You are in Cromwell's head; you see everything from his perspective. Reading this novel was unlike many of my previous reading experiences. she calls her book, You don’t know much about Henry VIII except that he was an English king, had a lot of wives and changed the official Church of England so he could bang another woman? And that wacky Protestant Reformation that changed the world! Wolf Hall ends—spoiler from 1536!—with Anne’s beheading, which Cromwell witnesses along with his son, Gregory. You already know everything there is to know about the life and deeds of the 2 men and are interested in a beautiful, literary take on the subject? You already know everything there is to know about the life and deeds of the 2 men and are interested in a beau. A historian might wonder about the extent to which she makes Cromwell a modern rationalist in Renaissance dress; a critic might wonder if the narrator's awe at the central character doesn't sometimes make him seem as self-mythologising as his enemies. A sequel is apparently in the works, and it's not the least of Mantel's achievements that the reader finishes this 650-page book wanting more. Well, I can tell you, I read Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel because it won the Book Prize For Fiction in 2009. Then Hillary Mantell’s novel might be exactly why you are looking for. You want to learn more about this period in England’s history and you think Wolf Hall is the place to start? So many people think it's brilliant while I couldn't maintain enough interest to finish it. More, he knows, thinks "love" is "a wicked mistranslation. I'm really disappointed that I was unable to get into this book as so many have raved about it. Study the market. Law and financial administration - his main activities - don't always ignite writers' imaginations, and in the pop-Foucauldian worldview of much historical fiction since the 1980s, his bureaucratic innovations would be seen as inherently sinister. Everyone knows about the Tudors. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. And then something happened; I got use to Ms. Mantel's writing style, and my knowledge of history kicked in and I was swept up in the story. Every once in a while, as if recognizing the problem she has created, Mantel uses the phrase "he, Cromwell." (Her family’s Whig hatred of Elizabeth I is one of the few things I hold against Jane Austen.) There are facts that we don't ever necessarily learn, or at least can remember learning, that we don't pause to consider. Wolf Hall [Import] › Customer reviews; Customer reviews. You Need To Read This! It took me a short while to realize this, but once I did, I was fine. Frankly, most of what I know about the Tudors comes from watching Showtime’s, Reading this novel was unlike many of my previous reading experiences. Have you ever been with a group of people when someone tells a joke and the rest of the group thinks it's hilarious but you just don't get it? You don’t know much about Henry VIII except that he was an English king, had a lot of wives and changed the official Church of England so he could bang another woman? . 4.4 out of 5 stars. Andrew Billen. In that sense, "Wolf Hall" is a lot like reading Shakespeare. Wolf Hall, the Seymour family seat, is a site of scandal in the novel, a place where men prey on women and the old on the young. He ends up stage-managing his own destruction out of narcissism and fanaticism, or at best a cold idealism that's contrasted unfavourably with Cromwell's reforming worldliness. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. He's made repulsive even more by the self-adoring theatricality behind his modest exterior than by his interest in torturing heretics and contemptuous treatment of his wife. The civil wars that brought the Tudors to the throne still make older people shudder, bringing Henry's obsession with producing a male heir into focus. I felt as if I am suddenly cut off from the English court and missing all the gossips, all the wheelings and dealings that I had become part of. Read full review Why not just say Cromwell? The charm of your presence? I love historical fiction, especially from this time period, so I expected to really like this one. Alastair Grant . From personal view, 'Wolf Hall' is a very well-made series, the scenery, locations and interiors are incredibly lavish and the costumes are well-worn, true to period and lovingly tailored (didn't see any cheapness at all). Shabbily dressed, genial, yet punctiliously correct on politically controversial points, this More is a far cry from Bolt's gentle humanist martyr. by Hilary Mantel. Whatever he might feel or want must be subsumed in service to the throne. And also, despite being a citizen of a Commonwealth nation with Her Royal Majesty's mug plastered all over my bills and coins, the Union Jack incorporated into my provincial flag, and a mom who dragged me out of bed at 4 a.m. to watch Lady Diana, Princess of Wales walk to her doom - err, groom - I am not, nor have I ever been, a monarchist. Much space is given over to court politics, which Mantel manages to make comprehensible without downplaying its considerable complexity. He insists on 'charity' . About Tomatometer. And if one is unfamiliar with the English history like I was, it can be quite co. ‘Do you think it is for your personal beauty? At this point, only 16 pages in, the action cuts to 1527, with Cromwell back in England, "a little over forty years old" and a trusted agent of Cardinal Wolsey. So yeah, I found it a rewarding read. You see, The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt was nominated for the Booker in 2009, but did not win. Without clobbering the reader with the weight of her research, Mantel works up a 16th-century world in which only a joker would call for cherries in April or lettuce in December, and where hearing an unlicensed preacher is an illicit thrill on a par with risking syphilis. He looks, as Hilary Mantel has him say in her new novel, "like a murderer". If not a man for all seasons, the book's heroic accountant is surely the man for his season. I applaud the work, but not a fun read. 4.0 out of 5 stars. Taking off from the scant evidence concerning his early life, she imagines a miserable childhood for him as the son of a violent, drunken blacksmith in Putney. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Welcome back. The effortless-seeming management of contrasting registers plays a big part in the novel's success, as does Mantel's decision to let Cromwell have a sense of humour. Courtesy of PBS Anchored by Mark Rylance ’s towering central performance, “ Wolf Hall ” is a very quiet “Masterpiece,” visiting the court … Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. But having said that, once you are in the narrative, it is a great read. He lives to serve the king, and as a minister to the king he cannot indulge in such distracting luxuries as grief or rage or love or hate. Cromwell asks if he can bury his elder daughter with a copybook she's written her name in; "the priest says he has never heard of such a thing". And what do you know, it's another piece of historical fiction set in England and written by a woman. For the first 100 pages I was like a Monkees song, you know the one -. Grieving, he thinks of Tyndale's banned English Bible: "now abideth faith, hope and love, even these three; but the greatest of these is love." See All Buying Options. In “Wolf Hall,” Hilary Mantel’s arch, elegant, richly detailed biographical novel centered on Cromwell, she has used Holbein’s delivery of the portrait as … Hilary Mantel sure knows how to write; her prose is eloquent and sophisticated. Like the cheerier British import Downton Abbey, Wolf Hall is, under its gilded surface, a story about change: ideological and technological shifts most … Mantel keeps too close an eye on facts and emotions to make her story an arch allegory of modern Britain's origins, but her setting of such unglamorous virtues as financial transparency and legal clarity against the forces of reaction and mystification is interesting and mildly provocative. This being said, I have hidden plot spoilers, but I will not be held accountable for the “spoilers” of history. With magnificently decorated and gilded settings and dramatic political turns in every episode, what we have here is House of Cards transported into the world of The Tudors (but with a lot less sex). In the first several chapters, there are dozens of instances where it is not clear who is speaking. I agree. 3,338 global ratings. But Wolf Hall succeeds on its own terms and then some, both as a non-frothy historical novel and as a display of Mantel's extraordinary talent. "Love your neighbour. [ the earlier demise of yet another Thomas, Thomas More. I agree. Maybe this book will win one of the prizes that have been withheld so far. This book doesn't start easy. Nice review! 5 star 54% 4 star 18% 3 star 11% 2 star 9% 1 star 8% Wolf Hall. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. Diagnosed With Diabetes? Geoffrey Elton used to argue that he founded modern government, but later historians have pared back his role, and one recent biographer, Robert Hutchinson, portrayed him as a corrupt proto-Stalinist. [ In the end, we are left watching the bulldog tenacity (and loyalty) of Cromwell continue indefinitely into the future, as he sits at his desk at the height of his influence, little knowing what (we know) history has in store. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Start by marking “Wolf Hall” as Want to Read: Error rating book. They’re there weighing down the bookshelf, Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, unread, two big slabs of guilt (or executioners blocks, they’d serve that purpose well). Why then was. What an amazing time! Above all, Mantel avoids ye olde-style diction, preferring more contemporary phrasing. It would be more about the environment. I found this book difficult to read, because one had to constantly refer to family trees. Hard to read and yet hard to put down. And if one is unfamiliar with the English history like I was, it can be quite confusing. At the same time, sinister grace notes accompany Cromwell's triumph. How are ratings calculated? A successful marriage of elegant, sophisticated (although, at times, incredibly dense) writing and salacious historical details. Open this photo in gallery: Hilary Mantel at the Man-Booker Prize ceremony. There are too many Thomases and like. homas Cromwell, the chief minister to Henry VIII who oversaw the break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries, was widely hated in his lifetime, and he makes a surprising fictional hero now. Making characters of all these people is, of course, a big risk. In the second half of the novel - which charts Cromwell's rise to favour as he clears the way for the king's marriage to Anne Boleyn - More emerges as Cromwell's opposite number, more a spokesman for another worldview than a practical antagonist. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. Do you ever wonder about why people choose to read the books they do? Curious to see what book could beat one of my favorite books of all time, I looked up Wolf Hall. And the precarious nature of early modern life is brought home by the abrupt deaths of Cromwell's wife and daughters, carried off by successive epidemics in moving but unsentimentally staged scenes. Already displaying toughness, intelligence and a gift for languages, he runs away to the continent as a boy of 15 or so (his date of birth isn't known, and in the novel he doesn't know it himself). Wolf Hall review: An imperious Mark Rylance revels in darkness in Hilary Mantel adaptation It will struggle to match Julian Fellowes’ blockbuster for impact … I usually devour historical fiction, but this one has become tedious. But they are all good stories.”, Orange Prize Nominee for Fiction Shortlist (2010), James Tait Black Memorial Prize Nominee for Fiction (2009), Costa Book Award Nominee for Novel (2009), Magnesia Litera Nominee for Translation (Litera za překladovou knihu) (2011), National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction (2009), The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books (2010). For the first 50 pages or so I was irritated at the vague pronoun usages (mentioned in nearly every review I have read on Amazon) and the dizzying cast of characters. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astu. I chalk this up partly to a morbid fascination, and partly to a genuine desire to understand the circumstances leading up to the Golden Age of Elizabeth I. This could be interesting! He's a sideshow to Wolsey in Shakespeare and Fletcher's Henry VIII, a villain who hounds Thomas More to his death in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons. Refresh and try again. Central figures - the Boleyn sisters, Catherine of Aragon, the young Mary Tudor, the king himself - are brought plausibly to life, as are Cromwell's wife, Liz Wykys, and Cardinal Wolsey. How do you write about Henry VIII without being camp or breathless or making him do something clunkily non-stereotypical? In “Wolf Hall” it is More, the great imaginer of utopia, who is the ruthless tormenter of English Protestants, using the rack and the ax to set the “quaking world” aright. The thing to remember when starting this book is that 99% percent of the time the pronoun 'he' refers to Cromwell, even at times when the sentence structure makes it seems like 'he' would be someone else. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Review: Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel. His life-shaping experiences in France, Italy and the Netherlands are dealt with in flashback here and there: he has been a soldier, a trader and an accountant for a Florentine bank; he has killed a man and learned to appreciate Italian painting. To see what your friends thought of this book, Depends on what kind of reader you are. Jesus pity my simplicity. Determined, controlled but occasionally impulsive, and a talented hater, Mantel's Anne Boleyn is a more formidable character even than her uncle the Duke of Norfolk, portrayed here as a scheming old warhorse who rattles a bit when he moves on account of all the relics and holy medals concealed about his person. I was intrigued, so I picked it up from the bookstore, determined to see if it was really better than The Children's Book. Mantel is a prolific, protean figure who doesn't fit into many of the established pigeonholes for women writers, and whose output ranges from the French revolution (A Place of Greater Safety) to her own troubled childhood (Giving Up the Ghost). Chris Scott. One of the most interesting things about history is thinking about perspective. It's also where Jane Seymour first caught Henry's eye - an event that falls just outside the book's time scheme, but which serves as a reminder that, whatever their status in 1535, most of the major characters will end up with their heads on the block. At times I was confused as to who was 'speaking' and couldn't follow it. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph? Wolf Hall continues to hold viewers captive not only because of its gorgeous costumes and sumptuous period detailing, but the nuanced script that electrifies this … Meaty dialogue takes precedence over description, and the present-tense narration is so closely tied to the main character that Cromwell is usually called plain "he", even when it causes ambiguities. If I left it for a few days I almost had to start again. A series gets an Average Tomatometer when at least 50 percent of its seasons have a score. 56 customer ratings. I don’t have much to add to the excellent reviews on here about the Booker Prize-winning first volume in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy. Do you ever wonder about why people choose to read the books they do? I harbor the belief that the sheer bulk of so many of the books … Very few writers wield grammar the way she does; she uses every means of punctuation at her disposal to achieve real effectual writing. 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