Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell, #2)

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Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell Trilogy #2)

4.28 of 5 stars 4.28 · rating details · 14,117 ratings · 3,087 reviews

Winner of the 2012 Man Booker Prize
Winner of the 2012 Costa Book of the Year Award

The sequel to Hilary Mantel's 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller, Wolf Hall delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn

Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son a...more

ebook, 496 pages

Published May 8th 2012 by Henry Holt and Co. (first published 2012)

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Sep 16, 2012 Fionnuala rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Most people in the English speaking world know the history of Henry VIII from their earliest school days or from the many books, films and TV series that the episode has inspired. Some of us cringe when we hear of yet another fictional version, yet another glittery effort to sensationalise the intrigue of the Tudor court and create even more farfetched scenarios around the details of the wooing and discarding of Henry’s wives. How then can Hilary Mantel’s series be of any interest? I would argue...more Most people in the English speaking world know the history of Henry VIII from their earliest school days or from the many books, films and TV series that the episode has inspired. Some of us cringe when we hear of yet another fictional version, yet another glittery effort to sensationalise the intrigue of the Tudor court and create even more farfetched scenarios around the details of the wooing and discarding of Henry’s wives. How then can Hilary Mantel’s series be of any interest? I would argue that her treatment of history does not belong in the historical fiction genre but rather in the field of historical analysis. Already, with her account of the French Revolution, A Place of Greater Safety (2006), she proved that she had found a new and unique way to analyse historical events. She combs all the available documentary evidence and from this wealth of detail she builds a living picture of the time and its chief players so that we feel, smell, touch, even inhabit their world.
But she creates dialogue, you will point out, and imagines the players’ thoughts. This is true, but any historian who reads all the documents, all of the letters relating to historical personages can’t avoid interpreting their motivations. Mantel takes that interpretation a step further through dialogue, thereby making the reading of this familiar history, which otherwise holds little surprise or suspense, much more rewarding and entertaining. She succeeds because of her fine writing skills and her ability to choose the most suitable angle from which to view the events, in this case, Thomas Cromwell, the kings secretary; it is as if the reader is perched on his shoulder, seeing everything he sees and privy to about half of his thoughts. And we suspect that the other half of his thoughts are so secret that even he, Thomas Cromwell has little access to them. Mantel reveals him as neither hero nor villain, but simply a man who is good at his job. Being Henry’s secretary is like playing chess; the task is to destroy the opponent and the notion of the opposition of good and evil has no place on this board. Survival is the only rule. Let me give an example: on the first page of Bring Up the Bodies, Cromwell watches a hunting scene involving a pair of hawks:

“Weightless, they glide on the upper currents of air. They pity no one. They answer to no one. Their lives are simple. When they look down they see nothing but their prey, and the borrowed plumes of the hunters: they see a flittering, flinching universe, a universe filled with their dinner. All summer has been like this, a riot of dismemberment, fur and feather flying..."

When we reach the last page of the book, we remember the pair of hawks and we are amazed. Thomas Cromwell has learned from those hawks. He too is silent when he takes his prey.
(less)

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May 20, 2012 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2012

The normally flinty James Wood recently wrote what can only be characterized as an extended mash note to Hilary Mantel in the New Yorker, based on this book and its predecessor, Wolf Hall. I can only concur, and add a few observations of my own.

How good is this book? It's so good that
(i) I am trying to ration myself to only 50 pages a day, to spin out the experience of reading it just that little bit longer
(ii) I am failing miserably in objective (i) above, because I am an undisciplined wretch,...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Isis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: renaissance-age-1400-to-1650ce-fict

I jumped straight into Bring Up the Bodies after finishing Wolf Hall, such was my eagerness to dive back into Hilary Mantel’s Tudor England and, of course, sit on the shoulder of the inscrutable, enigmatic Thomas Cromwell as he led us through it. I’m afraid this review is much shorter than my review of Wolf Hall, because many of the points still apply from one to the other.

Mantel still prefers to overuse her third person pronouns rather than use her main character’s name, which in the previous b...more I jumped straight into Bring Up the Bodies after finishing Wolf Hall, such was my eagerness to dive back into Hilary Mantel’s Tudor England and, of course, sit on the shoulder of the inscrutable, enigmatic Thomas Cromwell as he led us through it. I’m afraid this review is much shorter than my review of Wolf Hall, because many of the points still apply from one to the other.

Mantel still prefers to overuse her third person pronouns rather than use her main character’s name, which in the previous book could get considerably confusing, however, towards the end of Wolf Hall she begins using “he, Cromwell…” a lot more, and it’s that form that she utilises in Bring Up the Bodies. It admittedly clears up a lot of potential confusion, but I stick by what I said in my review of Wolf Hall, that it renders the “he” altogether redundant and it’s a clumsy solution compared to the simplicity and clarity of just using a character’s name where appropriate!

Mantel’s strength is still her expansive knowledge of the English language, her storycraft in creating a compelling plot, and her attention to detail which bring the book alive. This attention to detail creates subtle characterisations, full of their own peculiar eccentricities and unique personalities. Mantel has show, don’t tell down to a fine art, letting her characters’ personalities grow and build up organically through their actions and speech – and, of course, Thomas Cromwell’s sardonic observations about them. My one disappointment with the characterisations has been that I think they could be even stronger, and that I feel Mantel adheres to stock stereotypes of the Boleyn family a little too much. Mantel had previously tempered her characterisations of the Boleyns by giving them a good dose of ambiguity, but now, in order to gear up for the big showdown, certain negative traits are exacerbated to adhere more closely to stereotype – such as Jane Parker’s unfeeling cruelty, and Anne Boleyn’s self-absorbed haughtiness. Mantel also omits the dispute between Anne and Cromwell over what should be done with the proceeds of the dissolution of the monasteries.

Other than that, I felt that Mantel created the downfall tremendously well, getting into the nooks and crannies of just how it unfolded, dispelling certain myths about what happened, and, most importantly, leaving the truth ambiguous for the reader. Cromwell masterfully constructs his case against the Boleyns through hearsay and implication, and through his machinations weaves enough doubt to make it plausible that some of the other characters believe the truth of it. However, he never has any direct proof, and, tellingly, Cromwell himself studiously avoids answering a question put to him by his son about whether the people he arrests actually did what they are accused of. A whole dark undercurrent permeates proceedings, in which one feels that the truth is being meticulously suppressed, the accused damned if they speak out by Cromwell’s sharp wit turning against them anything that they might say. Though I would have wished for the Boleyn clan to have been characterised with more subtlety and humanity, Mantel treats their downfall with dignity, not only creating this masterful ambiguity, but striking the right balance of factors of those responsible between Cromwell, the king, and the conservative faction at court, and demonstrating the consequences through Cromwell himself. Two scenes were particularly striking – Cromwell’s conversation with Thomas Wyatt about justice in the realm, and Cromwell’s realisation of some change that has happened to him after all this. I thought this was a seminal moment, and moving – the spider caught in his own web; having constructed this mirage of half-truths and circumstantial interpretations, Cromwell can no longer cut to the truth like he used to, and finds his certainty obscured by the miasma he himself has created in the new climate in England.

Bring Up the Bodies is transporting, seamlessly segueing between the tarnished glitter of the treacherous court and the busy-bee day-to-day life of London, creating characters who inhabit these worlds who break out of the two-dimensional confines of the page and appear three-dimensional in the mind’s eye. Lacking in one or two minor points, particularly the technical construction and the portrayal of the Boleyns, but otherwise written with skill, richly detailed, subtle characterisations, and a compelling plot that drove me onwards towards the dreadful conclusion.

8 out of 10(less)

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May 31, 2012 Cheryl rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british, fiction, historical-fiction, literature, literary, favorites, 2012-favourite, booker-2012-list

Aaaahhh. Fine, fine, fine. The final last paragraph -- perfect.
Cromwell now to me will always be "he, Cromwell". This little stylistic flourish did add clarity, compared with Wolf Hall. To purposefully use just "he" in the first book was at times confusing, forcing one to stop and step out of the story to regain one's bearings. Sort of like breaking the fourth wall -- and perhaps that was the point then, a metafictional technique? but it was too intrusive.
This book just sailed on from Wolf Hall...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Teresa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I came to this sequel thinking it could not possibly stand up to the first installment. So, I was prepared to like this book, but not love it as much as I did Wolf Hall. But I was wrong: it does, and I did.

It's one of those works that I lingered over the last pages of, not wanting it to end: the prose is that good. And it installed itself into my psyche. After putting it down at night and as I fell asleep, words, phrases, sentences rolled through my head. (This has happened to me before, but th...more

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Jun 06, 2012 Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: buddy-reads-with-jemidar, historical-fiction, all-time-favourites

This is the sequel to Wolf Hall, which I read shortly after it won the Man Booker Prize. The fact that I thought I would be reading a book featuring Cavaliers and Roundheads indicates that (a) I hadn’t been paying much attention to book reviews and (b) I don’t really know much about the Tudors. Luckily it only took a paragraph for me to realise the novel was about Henry VIII’s Cromwell and not the other one, or else I would have been a very confused reader. In terms of the history, I had to rely...more

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Jun 02, 2012 DoctorM rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

Mantel's second novel of Thomas Cromwell is darker than "Wolf Hall" but no less powerful. Her first novel was full of falling stars--- Cromwell's patron Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More ---and "Bring Up The Bodies" tracks the fall of Anne Boleyn and her family. Mantel's Henry VIII seems almost a distant figure here, with Cromwell and Anne Boleyn as the key figures. Henry wants...a son and heir, yes, but mostly he wants to believe that he is the beleaguered hero of his own tale, to believe that h...more

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Oct 21, 2012 Jennifer (aka EM) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Too many of my friends here on GR and elsewhere have not yet read this, but are planning to, so I won't do much of a review - at least not yet.

But I have to say, the writing in this is even better than in Wolf Hall. Mantel's metaphors and similes are beyond apt, cutting and character-revealing and entirely original; when she is lyrical, her prose positively takes flight although she has a steady, controlled hand on it; her dialogue is electric. Her plotting, her pace, her tone -- every single a...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Ellie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-individual-challenge, fiction, favorites

Hilary Mantel hits it out of the park again with Bring Up the Bodies, the second in her Wolf Hall Trilogy. I loved Wolf Hall (having spent most of my teens obsessed with Anne Boleyn and the Tudors in general. Bring Up the Bodies begins after Henry has married Anne and follows their story through the eyes of Cromwell, Henry's right hand man, a self-made money man who came up from an abusive home as a commoner and has risen to great power, first under the influence of the now-destroyed Cardinal Wo...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Even better than Wolf Hall. Mantel continues to use the pronoun "he" to get the reader into Cromwell's head. Either I'm used to it or she does it more naturally than in Wolf Hall.

This is the essence of good historical fiction. It does not seek-- as does so much historical fiction--to tell an essentially contemporary story placed in a carefully crafted past where the details of clothing , social customs and historical context are correct, but takes pivotal characters and their dilemmas from the...more Even better than Wolf Hall. Mantel continues to use the pronoun "he" to get the reader into Cromwell's head. Either I'm used to it or she does it more naturally than in Wolf Hall.

This is the essence of good historical fiction. It does not seek-- as does so much historical fiction--to tell an essentially contemporary story placed in a carefully crafted past where the details of clothing , social customs and historical context are correct, but takes pivotal characters and their dilemmas from the historical period and analyzes them with tools from the author's own time. Mantel is drawn to a man whose sensibility was, in fact, more "modern" than that of most of his contemporaries and teases out the historical truth about how he thought and felt. In contrast to most historical writers, Mantel did not invent a characters who, as it were, walked with the greats of the past. She chose an important "mover and shaker" of the past, with ample historical detail known about him, and imagines herself into his body and mind and heart to tell a tale that brings history alive but also has analogies with influencers in her own time. As someone from the distant future might someday seek to understand a forward-thinking influencer from our own time. A person with tremendous, though essentially behind-the-scenes, power. I find her approach to historical fiction somewhat similar to Gore Vidal's: she doesn't change things; she just extends, broadens, interprets what's there.

Most writers of historical fiction choose to make up a main character or use the bare bones of a real one and then put that character in an interesting time. But the writer then has little "evidence" from the past to use as a basis for characterization. So the author's makes it up and makes essentially a modern person in historical costume. (I know because I tried to write a fictional account of my great great grandmother whose last child was born on a sailing ship from Drammen, Norway to New York I. 1850. I had no family stories about her--I'm convinced my father whose forebearer she was didn't even know of her existence. So I tried to get the details to fit the period, but ended up having to "imagine" her from the outside by creating a modern woman who was seeking to understand her forebearers, among whom was this woman. Wrote one long short story but never finished the novel...)(less)

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Jan 01, 2013 K.D. Oliveros rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: Booker 2012 winner

Shelves: historical-fiction, booker, religion, love-story, tragicomic

I rarely give 5 stars but I can't help it with this 2012 Booker winner. I am still to read the last year's other Booker finalists but this book is one of the best among my recent reads. Hence, I think the Booker jurors made the right pick last year. Also, those friends of mine who already read this book and gave a 4 or 5 stars also made the right verdict: this book is exceptionally great!

Prior to this book's prequel, Wolf Hall (4 stars), I knew nothing about Henry VIII. I am a Filipino who had m...more I rarely give 5 stars but I can't help it with this 2012 Booker winner. I am still to read the last year's other Booker finalists but this book is one of the best among my recent reads. Hence, I think the Booker jurors made the right pick last year. Also, those friends of mine who already read this book and gave a 4 or 5 stars also made the right verdict: this book is exceptionally great!

Prior to this book's prequel, Wolf Hall (4 stars), I knew nothing about Henry VIII. I am a Filipino who had my early school years in an island in the Pacific. Our teachers did not bother telling us the stories about British royalties. So, when I read Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall" two months ago, at first I struggled understanding that book's historical backdrop and I found myself Googling so many names and places. However, in the end, it was worth the effort. So, now I had an easier time reading Bring Up the Bodies. In fact, I resumed reading this two days ago and since we had a 4-day weekend (last day is today) due to the holidays, I had a busy New Year that I used mainly for finishing this book.

The book is the continuation of Henry VIII's life story in the eyes of his chief minister Thomas Cromwell. If "Wolf Hall" is about dumping of Lady Catherine and Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn, "Bring Up the Bodies" is about the dumping of Anne Boleyn as the king has now a new apple of his eyes, the beautiful Jane Seymour. That seems like a simple retelling of a story contained in any history books about Tudors, right? Answer: yes. However, Hilary Mantel is a genius in storytelling. She researched thoroughly the many writings about the Tudors and life in England during that time. She meticulously injected what could have been the appropriate dialogues in the many delicate scenes. More importantly, her prose is extremely delightful to read. Reading the book is like ascending to heaven, it is like being blown away by sweeping wind while angels are sounding their trumpets and plucking the strings of their harps. I have never seen this kind of beautiful prose in any recent read or not even in any of the past Booker winning books. Hilary Mantel is one hell of a genius writer.

What I particularly enjoyed was how Mantel made her characters interesting by baring to us both their internal struggles as well as their external issues. She seems do this by first second-guessing how her characters would react to a given situation. Then she followed this with the character giving us his/her stream-of-consciousness narration to reveal his/her inner thoughts. Mantel finished this off by allowing her characters in that situation their acute observations and incisive remarks. This cycle seems to have worked wonderfully by making each of her major characters like we are watching them in a 3D or IMAX theater. This style also made this historical fiction come alive by making the reader an active participant in the story. There were times when I'd like the character to tell the truth or to lie but the character did the opposite and so I was disappointed but later I saw the point for his/her decision.

This book is just wonderful. My first book finished this year. What a way to start 2013! What a book!(less)

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Mar 31, 2013 Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who think they don't like historical novels

I read the last of this so slowly, slowly. Did not want it to end. I liked Wolf Hall, but I felt that that book was just practice for this one. Hilary Mantel was just getting warmed up.

Bring Up the Bodies is not a history, or even a re-telling of history, but a reimagining, by a writer with a remarkable imagination. Her ability to offer us one possible version of a well-known story, told through the mind and thoughts of Thomas Cromwell in a way we’ve never considered him, has created something...more

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May 27, 2012 Matt Brady rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Since Wolf Hall took me by surprise and quickly became on my of favourite books, I was really looking forward to this one, and it didn't let me down. Though it's impossible to replicate the joy of getting to know (or trying to get to know, as he remains elusive even to the reader) Thomas Cromwell, it is still extremely satisfying to watch him at the height of his powers, scheming and plotting in the service of his King, and himself. The rise of the Seymours and the downfall of Anne Boleyn take u...more

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May 18, 2012 Jennifer D. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-books, books-i-own

well...that was, indeed, a lot of bodies and a bloody awesome heap of a mess, wasn't it?

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Jul 12, 2012 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-novels, addictive

I feel stingy giving this only 3 stars, because it is a really excellent book in its own right. But it fell short of the wondrous originality and complexity of Wolf Hall... I missed the mythic-mystic dimension and the sense of a society on the cusp between "medieval" and "Renaissance". Thomas Cromwell doesn't have the same rich character arc that he had in Wolf Hall: he's on top and he stays on top. And King Henry doesn't struggle against the same array of opponents in this book, he just decides...more I feel stingy giving this only 3 stars, because it is a really excellent book in its own right. But it fell short of the wondrous originality and complexity of Wolf Hall... I missed the mythic-mystic dimension and the sense of a society on the cusp between "medieval" and "Renaissance". Thomas Cromwell doesn't have the same rich character arc that he had in Wolf Hall: he's on top and he stays on top. And King Henry doesn't struggle against the same array of opponents in this book, he just decides to do what most everybody has been wanting him to do all along.

Above all I think I was frustrated that Mantel was so scrupulous about the historical record. She never takes a stand on any of the charges against Anne: did Anne ever love Henry? was she capable of love, or only ambition? did she sleep with other men? or was it just spiteful gossip exaggerating her narcissistic need for male attention? what happened between Anne and her brother? between her and Percy? between her and Mark Smeaton? Because the whole story is told from Cromwell's point of view, we can't know what Anne did, and to Cromwell it doesn't matter - it only matters what he can convict her of. So there's a coldness to it. I like that this isn't a sentimental "Anne of the 1000 Days" version, but it overcompensates and keeps Anne at too much of a distance.

Honestly I wanted some more critical perspective on Anne's misery... even though she was a narcissistic bitch and a schemer, she was also a tragic vic tim of (dare I say) patriarchy... all her beauty and cunning and intelligence and ambition weren't worth a hill of beans when her body failed to produce a son. That she thought she had lots of cards in the game, but really only the ONE card mattered, and she didn't have it so she lost.

I would have liked a richer and more imaginative portrait of Jane Seymour, too... Mantel presents her as almost asexual, which is fascinating, I've never seen it in a historical novel! But again, she is remote and pretty inscrutable to Cromwell, so she remains remote to the reader as well. (less)

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Apr 06, 2013 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Lovers of Historical Fiction with a Literary Sensibility and Style

Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: Gerri Leen

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, literary-fiction, novels

This is the second of a planned trilogy centered on Thomas Cromwell, a minster of England’s Henry VIII. If you’ve didn’t read the first book, Wolf Hall, you really should first for this isn’t a standalone and just knowing the history isn’t enough. This isn’t some generic retelling of the story of King Henry’s six wives from a different point of view. Mantel inhabits Cromwell closely, and his experiences and how he experienced them figure greatly in both books.

If you did read Wolf Hall, you woul...more This is the second of a planned trilogy centered on Thomas Cromwell, a minster of England’s Henry VIII. If you’ve didn’t read the first book, Wolf Hall, you really should first for this isn’t a standalone and just knowing the history isn’t enough. This isn’t some generic retelling of the story of King Henry’s six wives from a different point of view. Mantel inhabits Cromwell closely, and his experiences and how he experienced them figure greatly in both books.

If you did read Wolf Hall, you wouldn’t have missed that Mantel’s style is unconventional. I went into detail how in my rant on the subject in my review of that book. That style doesn’t change here, except Mantel throws in the awkward "he, Cromwell" more often to situate the reader. I never took to Mantel’s prose style; it was something to be endured because I relished her vivid and insightful way of depicting Tudor times and the figures in it. I picked up Bring Up the Bodies right after finishing the first book, and I think that helped. I had grown accustomed to the style, and it really didn’t bother me--much. Maybe by the third book I’ll fully embrace it? Naw. I still think her ways with pronouns and proper nouns, the quotation mark and paragraphing sacrifices clarity for no payoff I can see, but I can better notice the beauties in her words despite that now. Take, for instance, this passage describing Queen Anne Boleyn and her ladies-in-waiting:

She orders her women out: a vehement gesture, a child scaring crows. Unhurried, like bold corvines of some new and silky kind, the ladies gather their trains, flap languidly away; their voices like voices from the air, trail behind them: their gossip broken off, their knowing cackles of laughter. Lady Rochford is the last to take wing, trailing her feathers, reluctant to yield the ground.

It’s not just that descriptions like this vividly bring Anne and Lady Rochford to life, or that it’s great foreshadowing, but that how he described things often told us just as much about Cromwell. In fact, I’m forced to admit Mantel’s way with this is no less than amazing. Five-star-worthy, really, even if I’m awarding it less because it didn’t quite have a five-star impact on me. And really, I knew the outlines certainly of the fall of Anne, but that didn’t mean this novel didn’t have its surprises, especially in the ins and outs of Cromwell’s thinking and motives. Mantel has this great quality of making you feel how contingent history is, how things could have happened differently. Mantel herself said that after all, though we know how things turned out (if we know our English history), Cromwell didn’t know at the time he was living through it.

Cromwell here is far less sympathetic than in the first book. I felt from the book’s first pages that power had quickly, if not corrupted, then at least hardened him. You know, a trap writers often fall into, fiction and non-fiction alike, is that they fall in love with their subjects and become apologists for them. Not the case here. Mantel gave Cromwell a human dimension and he’s not a stock villain, but she certainly allowed him to act and think in ways that are despicable. And this is an even tauter book than the first. So many writers, especially after having a critical and commercial success such as Wolf Hall, become bloated; they no longer have the discipline to cut and their editors no longer have the power to force it upon them. Yet while Wolf Hall was over 600 pages, Bring Up the Bodies is 407 pages. Middle books in trilogies often sag--this one, I think, is even better than the first book, more gripping with the momentum accelerating with passing chapters. If the time between the first two books are an indication, it'll be about two years until the last book in the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light comes out. I can hardly wait.(less)

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Suzanne Haven't read Plaidy and I agree with you about Gregory. Her writing reminds me of a trashy romance novel, and she is no stranger to revisionist histor...more
Apr 07, 2013 05:58am

Lisa (Harmonybites) Suzanne wrote: "Haven't read Plaidy and I agree with you about Gregory. Her writing reminds me of a trashy romance novel, and she is no stranger to re...more
updated Apr 07, 2013 10:59am

May 02, 2012 Aarti rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bring Up the Bodies is the second book in Hilary Mantel's trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, following on the enormous success of her Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall. I loved Wolf Hall, not only because it truly humanized a man who has become more a demonic caricature of himself in the centuries since his life, but also because of Mantel's lyrical writing style. Bring Up the Bodies is written in the same style (though she clearly has taken note of reader complaints about her use of the pronoun "he" a...more Bring Up the Bodies is the second book in Hilary Mantel's trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, following on the enormous success of her Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall. I loved Wolf Hall, not only because it truly humanized a man who has become more a demonic caricature of himself in the centuries since his life, but also because of Mantel's lyrical writing style. Bring Up the Bodies is written in the same style (though she clearly has taken note of reader complaints about her use of the pronoun "he" and is much more careful here to make very clear which "he" she is referring to), and I was utterly swept up in it. It begins, as the cover illustrates, with falconry at Wolf Hall, where King Henry VIII fatefully meets Jane Seymour and sets in motion one of the most dramatic stories in known history. Once again, we are led by our faithful and highly skilled guide, Thomas Cromwell, through the nooks and crannies, the twists and turns, of Tudor England as Henry VIII turns his affections from Anne Boleyn to Jane Seymour. The book spans the course of a year, and half of the book takes place over only a few weeks, but this is the climax of Thomas Cromwell's career, the point of no return. This is when he tests his friends and makes clear his enemies in a way that will set his life on an irreversible track.

This period of history has been written about, staged and televised more times than any of us can contemplate. We all know how it ends and , and so that makes Mantel's story-telling even more impressive. Never once was I bored when reading this book; I was always at the edge of my seat, even though I knew, knew all along, exactly how the story would end. In my review of Wolf Hall, I speculated that in this sequel, we would leave behind the idealistic and kind Thomas Cromwell Mantel revealed to the world and meet the hardened and more ruthless Cromwell that history remembers. In a way, that is true. Here, Cromwell is successful. "But whenever good fortune has called on him, he has been there, planted on the threshold, ready to fling open the door to her timid scratch on the wood." He is pragmatic. "It is not so much, who is guilty, as whose guilt is of service to you." He is vengeful. "...[this is not about] one year's grudge or two but a fat extract from the book of grief, kept since the cardinal came down."

But he is still also still the tireless, loyal servant to the king who wants what is best for his country. "His greatest ambition for England is this: the prince and his commonwealth should be in accord...He wants it to be a household where everybody knows what they have to do, and feels safe doing it."

And so Mantel's skill lies not only in her writing style, which is fluid as a wave that lifts you from the shore of your modern existence to a safe haven of an island where you leave behind everything about your life and just become completely absorbed into the pages of the novel, but also in her ability to make you sympathize with, empathize with, cheer for and pity Thomas Cromwell through all the terrible, contemptible things he does in this novel. Perhaps because you know, through it all, how his reign will end, and how fast it will come. But mostly because Hilary Mantel has gifted us with a Thomas Cromwell that is eloquent, intelligent, loyal and sees the humor in nearly every situation.(less)

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Nov 22, 2012 Rob rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, favorites

100 pages in and it is hard to miss that this isn't just a nominal sequel to Wolf Hall, but rather the first book's logical annex. There is no drop-off in complexity. No laxity of language. Again, Mantel manages to shift form, change structure and reinvent her style. She even manages to give the character of Thomas Cromwell more depth and complexity, a feat which seemed near impossible after finishing Wolf Hall.

Anyway, Mantel is one of the finest writers of English prose living. Each sentence i...more

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May 17, 2012 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, favorites, tudor-england

Brilliant, again. With sentences like this, as a candle is lit: The light shivers, then settles against dark wood like discs pared from a pearl. Everybody knows this story, of Catherine of Aragon, Henry the VIII, and Anne Boleyn, but that story has never been told like this before. And I don't just mean the obvious - that it's told from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, who has come down in history as Henry's hatchet-man, but who here, in these pages, has wit and humanity as well as the shrewd...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Sandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In which Cromwell starts to look more like the Cromwell history has told us to expect...in which Cromwell gets his revenge...in which Cromwell begins his own undoing (coming soon in book 3, no doubt).

Mantel can spin history, no question about it. In "Wolf Hall" we meet the Thomas Cromwell of her invention, the likable, self-made, everyman who finds himself in service to King Henry VIII and living a love-hate (okay, mostly hate) relationship with Anne Boleyn, to whom he is somewhat beholden. Now...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Wayne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Tudor Fans or Wannebes

Recommended to Wayne by: The Tudors Themselves

Shelves: history, memoirs-biography, movie-seen-as-well, politics, religion, tudor-history

AFTER COMPLETION:

Due to lack of records concerning the trial of Anne Boleyn and those accused with her, it is almost impossible not to resort to anything but speculation about what really was going on. And this in regard to both accused and accusers.

Cromwell was probably the most able minister Henry was ever to have.
This also means that he was capable of just about anything and everything.

Anne Boleyn was in a totally unenviable situation which made her also capable of just about anything and ev...more

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view all 10 comments

Trevor Hello there Wayne! Just wondering if you read the recent biography of Maugham published about three years ago by I think Selena Hastings? Fascinating!...more
Apr 13, 2013 01:40pm

Wayne Dear Trev,
How nice to have you back on board!!!
Of course, I did see your recent book pinned to the board and thought I MUST make a response...and mor...more
Apr 14, 2013 01:05am

Jul 03, 2012 Linda Lipko rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, historial-fiction, tudor-history

Just when I thought that the topic of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII was truly exhausted, here is a fresh, excellent perspective.

Since college days I've been fascinated with Anne Boleyn. She is one of my favorite historical characters and over many years I've enjoy reading about her personality and downfall through various different perspectives. Some books are scholarly written and heavily researched -- E.W. Ives for example. Others written in a historical fiction slant without embellishment and wi...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Shirley Schwartz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: prize-winners

Ms. Mantel is an excellent historical fiction writer. She has turned her masterpiece, Wolf Hall, into a three-book series about the life of Henry VIII. This book is written from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, a close advisor to King Henry. It falls on Thomas to find a way out for Henry from a marriage that he no longer wants. Anne's short reign as Queen comes to a sudden and bloody end by the time this book draws to a close. But the thing about the story is it illustrates so clearly all the...more

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May 17, 2012 Andrew Ordover rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As one of the "official" reviews put it, if the worst thing you can say about a book is that it's "only brilliant," it's doing pretty well. Hilary Mantel's follow-up to "Wolf Hall" is every bit as wonderful as the first book--there's just less of it. Where the first book took Thomas Cromwell from childhood to the ascencion of Anne Boleyn, this book covers only a few months. However, it's a hell of a few months--full of intrigue, Hobbes-ian politics, and heartbreak.

Once again, Thomas Cromwell com...more

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May 07, 2012 els rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

i've said it before and i'll say it again: hilary mantel may be the best living writer. i don't know why people aren't talking about her all the time. maybe they are somewhere but i fear that because she won the booker for a book about the life of thomas cromwell that people read as being about henry VIII, they think it's some kind of companion piece to the tudors tv show or "the other boelyn girl" type historical/queen fiction.

wolf hall & bring up the bodies are not these things.

hilary man...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Elaine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012, favorites

Oh how I loved this. Having (regrettably) listened to Wolf Hall on audiobook, I was determined to do the sequal, justice by holding it in my hands and savouring every word. It didn't let me down.

There's something truly astonishing about Mantel's version of events. The narrative is just hypnotising. I've rarely (if ever) felt I know a fictional character the way I feel I know Mantel's Thomas Cromwell.

Grab yourself a copy of Wolf Hall and next week you"ll be buying this, I assure you. Enjoy. I'm...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Ann rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hilary Mantel won the Man Booker prize for Wolf Hall, then turned around and won it again for this sequel. That is no accident. Bring up the Bodies is even better than the first book. It's much tighter and takes place over a shorter period of time, so the tension is stronger. These were violent times and Cromwell was a political creature, trying to make sure he and his followers always come out on the winning side. As if the story isn't compelling enough, Mantel's prose is so fine that I found m...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Kat rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Almost 5 stars. Here is why not 5: though the writer clearly read my review of Wolf Hall :), since she now abandoned the ubiquitous antecedent-ambiguous "he", she has remedied this by the equally annoying "he, Cromwell". What is it with Ms. Mantel and Cromwell? Why can't she refer to him as Cromwell? Why is he always he?? If someone could reveal the meaning and purpose behind this bothersome stylistic ploy, I would be most grateful.

But other than this and some dragging bits in the middle, an ex...more Almost 5 stars. Here is why not 5: though the writer clearly read my review of Wolf Hall :), since she now abandoned the ubiquitous antecedent-ambiguous "he", she has remedied this by the equally annoying "he, Cromwell". What is it with Ms. Mantel and Cromwell? Why can't she refer to him as Cromwell? Why is he always he?? If someone could reveal the meaning and purpose behind this bothersome stylistic ploy, I would be most grateful.

But other than this and some dragging bits in the middle, an excellent novel. Fully deserving the Man Booker prize. This time I did not need the Tudors to make me read it, and even though I know the story it kept me glued to its many pages. Cromwell is starting to emerge as a much more complex character. Or perhaps less complex, in the sense that that his allegiance shown to be to Henry and only Henry. There are references to bills he hopes to pass, and improvements that he intends to implement, but those are just minor preoccupations. There are also hints that he is becoming much more wealthy in his service to the king and that he really does not care at all about religion: the dissolution of the monasteries is motivated by the desire to enrich the king and some carefully chosen others.

The bulk of the book is devoted to the downfall of Anne Boleyn which Cromwell is shown to have engineered without a blink of an eye: Henry wishes to be rid of Anne, it will be so. It is implied that he chose the four men who were implicated as her lovers out loyalty to Cardinal Wolsey (whom they mocked and disrespected), and thus that there is some justice involved here.... Clearly not.
Yet despite all that Cromwell remains a largely sympathetic character due to Ms Mantel's skill in portraying his inner life. Henry looms large as a ridiculously immature bully with unlimited power and the author makes us see him as a villain and Cromwell as a person who carries out the royal commands (just following orders...). The most despicable characters are the Boleyn males, who exploit Anne and totally disown her in her hour of need, also, Lady Rochford, George Boleyn's unhappy wife, who is ruthless in her betrayal of her husband and Anne. (less)

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May 15, 2012 Heraklia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I’ve seldom seen anything similar to the approving furor over Hilary Mantel’s WOLF HALL, and if you had told me that a novel about Thomas Cromwell – most famously seen as a sleazy weasel attacking the saintly Thomas More in the movie A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS – could be fascinating and sexy, I would not have believed you. Mantel’s writing, however, was utterly perfect as she twisted expectations by showing More as the intolerant, egocentric, venomous 16th-century anti-hero and Cromwell as a man who,...more I’ve seldom seen anything similar to the approving furor over Hilary Mantel’s WOLF HALL, and if you had told me that a novel about Thomas Cromwell – most famously seen as a sleazy weasel attacking the saintly Thomas More in the movie A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS – could be fascinating and sexy, I would not have believed you. Mantel’s writing, however, was utterly perfect as she twisted expectations by showing More as the intolerant, egocentric, venomous 16th-century anti-hero and Cromwell as a man who, in spite of battering, had become generous, loving, wise, reforming, amusing – and vengeful (the vengeful doesn’t really pop up until almost the end of WOLF HALL but it’s definitely a trail worth following).

So where do you go with one of the decade’s most approved books, winner of the Man Booker Prize and other prestigious awards, which was so beautifully written that, while waiting for Part 2, many of us read it multiple times just to savor the ironies, the contrasts? You go on, as life does, and do Part 2.

BRING UP THE BODIES gives Cromwell an altogether tougher task. Having become rich and elevated by serving Henry VIII in any way he desires save sexually, Cromwell now has to enter Henry’s bed to get rid of an inconvenient woman. Anne Boleyn has failed to give the King what she promised and that, in Tudor England, can be fatal. The current Queen, from the first page of the book, has a metaphysical and literal sword hanging over her head. After the most notorious romance in western history, a stitched-up divorce ripping England from Holy Mother Church, all she can provide to the heir-hungry Henry is – another squalling daughter and a series of miscarriages. Just like her predecessor, the sorrowful Katherine of Aragon. So – Cromwell, the ultimate Fixer for his Machiavellian monarch, is going to have to fix this one as well. At what cost? As the book progressed, an image from the first page kept recurring to me – the falcon, stooping to the kill, bloodied and remorseless. Circa regna tonat , indeed.

This story has been told and told, and the same magic that infused Wolf Hall is approaching this catastrophic event with the same surprises, beautiful writing, subtle penetration, and black irony. Somehow, it seems like an entirely new story, one in which you know there will be bodies but still, for a time, it seems like this doom-laden tale could be rewritten, that it will not end in a stage full of corpses. There is magic in Mantel’s prose:

"Katherine was not without sin, but now her sins are taken off her. They are all heaped upon Anne; the shadow who flits after her, the woman draped in night. The old queen dwells in the radiance of God's presence, her dead infants swaddled at her feet, but Anne dwells in this sinful world below, stewed in her childbed sweat, in her soiled sheet. But her hands and feet are cold and her heart is like a stone."

I waited two years for this book and it was worth the wait. If Mantel can sustain this dark, haunted, illuminating, ironic time-travel for a third book, I will be astounded – but perhaps, not surprised.

(less)

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Apr 30, 2012 Eileen Granfors rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: divorce, families, historical-fiction, history, marriage, medical-issues, men, women

Amazing. More amazing the "Wolf Hall," Hilary Mantel continues the saga of the work of Thomas Cromwell as Henry VIII decides he has had enough of Anne Boleyn's theatrics, hysteria, and miscarriages. She must be a witch.

Besides, there is the quiet and demure Jane Seymour, who has now caught his eye. How to sweep Anne not only out of the queenship, but also out of his life when he struggled so mightily to make her his? She is not good to him, now that she is older, "stick and bones," and seemingl...more

11 likes · like · see review

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About Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mary Mantel, née Thompson was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, England on 6 July 1952. She studied Law at the London School of Economics and Sheffield University. She was employed as a social worker, and lived in Botswana for five years, followed by four years in Saudi Arabia, before returning to Britain in the mid-1980s. In 1987 she was awarded the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for an article a...more

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“The things you think are the disasters in your life are not the disasters really. Almost anything can be turned around: out of every ditch, a path, if you can only see it.” — 23 people liked it

“The word 'however' is like an imp coiled beneath your chair. It induces ink to form words you have not yet seen, and lines to march across the page and overshoot the margin. There are no endings. If you think so you are deceived as to their nature. They are all beginnings. Here is one.” — 20 people liked it

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Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell Trilogy #2)

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