters.
All I can say is that I'm glad that we have moved on from those Tudor times as they were pretty grim.
I highly recommend these books. I am usually not that interested in history per se but these books were a romp. I am slowly reading the last pages of the last book because I don't want to part with the characters.
September 26, 2022
I cannot recommend this book enough. These might be the most powerful and impressive books I've read in a decade. The prose is beautiful, the story flows effortlessly, and the characters are engaging. The most impactful moments of the book stick with you for a long time. Highlights for me were the exploration of Cromwell's relationship with Cardinal Wolsey and in turn the relationships he has with the young men who end up working for him. Buy the Wolf Hall Trilogy, check it out from the Library, borrow it from your sister-in-law, do whatever you need to do get your hands on these books (just don't steal them). They are worth your time.
Rest in Peace Hilary Mantel, the world is poorer without you in it.
Rest in Peace Hilary Mantel, the world is poorer without you in it.
April 26, 2023
Enjoyed this second book but found the chapters relating to Anne Boleyn's incarceration rather hurried at times, perhaps explained by lack of historical records of this. I felt Cromwell's character changing or perhaps Hilary Mantel was revealing the less likeable side of his character. Equally, it highlighted the vulnerability of all the players in King Henry's court and increasingly of Cromwell. The destruction of Anne so speedily was breath-taking. Even as a queen, a women's lot in Tudor times was very hard. I look forward to reading the last book and saying reluctantly good bye to Cremuel.
May 11, 2020
Excellent historical novels about Thomas Cromwell and Henry the VIII. Also insights into Henry and his queens. You really feel for these women and their various predicaments. Not only did you have to worry about your husband's wandering eye, since marriages carried so much political weight, you had to worry about nobility trying to get you beheaded or divorced to free up your husband to marry their daughter or cousin. If you couldn't produce a male heir, you were on the chopping block, one way or another.
May 15, 2020
Had to read this after 'Wolf Hall' left me wanting to know more about the corruption and intrigue of Henry 8th court and his efforts to get rid of Ann Boleyn. While the novel does not disappoint, 'Wolf Hall' has the edge on it. Cromwell is a fascinating character if even half of what is written about him is true. Looking forward to reading number 3 in the trilogy, which is ready and waiting. Love this author's writing. She is highly skilled and enables one to be transported into another time and place.
November 5, 2023
I am counting Wolf Hall as the last book to meet my reading challenge. I will read the other two books in the trilogy later when I have finished researching material for one of my own stories
Wolf Hall is a remarkable book and, although I did not enjoy reading about the petty spite and cruelty exhibited by royalty, men of the clergy, and lords of manors, I found I could not put it down.
One thing that annoyed me greatly, though, was the author's constant use of 'he' to identify her main character, Thomas Cromwell. I read some paragraphs half a dozen times before I found out who 'he' was.
Wolf Hall is a remarkable book and, although I did not enjoy reading about the petty spite and cruelty exhibited by royalty, men of the clergy, and lords of manors, I found I could not put it down.
One thing that annoyed me greatly, though, was the author's constant use of 'he' to identify her main character, Thomas Cromwell. I read some paragraphs half a dozen times before I found out who 'he' was.
May 1, 2020
I've just finished the final book in the series and am despondent. Not because of the ending, we all know how that works out, but because now the tale is told and it's over. What a fantastic storyteller Mantel is and I can not imagine the work she must have poured into researching Thomas Cromwell. She blows the dust off Tudor England and brings it brilliantly to life. This is a great time to dig into these massive page turning books.
June 14, 2020
I mean, obviously it's brilliant right? I did struggle a bit with the adaptation (lots of Mark Rylance staring into the middle-distance) but it did pique my interest and with the publication of the Mirror and the Light it seemed time to give the trilogy a second chance. I find myself caring about this period of history for the first time as Mantell brings the characters, politics and context so vividly to life. Highly recommended.
July 15, 2021
Nobody does historical dramatisation like Hilary Mantel. I recently re-read parts one and two because I finally got the third volume, and then realised I didn't know who anyone was any more, so I committed myself to 1100 pages of Tudor shenanigans to catch up. They are just as great on a re-read. I can definitely recommend these books, they are deep and fascinating and parcelled up with a supple mastery of language.
November 26, 2024
I just completed the trilogy in audio format. Ben Miles does an absolutely brilliant job of narration. He seamlessly shifts through the accents of the British class system as the characters require, with apparent ease. I've read other reviews that prefer the Simon Slater version. If you're considering investing the considerable time it takes to listen to these books, you may want to preview both audio versions.
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