Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)

Aug 16, 2011 ~Geektastic~ rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone interested in English history

Shelves: historical-fiction, audio, library, reviewed, doorstops, 2011

I have always been fascinated by the history of England under the Tudors, particularly Henry VIII. 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. (Her family’s Whig hatred of Elizabeth I is one of the few things I hold against Jane Austen.) This being said, I have hidden plot spoilers, but I will not be held accountable for the “spoilers” of history.

Well, to understand the circumstances...more

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Mar 22, 2010 karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: it-is-for-class, littry-fiction

hilary mantel is such a tease. she calls her book wolf hall because she knows i have a crush on jane seymour, and then she just blah blah blahs about thomas cromwell for 500 pages, feeding me only tiny bites of jane. sigh. me and hil have always had a rocky history.i have read four of her books now, and have only really liked one; beyond black. but i keep trying. this one was for class, but i probably would have read it anyway, because this summer i read a nice fat bio of henry VIII and really e...more

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Mar 27, 2013 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, audiobooks

Putting this book onto my history shelf stuck rather in my throat. It is a brilliant story, wonderfully descriptive and emotive. It creates a great panoply of historical figures but falls far short of actually being just to them. By that i mean Mantel quite clearly sets out to unwrite the hagiographical picture catholic tradition has given to Thomas More. She points out, quite rightly, his brutal treatment of 'heretics' and his lack of compassion to those with whom he disagrees and seems even to...more Putting this book onto my history shelf stuck rather in my throat. It is a brilliant story, wonderfully descriptive and emotive. It creates a great panoply of historical figures but falls far short of actually being just to them. By that i mean Mantel quite clearly sets out to unwrite the hagiographical picture catholic tradition has given to Thomas More. She points out, quite rightly, his brutal treatment of 'heretics' and his lack of compassion to those with whom he disagrees and seems even to paint his martyrdom as some sort of ego trip.

This rending apart of his character and historical place might be justified and I certainly think catholic writers need to face up to the fact that Thomas More was of his time and certainly not some sort of enlightened thinker who turned away from torture and cruelty. He did not. As with most men of power of his time the saving of souls, the bringing people back from perdition was of such central importance, their seeing God as a brutal tyrant was so entrenched, that at all costs heretics must be saved even if that meant killing them once they were forced to recant as otherwise God would make them suffer much more.

This, thank God, is no longer the view of the vast majority of thinking men and women of faith but my point is it was in 1530. Mantel presents More as some sort of evil maniac but, and here is my problem, Thomas Cromwell is presented as the valiant defender of the poor, the downtrodden and the suffering Protestant.

The book is a brilliant story, the descriptions are so clever and atmospheric that eyes hardly need to be closed in order to be there but it is the disingenuous creation of this brutal and cruel hypocrite as a man of nobility and compassion that made me very angry. Mantel conveniently finishes her story as Anne Boleyn , the woman who Cramner and Cromwell had raised to that position on the orders of the king through lies and the betrayal of the genuine and tragic figure of Katherine of Aragon, has just lost her second child in miscarriage. Elizabeth, her daughter lives, but anyone with a knowledge of Tudor history knows that that is the only living child Anne will have.

Cramner and especially Cromwell then set out to destroy Anne Boleyn by lies and creations and abuses so as to leave the track free for the evil tub of disgusting lard that was Henry to abuse, manipulate and force himself upon 4 more wives and God alone knows how many more poor petrified women. Cromwell was a shite of the first order, in this brilliant fiction he is perfumed and polished into being a Robin Hood for the 16th Century.

My real difficulty was being able to disassociate the excellence of the novel from the injustices and inaccuracies of the history. Inaccuracies not so much in historical fact perhaps but by their willful misinterpretation. I would be very interested to see how Hilary Mantel approaches Anne Boleyn's 'trial' and execution. I do not see how all the perfumes in Arabia could possibly sweeten Cromwell's little hand in all of that.

(Have just begun the second volume:20:III:13; so I shall soon find out)

The book is a brilliant story but would have been more easily swallowed by me had the character who headed that story been fictional rather than fictitious.(less)

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Feb 22, 2011 Wendy Scott rated it 1 of 5 stars

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? Wolf Hall was that way for me. So many people think it's brilliant while I couldn't maintain enough interest to finish it.

I love historical fiction, especially from this time period, so I expected to really like this one. I thought that telling the story of Henry VIII from the viewpoint of Cromwell was an interesting twist and I looked forward to learning...more 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? Wolf Hall was that way for me. So many people think it's brilliant while I couldn't maintain enough interest to finish it.

I love historical fiction, especially from this time period, so I expected to really like this one. I thought that telling the story of Henry VIII from the viewpoint of Cromwell was an interesting twist and I looked forward to learning more about him. So what was the problem?

Well, for starters, the writing style took turns irritating and confusing me. Quotation marks are apparently optional, making it hard to figure out that you're reading dialogue until you get to the "he said". Speaking of which, the author relies heavily on the pronoun "he" and since there were frequently at least 2 men in each scene, this reader was often unsure which he was the right he. As the men in scene multiplied, so did the confusion. It took so much effort to figure out who was who and who said what and what was going on that it stopped being entertaining or thought-provoking and just became work.

And did I mention the colon? The poor, lonesome, and oft-ignored colon finally has his time in the spotlight in this novel. Upgraded from lonely punctuation understudy, the colon has a lead role here. The author uses colons so frequently and somewhat oddly that I would recommend a complete colonectomy. Here's an example from one paragraph: (Aargh! A colon! It must be contagious.)

"But by the time he reaches Dover the big gash on his scalp has closed, and the tender parts inside, he trusts, have mended themselves: kidneys, lungs, and heart." "Morgan Williams will have done an inventory of him before he left: teeth (miraculously) still in his head, and two eyes, miraculously seeing. Two arms, two legs: what more do you want?"

Overall, the book felt like it was trying too hard to be literary. Some of the prose was lovely, but there were enough little stylistic choices that annoyed me to put me off. After reading numerous reviews, even from people who loved the book, that said that most of the characters remained distant throughout and that they didn't learn anything more about Cromwell after reading 500+ pages, that was enough for me. Sadly, life's too short and my TBR pile's too big. I had to abandon this one.(less)

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Aug 18, 2012 Kaylene rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cannot-finish

Unfortunately I gave up on this book at page 84. I'm really disappointed that I was unable to get into this book as so many have raved about it. I just found the prose exceptionally dense and confusing. At times I was confused as to who was 'speaking' and couldn't follow it.

Oh well.....next!

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Sep 23, 2012 Riku Sayuj rated it 2 of 5 stars

I treat this novel as a qualified failure of an experiment (qualified since I am open to the possibility that the failure was mine) and I sincerely wish that Mantel does not win the Booker this year - I just cannot bring myself to spend anymore time with her lifeless narrator.

More than anything else Wolf Hall seemed to me to be a literary experiment - on how closely a woman can get into a man's mind, and as far as I am concerned, a qualified failure. I could never truly feel that the narration w...more
I treat this novel as a qualified failure of an experiment (qualified since I am open to the possibility that the failure was mine) and I sincerely wish that Mantel does not win the Booker this year - I just cannot bring myself to spend anymore time with her lifeless narrator.

More than anything else Wolf Hall seemed to me to be a literary experiment - on how closely a woman can get into a man's mind, and as far as I am concerned, a qualified failure. I could never truly feel that the narration was being executed by a male voice, it was as if a woman narrator residing inside a captive male character was telling the story and every time a ‘he’ or 'his' comes along, it resulted in a string of confused stumblings over adjectives before I remembered again (many times) that it is of himself that the narrator is talking about. Eventually I came to understand the reason for this jarring feeling - it was not because I was not reading thoroughly enough, it was because I couldn't think of the narrator as a ‘he’ - it just didn't cut it, especially when he/she informed me with wonder of how men embrace other men.

I wish Mary Boleyn had been the narrator, she was the only 'real' person in this narrative peopled by artificial characters, only she had an authentic voice to me and I can't help but feel that she was the character that Mantel most identified with - the novel came alive and took such vibrancy every time Mary entered the narrator's field of vision, like a deprived woman lighting up at the sight of a beautiful mirror to finally examine herself!

As I said, I am open to the fact that my bad experience was due to a failure of imagination on my part, so I hope fans of this book will take pity on my deprived pleasure and be gentle in their recriminations.

Come to think of it I really cannot think of any book I have read in which a novelist tries to get so intimate with the mind of a narrator of the opposite sex. So maybe my problem was not a failure of imagination but a poverty of literary experience as I haven't encountered such an effort before; maybe I need to read some Hardy.

I also believe that if there were less 'Thomas's in the story, I could have still come out the better in this expedition. So there.

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Aug 05, 2012 Jennifer (aka EM) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jennifer (aka EM) by: Simon

Shelves: for-the-desert-island

First off, I find the whole notion of the monarchy - any monarchy - absurd. 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.

I honestly don't remember what kind of history I was taught in school, but the Roy...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

For the first 100 pages I was like a Monkees song, you know the one -

[Cue cute organ/guitar intro]

I thought great historical novels about the 16th century were only true in fairy tales
Meant for someone else but not for me
Mmm, historical novelists were out to get me
That's the way it seemed
Disappointment haunted all my dreams
Then I read Wolf Hall ! Now I'm a believer!
Not a trace of doubt in my mind!
Ooh I'm in love!
Ooh Hilary Mantel I couldn’t leave you if I tried

But then some strange things began...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Emma rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, historical-fiction

I love Tudor history and luckily for me there is an (almost) infinite variety of novels, biographies, films, plays and TV shows with which to indulge myself. There is no such thing as a definitively accurate historical account - it is the conflicting opinions and contrasting interpretations that fascinate me.

Henry V111's struggle for supremacy, his divorce from Catherine of Aragon and the rise of Anne Boleyn in particular is a fascinating and exhilarating part of history and Wolf Hall thrusts us...more I love Tudor history and luckily for me there is an (almost) infinite variety of novels, biographies, films, plays and TV shows with which to indulge myself. There is no such thing as a definitively accurate historical account - it is the conflicting opinions and contrasting interpretations that fascinate me.

Henry V111's struggle for supremacy, his divorce from Catherine of Aragon and the rise of Anne Boleyn in particular is a fascinating and exhilarating part of history and Wolf Hall thrusts us right into the heart of it. Wolf Hall is Cromwell's story (not the Seymours, as the book's title would suggest) and it is through his eyes that we are escorted through Tudor England and the political intrigues of Henry V111's Court in the 1520s and 1530s. The prose, packed with historical fact, is so easy to read I hardly realised I was being guided through some of the most detailed and complex historical events. Mantel has an extraordinary eye for detail and she gives rich, vivid descriptions of people, places, clothes, music, food..... I can almost taste Tudor England.

Cromwell is often portrayed in an unflattering light. His achievements were intensely controversial in his own day, and they remain so. TC was never a favourite of mine and is the type of fellow I imagine winning 'Tudor Villain of the Year'. Perhaps historians have been unfair to him, leaving an impression that he was not a great original thinker, rather that he welded together the ideas of others and implemented them forcefully. Mantel clearly could not resist the opportunity to write about Cromwell from a different perspective and her use of the present tense creates a sense of intimacy throughout this convincing insight into Cromwell's soul.

To give you an idea of how successful Mantel is in redeeming Cromwell's rep, mid-way through Wolf Hall I realised that I was beginning to find him likeable and attractive. This is definitely new. I didn't even like Cromwell when he was played sympathetically by the passably attractive James Frain in 'The Tudors'. Mantel convincingly shows 'Cromwell - The Person'. A self made man who left his humble origins in Putney to live by his wits. A man who loved his children and wards, was faithful to his wife and loyal to his master to the last, but who seized the opportunity to build a new career serving the king, cunningly aligning himself with the Boleyns as their star was rising. Mantel's Cromwell is a bold and brilliant man who subtly manages the king and the political struggles raging around them. Not many people would deny that, given the rigid society and suffocating snobbery of the Tudor court, it is an incredible achievement for a blacksmith's son from Putney to rise to be the second most powerful man in England but beyond this Mantel attributes to Cromwell a new, more human dimension.

I do not entirely agree with Mantel’s take on the historical figures in the text but I certainly enjoyed her interpretation. Thomas More, for example, is depicted as a religious fanatic with little love for the women in his family. However More's letters to his children show that he was an affectionate father. He was also a pioneer of women’s education, giving his daughters the same level of education as his son, thereby setting an example subsequently followed by others. Mantel does not explore the women behind the stereotypes: Catherine of Aragon is the betrayed wife; Anne Boleyn is the temptress; Mary Boleyn is the slutty sister; Jane Seymour is the nice girl. But then again, Wolf Hall is Cromwell's story, not theirs.

Whether Cromwell deserves the 'Mantel effect' is debatable, but he unquestionably ranks among the greatest politicians of his age and deserves to be written about in a new way. So I'm glad I read this novel, although Wolf Hall wasn't quite the addictive page-turner that I was expecting, having read the rapturous reviews. Nevertheless I enjoyed Wolf Hall and marvel at the fineness of Mantel’s writing as well as her success in making me fancy the overweight, murderous, beady-eyed Cromwell.

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Apr 08, 2010 A.J. Howard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: finished-in-2010, booker-prize, bookshelf-fiction, electioneering

One of the most interesting things about history is thinking about perspective. Very few people lived their lives with an intention of being known as a villain of history. Yet I think all of us fall into the trap of thinking of the past in moralistic terms sometimes. This is a function of generations of storytelling and cultural indoctrination. There are facts that we don't ever necessarily learn, or at least can remember learning, that we don't pause to consider.

My favorite thing about Wolf Hal...more One of the most interesting things about history is thinking about perspective. Very few people lived their lives with an intention of being known as a villain of history. Yet I think all of us fall into the trap of thinking of the past in moralistic terms sometimes. This is a function of generations of storytelling and cultural indoctrination. There are facts that we don't ever necessarily learn, or at least can remember learning, that we don't pause to consider.

My favorite thing about Wolf Hall is how it turns previous conception of a much discussed period of history on its head, while maintaining complete plausibility. Maybe it was my Catholic upbringing, but I always thought of Thomas More as a great man of learning and advocate of free speech, while Thomas Cromwell was a ruthless, unprincipled yes-man. Mantel effectively exploits facts to make you completely reverse your feelings about the two characters. In truth, More was a religious fundamentalist, the man tortured and executed people who strayed from the Church's dogmatic beliefs, hardly a free speech advocate. Cromwell's rise to power would be inspiring if it occurred today, all the more so that he did it almost 500 years ago. Mantel almost does too good of a job of making Cromwell likable, but you are completely ready to buy it. I didn't realize this until I watched the film A Man For All Seasons and found myself becoming upset with its portrayal of Thomas Cromwell. I think this is Mantel's greatest accomplishment, she reverses 500 years of preconceived notions.

The book isn't a necessarily easy read. Mantel throws you into the world and she doesn't give you a ton of exposition or remind you who characters are and how they relate to each other. I frequently had to consult the character list and the genealogical charts at the beginning of the book for a reminder. One night, I stayed up until 4 reading the wikipedia entry on the War of the Roses to refresh myself on that subject. (I actually highly recommend potential readers doing this. Mantel frequently references the events and it also gives you good context of why the production of a legitimate male heir was deemed such an immediate necessity.)

The title Wolf Hall is taken from the estate of the Seymour family, minor characters in the novel. But the title accentuates what I would consider the theme of the novel, which Cromwell repeats to himself several times over the course. Homono homini lupus, man is wolf to man. Mantel's Cromwell is presented as a precursor to the modern politician. This is a hazardous occupation in a time where political missteps had much graver consequences than potential resignation accompanied by a lobbying gig as a fall back plan. In this way Wolf Hall could be labelled a political thriller. One of the thrills in the novel is how Cromwell manges to, excuse the bad joke, keep his head on his shoulders. Watch Cromwell survive the political crushing of his patron and political mentor. See him hazard the stormy rapids that was the Boleyn family. Marvel as he clashes wits with the great Thomas More.

What makes this even more effective is the novel is very well written. Mantel does a great job inhabiting familiar characters and making them come to life. Unlike other fictional works that have dealt with the same period, none of the characters are cliched or one dimensional. Her Henry VIII is my favorite depiction of the much depicted monarch since Robert Shaw's. Here, he is temperamental and often child-like, but also as intelligent and goodhearted. And as a rule, any confrontation with the Boleyn sisters will likely be very entertaining. As it was for Henry, though in a rather different way.

The plot tends to revolve heavily around such such confrontations. There will be plot movement, but most of the time it sets the scene for another meeting between Thomas and Anne, or Cardinal Wolsey, or Thomas More, or the Earl of Norfolk. Nevertheless, my favorite chapter of the book was one of the first, "An Occult History of England." This chapter is mostly exposition, but it works brilliantly as a kind of "how we got here."Combining politics, history, and legend, it reads like something Rushdie could have written.

I enjoyed Wolf Hall much more than I expected to. Although I know how the story ends for all the characters, the novel kept me entertained until the end. Now that I think about it, the novel really reminds me of Robert Caro's first two LBJ biographies which detailed Johnson's rise to power. While they don't retell the traditional hero's journey, a non-mythical path to power can be more worthwhile and just as entertaining epic.(less)

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Dec 01, 2010 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, literary-fiction-i-actually-like

Wolf Hall is the kind of book that gets better the more you think about it. Its protagonist is Thomas Cromwell: a villain in A Man for All Seasons but here a man with a family, a career, and a sharp way of thinking. He doesn't want to be a saint; he wants to apply his shrewdness and hard-won experience to make the best of a bad world. His feelings towards his family, as portrayed here, make him sympathetic, even likeable.

The book introduces all the figures familiar to readers of other Tudor stor...more

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May 16, 2010 Dana Stabenow added it

Mantel has given a wonderful voice to Thomas Cromwell in this novel of an eyewitness perspective on Henry VIII's split from the Church of Rome. All the usual suspects are present, Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More, along with a wonderful supporting cast of fully realized minor characters, whether fictional or historical. I don't know which is more painful to watch, Thomas More being viciously abusive to his wife and daughters over lunch, or Cromwell as a child watchi...more

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Apr 17, 2010 Clif Hostetler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

This historical novel elevates Thomas Cromwell, adviser to Henry VIII, from villainhood (as portrayed in “A Man For All Seasons”) to sympathetic character. It also pulls Thomas Moore’s reputation down from its saintly perch. Moore in this story is a sniveling sanctimonious character running his own inquisition searching for heretics (utilizing torture and burning at the stake). Cromwell on the other hand is portrayed as the consummate administrator, accountant and politician astute at reading pe...more This historical novel elevates Thomas Cromwell, adviser to Henry VIII, from villainhood (as portrayed in “A Man For All Seasons”) to sympathetic character. It also pulls Thomas Moore’s reputation down from its saintly perch. Moore in this story is a sniveling sanctimonious character running his own inquisition searching for heretics (utilizing torture and burning at the stake). Cromwell on the other hand is portrayed as the consummate administrator, accountant and politician astute at reading people. He is portrayed as a family man hardened by his personal losses and with skeptical regard for the merits of religion. (His practicality is compatible with 21st Century values, perhaps too much so.)

This novel demonstrates a unique knack by the author for getting under the skin of her characters and capturing them (one feels) as they must have been. The basic plot is well known (Henry VIII changes wives), so there can be no surprises there. The adventure is in progressing through the “third person/virtual first person” narrative that lets the reader inside Cromwell’s mind and provides a semi-omniscient overview of the era. The story is told largely with the use of conversational dialog and interior thoughts of Cromwell. The reader is allowed to figure out who the various characters are by what’s being said and by context. Inference and subtlety are used where other writers might have used flat declarative sentences. The chronology of the story jumps around unpredictably as Cromwell’s recalls earlier experiences. The effort required to follow the action pulls the reader into the story so that by the end it feels like one has actually experienced living in the 16th Century (and thankful to be able return to the 21st century with head still connected to the body).

There's plenty of history remaining to be covered when the end of the book is reached. So I think it likely that there will be a sequel.

Below is a short review of Wolf Hall from PageADay's Book Lover's Calendar for March 2, 2013:
Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, this is a masterful reimagining of the reign of Henry VIII as told through the eyes of one of his closest advisers, Thomas Cromwell. Hardly a hero, Cromwell is, however, a fascinating lens through which to get a totally unsentimental view of Henry’s insistence on getting what he wants. This is for all those fascinated by the Tudors—but more so for their viciousness than their romances.
WOLF HALL , by Hilary Mantel (2009; Picador, 2010)(less)

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Jun 07, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, literary-fiction, religion, man-booker-prize, british-literature, 2000s

Told through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall is a wonderful take on Tudor history. Hilary Mantel sets out to write a fictionalised biography of the rise to power of Cromwell, as well as the fall of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII’s desire to divorce and the opposition of Thomas More. Mantel puts her take on the characterisation of these historical figures and went to painstaking lengths to make sure her version of the story lines up with the historical events as accurately as possible....more Told through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, Wolf Hall is a wonderful take on Tudor history. Hilary Mantel sets out to write a fictionalised biography of the rise to power of Cromwell, as well as the fall of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII’s desire to divorce and the opposition of Thomas More. Mantel puts her take on the characterisation of these historical figures and went to painstaking lengths to make sure her version of the story lines up with the historical events as accurately as possible.

Just for the sake of understanding the history behind the book, I did a bit of research before reading this book. I believe this book is set between 1500 and 1535; King Henry VIII has no heir and his chief advisor Cardinal Wolsey is trying to secure his divorce which the Pope refuses to grant. Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith rises to power by becoming Cardinal Wolsey’s clerk and then later his successor. Wolf Hall takes a look at the history and the morality behind the English Reformation; the English church's break with the Catholic Church in Rome.

With the success of The Tudors TV show and The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, I’m not surprised how popular this book was but I’m a little surprised that it ended up winning the Man Booker prize in 2009. However, this book is a beautiful read and I found it fascinating that Hilary Mantel gave Thomas Cromwell a real sense of humanity when most recordings seem to vilify him. I’m a little confused why this book was called Wolf Hall when Wulfhall was the manor that was the seat of the Seymour family and yet there wasn’t much in this novel to do with Jane Seymour.

Fans of historical fiction, especially of this period of history, this is the book for you. Don’t be too worried about the sheer size of this novel, you won’t be disappointed. For anyone that has no interest in the period then, I’m not sure if you would want to read this. Personally I don’t have much of an interest in the Tudor’s dynasty but I’m interested in books that tackle morality and that drove me through this book but I did end up developing an interest in the history. I’m keen to read the next book in this planned trilogy; Bring Up the Bodies which only covers 1535 to 1556 and centres around the downfall of Anne Boleyn. (less)

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Mar 24, 2012 S. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 500-plus-pages, booker-noms, women-writers, read-in-2012, 5-stars

I'm not big on historical fiction, and have read nearly nothing on the Tudors, but it is fitting to me that here on the anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth (the virgin one), I gnawed Wolf Hall to the bone.

It occurs to me that the Elvis Costello song "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" could be disdain for Thomas More? The song popped into my head when Cromwell visits More in Chelsea. More always seemed to be in a bad mood, in addition to having a stick up his bum - in the book, I mean. As...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Like many others, I thought this book was utterly brilliant. The pleasure of reading it was palpable, a tingling in my fingers. That kind of pleasure put me in mind of another book that provoked it, Yehoshua’s A Journey to the End of the Millenium, but I thought to myself, those books are nothing like each other. Then I realized that in terms of subject matter, they are not so dissimilar after all. Both revolve largely around the search for clarification of religious marriage law, in the service...more

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Dec 07, 2010 DoctorM rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

Thos. Cromwell has usually been presented as the heavy in the middle part of Henry VIII's reign--- the grasping, amoral, bullying parvenu who destroyed Sir Thos. More, the mastermind behind the king's efforts to divorce himself from Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn, the man behind the plundering of the monasteries. Leo McKern did a brilliant turn as Cromwell in "A Man for All Seasons" and Donald Pleasance played him in "Henry VIII and His Six Wives". The recent "Tudors" mini-series did...more

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Feb 18, 2010 Teresa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Teresa by: Lisa Hill

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. It took me a short while to realize this, but once I did, I was fine. You are in Cromwell's head; you see everything from his perspective. As he reacts to others' reactions of him (many times, he is bemused to see how he is thought of) another layer of characterization is added.

This novel is be...more 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. It took me a short while to realize this, but once I did, I was fine. You are in Cromwell's head; you see everything from his perspective. As he reacts to others' reactions of him (many times, he is bemused to see how he is thought of) another layer of characterization is added.

This novel is beautifully written with unique descriptions (I love when authors can pull that uniqueness off -- not easy to do!) sprinkled here and there; Cromwell is fascinating (and drawn sympathetically by Mantel) and even surprisingly charming in his interactions with family members and certain others. (Though that's not to say that he doesn't use some of these others either.) And he's funny! Though all of this is done, oh, so, subtly.

It's said that historical fiction is as much about the time during which it was written as it is about the time it's set in. And through Mantel's eyes, we see the similarities of the time periods' political intrigue, as messy and incestuous then as it is now. I thought I was done with Tudor historical fiction (I've read so much of it through the years) but this book is different.

You won't understand the novel's title until later in the book, and I won't explain it here, as I got excited (a rare emotion when reading) seeing the meanings unfold, and I wouldn't want to spoil that for anyone.

I also got very excited as I read this quote: (page 394) "Suppose within each book there is another book, and within every letter on every page another volume constantly unfolding; but these volumes take no space on the desk. Suppose knowledge could be reduced to a quintessence, held within a picture, a sign, held within a place which is no place. Suppose the human skull were to become capacious, spaces opening inside it, humming chambers like beehives." I felt as if I had found the 'key' to the whole book.

This is one of those long novels that I loved living with and hated to see end, one of those experiences which causes you not to want to rush off to read something else, because you're still soaking in the one you've just finished.(less)

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Mar 23, 2013 Nigie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Set in one of history's most fascinating periods, this slow epic is based on the life of Henry VIII's villainous 2IC and hatchet man, Thomas Cromwell, best known as the principal adversary to 'England's martyr' Sir Thomas More in the famous Robert Bolt play A Man For All Seasons (the film providing Leo McKern, as Cromwell, with one of his early successes). Cromwell's oily dastardry also laced the famous BBC television series of the 70s, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, and because I know both these...more Set in one of history's most fascinating periods, this slow epic is based on the life of Henry VIII's villainous 2IC and hatchet man, Thomas Cromwell, best known as the principal adversary to 'England's martyr' Sir Thomas More in the famous Robert Bolt play A Man For All Seasons (the film providing Leo McKern, as Cromwell, with one of his early successes). Cromwell's oily dastardry also laced the famous BBC television series of the 70s, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, and because I know both these works well and therefore have a superficial knowledge of the history and the variously interpreted figures involved, I was able to enjoy this original and meticulous but rather dry retelling. Without such knowledge, since the author expects you to come to the book with quite an awareness of events, I would have struggled. As it is, the process, while undeniably involving, was still somewhat laborious.

The appeal for me lay in the notion of getting inside the head of one of English history's great pricks, even knowing that one of the author's objectives is to redress the balance of his reputation somewhat. Luckily she doesn't go too far: he's still pretty devious. One of the first misapprehensions she sets out to debunk is that Thomas More, England's Catholic saint and depicted as squeaky clean in Bolt, was in fact no such thing, being an unscrupulous torturer and executioner of heretics himself, a heretic defined, at the book's outset, as anyone who wishes the Bible translated into English or who expresses a disagreement with the pope, and evolving, by its conclusion, to any papist who won't take the Cromwell-drafted oath to support Henry's self-proclaimed supremacy over the 'church in England', More's abstinence from which was the cause of his ultimate execution. You know that the climax is going to be the joust between Cromwell, as chief prosecutor, and More, as unrelenting dissident, but from the first page you're taken to events in Cromwell's life that, from childhood, lifted this low-born commoner to an unprecedented position of power.

Accordingly, by the time the story finally hits its straps in the second half, we're on intimate terms with Henry himself, and his volatile and conniving second wife, Anne Boleyn, whose ascendancy to the throne as a result of Henry's desire for a male heir in order to cement the Tudor dynasty's grip, is the cause of all the upheaval. In order to marry her Henry had to wangle a divorce from his now-assumed barren first queen of twenty years, Catherine of Aragon: no easy legal feat, since he'd needed a papal dispensation to wed her in the first place. So a new marriage was to require the dispensation of what had been already a hard-won dispensation. After some frustrating years, this wasn't ultimately forthcoming from war-preoccupied Rome (the pope was also head of his own political empire at the time), leading to a determined Henry's split with the Catholic church and the disinheriting of his daughter by Catherine, Mary (later, briefly, to rule), thus setting off a collapse of dominoes that would last centuries. Wolf Hall takes us through all of this as well as Henry's dissolution of the monasteries, and the second common misapprehension our author takes pains to dispel is that Henry was just an affable and dilettantish puppet in these affairs, by showing that he was indeed their fully conscious instigator, with Anne on the sidelines also baying for the blood of anyone not fully in favour of her marriage.

However, since Wolf Hall kind of glosses over much, and many of the major events happen off-screen as it were, a reader's knowledge of history is pretty vital, especially a pre-familiarity with the characters. Players are often referred to on different occasions by any one of their multiple titles without due elucidation, so unless you come into the story knowing them, you'd take many for least two different people. If you didn't know that More lived at Chelsea, you'd also miss a bit (since 'going to Chelsea' means visiting More), and indeed if you didn't know that the family estate of Jane Seymour, handmaid to Anne Boleyn but due to become the next queen after Anne's beheading, gives the book its title, you'd unknowingly miss even more. I'd strongly recommend an advance viewing of A Man For All Seasons which tells you nearly everything you need to know about the Thomas More trial; even better if you can also get The Six Wives, in which sundry other significant bishops, nobles and queens (both Boleyn and sappy Seymour) appear.

Further difficulties arise from the narrative style, in that the author adopts a subjective inflection of the pronoun 'he' for Cromwell, eschewing as often as possible the mention of his name (which to me suggests that a previous draft may have been written in the first person). In many scenes this causes a testing ambiguity when you find out halfway through a paragraph that the person we're following has switched without notification from another male previously dominating back to Cromwell. Occasionally she'll clarify with a clumsy "he, Cromwell" , but not nearly often enough. It's a not-insignificant problem, and many scenes aren't sufficiently gripping to make you rewind to clarify. The book's written almost like a third-person diary, with the day's minutiae often superceding plot. Scenes you dream of attending are skimmed over as having happened elsewhere, including the climactic trial! (We are let in on the rigging of the jury however, even if still offscreen: Thomas More's zealotry had left a trail of disgruntlement that would now catch up.)

Having said all that, there's still a lot to like. When you're taken into the presence of real history, you get a good picture of the protagonists. She paints a clear and alert portrait of Anne, though it takes far too long to meet her. Henry's good too. Norfolk's plausible. Wolsey, framing the story's first act, is great. She gives you a wide canvas of well-drawn characters, better even if you know who they are, such as the co-respondents-to-be in Anne's own subsequent divorce (and, thanks to Cromwell, treason), which hasn't yet occurred by the end of the book (there's a sequel). She doesn't hold back in describing a couple of grim executions, and she gets the all machinations and politics right in this weird, Macchiavellian and superstitious era. It's clear that, above her proper research, she's comprehensively absorbed both the film and TV series I've mentioned, and in fact has lifted quite a few chunks of dialogue from the film verbatim. (To be fair, and for all I know, this may be because the film itself quoted original transcripts.)

So if, as I did, you come to Wolf Hall with a salacious tabloid lust for violence, treachery and intrigue, there's just enough to keep you reading, even if it's ultimately markedly less than satisfying. It's got to be said that it's admirably well-researched, and all the detail's quite interesting: the work is a massive and impressive achievement. But in this author's hands it's just a bit boring. She's not really a storyteller I'm afraid. So I'm praying she'll get things better in the next instalment.(less)

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Jan 18, 2013 ·Karen· rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mttbr-2013, brits, history

First off I'd like to say without the least reservation that Ms Mantel thoroughly deserves all the accolades she has garnered for this novel - and there have been some. She herself describes the process of writing it in terms of a sustained hallucination, as if she were in a film, occupying the same space as the main protagonist, with a ghostly overlap, watching the action unfold through the lens of his eyes. She describes her exhilaration once she got started, and I can well imagine that, it mi...more First off I'd like to say without the least reservation that Ms Mantel thoroughly deserves all the accolades she has garnered for this novel - and there have been some. She herself describes the process of writing it in terms of a sustained hallucination, as if she were in a film, occupying the same space as the main protagonist, with a ghostly overlap, watching the action unfold through the lens of his eyes. She describes her exhilaration once she got started, and I can well imagine that, it mirrors the breathless elation that I felt reading it. There's something almost troubling in the sheer breadth and depth of her sorcery that makes you a little concerned for Ms Mantel's mental health, it's such a feat of imagination that you worry that she may have been possessed, and I fear for her once she has finished the third part of this project, what will she do then? How will she live? Will she be requiring the services of an exorcist or a time machine (possibly both?) before she can return to the 21st century?

Then I'd also like to address this question of the notoriously ambiguous 'he', which some people apparently couldn't cope with. Oh come on. For the love of Riley, can you not just slow down and concentrate a bit? For one thing, it brings you as close as a whisper to Cromwell, and for another, it trains you as a reader to pay attention, to pay precisely as much attention to who is speaking and what he is saying as Cromwell had to employ himself. Reading as survival training: the literary equivalent of an assault course. And once you have absolved your initial training, you are in a position to match Cromwell in his reading of subtext, gesture, facial expression, tone of voice, and foibles; match his constant evaluation of social status, posturing, braggadocio, false modesty, fabrication; match his ability to fill in the gaps and ignore nothing, nothing, for nothing is unimportant. How about this for example? Cromwell has an audience with the king. There has been talk of a match between Anne Boleyn's sister Mary, Lady Carey and Cromwell's nephew. 'He', as in nearly all cases in the novel, refers to Cromwell:

"Cromwell, one thing, and then we will have our breakfast, because I am really very hungry. This project of a match for my cousin Richard....."
He thinks his way, rapidly, around the nobility of England. But no, he sees it's his Richard, Richard Cromwell. "Lady Carey..." The king's voice softens. "Well I have thought it over, and I think, no. Or at least, not at this time."
He nods. He understands his reason. When Anne understands it, she will spit nails.

The solution to this puzzle is given us two pages later when Cromwell imparts the news to the bridegroom-as-was:

"The king says no. It is not because of my family, or your family - he calls you his cousin. He is, at this moment, his disposition to us, I would say it is excellent. But he needs Mary for himself. The child is due in late summer and he is afraid to touch Anne. And he does not wish to resume his celibate life."
Richard looks up. "He said this?"
"He left me to understand it. And as I understand it I convey it to you, and we are both amazed, but we get over it."

That's the sort of virtuoso reading that Cromwell has to do to survive. As a courtesy to him, we should make a bit of an effort too.

And finally I'd like to think about what Mantel is doing, what anyone does, writing about the past, long dead and gone. She modestly claims she does history because she's no good at plot, so she lets history do that for her. But any historical novel reflects not only on the time in which it is set, but also on the time in which it is written. What filter does she put on the vision she has? One emphasis is certainly the gradual decline in the importance of lordly prancing and the rise of the cash nexus; another is (obviously) the shift away from legitimation of power through divine wand-waving towards the body politic, but a more subtle theme is also the question of the male and female world, which here usually corresponds with the public as opposed to the private. Cromwell is a kind man in private, with his women, and More is exposed as casually cruel in his dealings with his wife. Where it gets really interesting is when there is a bit of cross-contamination and the ladies enter public life. With little financial weight or political influence, what weapons can they deploy? There's really only access to what Diderot called the bijoux indiscrets.

I got the distinct feeling that, slick as Cromwell was at reading the subtext in his conversations with men, he was constantly wrong-footed by the women. Well, if not wrong-footed, then at least surprised. Less predictable these women. Less likely to take the well-trodden path, as it was closed to them anyway. They had to open up new territory, play to their own strengths rather than compete on unfair terms. Anne Boleyn got where she wanted to be through her own wily, wiry strength, as did Cromwell himself. I can hardly wait to watch, fascinated, how this battle plays out, even if I know how it ends - getting there is the wondrous delight.

(less)

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Jan 22, 2011 Sarah Payok rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I love finishing a good book and enjoying the moment immediately afterward, just sitting and thinking about what I've read. Wolf Hall was the first book in quite a while to leave me in that moment of quiet contemplation, not eager to pick up the next book and let what I have just read fade away.

I was pretty sure, based on the topic and reviews, that I would love Wolf Hall. Well written historical fiction about the Tudors? Of course I would love that. Well written historical fiction about the Tud...more I love finishing a good book and enjoying the moment immediately afterward, just sitting and thinking about what I've read. Wolf Hall was the first book in quite a while to leave me in that moment of quiet contemplation, not eager to pick up the next book and let what I have just read fade away.

I was pretty sure, based on the topic and reviews, that I would love Wolf Hall. Well written historical fiction about the Tudors? Of course I would love that. Well written historical fiction about the Tudors focused on the political dealings and not the lust and arrogance of Henry? I loved that even more.

Wolf Hall focuses on Thomas Cromwell's rise to power, from the abused son of a blacksmith to a hired soldier to one of the most powerful men working in the government of Tudor England. Mantel's narrative is fast paced and it surprises me to reflect back and consider just how much of Cromwell's life is packed into the 600+ pages. Events happen quickly and without fanfare (Thomas More is a big figure in the book yet his death is almost a side note) and years fly by. As a result, Wolf Hall encompasses a large portion of history without ever seeming like it. At the same time, this is done so artfully that it never seems jarring or as though something is missing; Wolf Hall reads like a comprehensive rendering of the years from when Henry began lobbying Rome for a divorce from Queen Katherine to the death of the 2nd child of Queen Anne.

There are virtually no villains in Wolf Hall. Cromwell sees the characters merely as chess pieces, to manipulate and move as needed. Every one has a value, whether realized now or in the future, and as result Mantel's Cromwell is a good man, despite his political maneuvering. It's hard to read about Tudor England without also reading a great deal of accusations and finger pointing. Wolf Hall was a pleasant respite from this. More importantly though, it is a great read and I enjoyed every page. I will certainly seek out Hillary Mantel's other books.(less)

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Jun 05, 2012 Anastasia Fitzgerald-Beaumont rated it 5 of 5 stars

The King’s Fixer

I wrote the following brief evaluation of Hilary Mantel’s historical novel Wolf Hall a couple of years ago for another site. It was before I joined GoodReads. I’m now adding it here because I’ve just ordered Bring up the Bodies, the sequel, which I will read and review just as fast as I am able. Keep watching!

When it comes to fiction there are two things I tend to avoid: historical novels and almost anything on the Man-Booker list.

I have read some good historical novels, and I...more

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Jan 17, 2013 L.M. Ironside rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: can-t-stop-thinking-about, eat-prose-with-spoon, general-fiction, historical-fiction, literary-fiction

So I am listening to this audiobook (easily one of the best audio productions I've ever heard, by the way, up there with Jeremy Irons reading Lolita!) and I am only about an hour and a half into the book, and already I can tell this is a five-star book.

OH. MY GOD, YOU GUYS. THE PROSE. It is so expert, so tight, so well crafted! I am freaking out! When I first began to listen, I had that gobsmacked moment that all writers get from time to time when, confronted by the work of a true master artist,...more

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Jun 25, 2010 F.R. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I studied the Tudors at school, my History teacher seemed to love Thomas Cromwell. In any lesson about Henry the Eighth, he would stress how incredibly important Cromwell was to the King and to the history of England and Wales. Maybe that’s just the way the syllabus was and every History-orientated child in The Principality was taught the same lesson, but I like to think it was actually a quirk of the teacher – perhaps anxious to show that it wasn’t always the man on the throne who held the...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Lovers of Historical Fiction with a Literary Sensibility

Recommended to Lisa (Harmonybites) by: Gerri Leen

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

I have friends who loved Wolf Hall (the majority) and a few who hated it, and having read this I can understand both reactions. The novel is centered on Thomas Cromwell, a minister of Henry VIII. I did like that Mantel doesn’t present him as the usual stock villain. The first chapter of about a dozen pages starts with him as a teen, running away from home to escape his abusive father. So from the very first paragraphs I felt a lot of sympathy for Cromwell. When we next see him 27 years later, Cr...more I have friends who loved Wolf Hall (the majority) and a few who hated it, and having read this I can understand both reactions. The novel is centered on Thomas Cromwell, a minister of Henry VIII. I did like that Mantel doesn’t present him as the usual stock villain. The first chapter of about a dozen pages starts with him as a teen, running away from home to escape his abusive father. So from the very first paragraphs I felt a lot of sympathy for Cromwell. When we next see him 27 years later, Cromwell has built a life for himself as a lawyer and man of means and influence. Mantel continued to build that sympathy by presenting him as a loving husband and family man and loyal man to Cardinal Wolsey.

Even so, Mantel’s portrait of Cromwell did often reveal a rather Machiavellian, or at least cooly pragmatic, mind. His foil in the novel is the sainted Thomas More, who Mantel often portrays in an unflattering light. Mantel gave us a bit of More’s famous admonition to a Cromwell come to power: “I hope you will tell the king what he ought to do, not merely what he can do. If the lion knew his own strength, it would be hard to rule him.” That seems revealing of the difference between the men--except Mantel’s Cromwell does have a moral core and human warmth. As someone familiar with the period through many a fictionalized account and even histories, I did relish the portraits, writ small and large, of various figures: the Boleyns, the Seymours, and other Tudor figures. Mantel’s portrait of say Mary and Anne Boleyn felt both plausible (much, much more so than Gregory’s in The Other Boleyn Girl) and yet her own. You can tell Mantel put a lot of research, and a lot of thought into this novel.

So what were my reservations? In a word: style. This isn’t first person, but it’s almost written as if it were. Meaning that the pronoun isn’t “I” but “he” almost always refers to Cromwell. But not always. Later on she does differentiate with a “He, Cromwell.” But really, that’s awkward, and there’s a time honored solution for ambiguous subjects--the proper noun--and when you use it, keeping the pronoun is redundant. And Mantel is inconsistent in her use of quotation marks. They’re there, it’s not like she does a Cormac McCarthy, but sometimes they’re not. I found it irritating, because who was speaking was often as ambiguous as who was being referred to. (And we have a time-honored solution for that too--it’s called the dialogue tag.) Mantel also did odd things at times with the point of view, which even though pretty much third person limited, sometimes did things like drop in a “we” as if this were co-written by Cromwell and Mantel, or definitely read at times with touches of omniscient among the tight concentration on Cromwell and his thinking. Oh, and it’s all done in present tense. Something which taken alone doesn’t bother me. But all these other techniques together came across to me as amateurish, and yet you just know this was a very consciously chosen literary style, but to what purpose God knows--other than to alert the jury of the Man Booker Prize (which she was awarded), “Lookee here, I’m literary, I’m different! I’m not Philippa Gregory! I don’t cater to the masses!” A friend told me she did think the idiosyncratic prose style, especially the use of “he” contributed to Cromwell’s “interiority” and you do get used to it--you just have to keep in mind that “he” is almost always Cromwell. That peeve aside, this more than held me through its just over 600 pages, and I am planning to read the sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, so yes what annoyed, though it lost the novel a star in my rating, didn’t lose me as a reader because I was so fascinated by Mantel’s delineation of characters and the times, so I begrudgingly didn't dock her further.(less)

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Mar 12, 2013 Nermin rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those interested in Tudors history

Recommended to Nermin by: Man Booker Prize

Shelves: series, owned, my-favorites, historical-fiction

I've always had mixed feelings about Anne Boleyn. But never did I imagine that I would hate her so much as I did while reading this book. It's partly because of this, perhaps, that I'm looking forward to reading the second book which, from what I've heard, is entirely dedicated to the downfall of Anne Boleyn and her family.

As for Wolf Hall, most of the critics of the book seem to object to Mantel's writing style which admittedly is very confusing at first, but I got used to it after a while and...more

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Aug 10, 2012 lisa_emily rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: those looking for more Boleyns

Recommended to lisa_emily by: Gradylove

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2012-read

I’m not even going to bother writing a “review” as there are better written ones out there. But I am going to give reasons to why I enjoyed this book.

It’s great to read historical fiction that is not over-the-top heaving with some romantic misplaced nostalgia. Wolf Hall is soberly written, not in a stuffy or too contemporary language. If anything, it feels haunted. This haunted feeling hangs about the main character Cromwell as he goes through the trajectory of his actions. He is haunted by his...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Lewis Weinstein rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

I just started Wolf Hall, and I find the relentless use of "he" to be extremely irritating. In the first several chapters, there are dozens of instances where it is not clear who is speaking. Every once in a while, as if recognizing the problem she has created, Mantel uses the phrase "he, Cromwell." Why not just say Cromwell?

Unless there is some good reason which I can't imagine, this sort of obfuscation is just lazy writing which disrespects the reader. May I re-think that, based on a comment b...more I just started Wolf Hall, and I find the relentless use of "he" to be extremely irritating. In the first several chapters, there are dozens of instances where it is not clear who is speaking. Every once in a while, as if recognizing the problem she has created, Mantel uses the phrase "he, Cromwell." Why not just say Cromwell?

Unless there is some good reason which I can't imagine, this sort of obfuscation is just lazy writing which disrespects the reader. May I re-think that, based on a comment by another reader. It's not lazy writing. It's very purposeful. And very distracting.

... later ...

I just read some of the amazon reviews. There are actually quite a few readers who found the "he" business as disconcerting as I did, and who expressed their displeasure in rather strong terms, along with many *-star ratings. However, many others really liked the book, as do many Goodreads readers, so it must not bother them as it does me.

Another Goodreads reader suggested that the use of "he" all the time created a closer intimacy with Cromwell. Perhaps, but I see it differently. If you want to create intimacy, use the first person. Then it is clear that everything is seen and felt by the single protagonist, and the reader can share that character's viewpoint, thoughts and feelings. What Mantel has done is not to bring us close to Cromwell, but to inject herself, the author, between the reader and the prime character. She does this on practically every page and I find it jarring every time it happens.

Before my final negative notes, let me say that Mantel clearly has an exquisite command of the language. Even in the few chapters I read, her elegant choice of words often made me reflect and smile. She can paint a picture when describing a character or a setting that is truly wonderful. And, when she chooses to do so, she writes a vivid scene that has power and emotion.

Such continuity of story, however, is the exception rather than the rule. The constant switching of time and place, often without the merest hint of transition, made the reading much more difficult than it had to be. Just a word here or there would have made a huge difference.

Finally, the breezy style in which much of the book is written is entertaining, as many have noted and I agree, but it had the effect of making me wonder if Mantel was as true to the history as I think a historical fiction should be. Of course the dialogue and many of the personal incidents are made up, but does the author, when portraying actual events, present them accurately? I think such concern for the truth is an obligation of an author when writing about historical characters and events. Mantel left me unsure.

I think I've had enough of Wolf Hall, and perhaps other Goodreads readers have had enough of my criticism of what is surely a popular book. I don't usually write negative opinions, but this book just seemed to drag them out of me. I hope I have not offended anyone.(less)

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Feb 26, 2013 Sam rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: england, fiction, historical-fiction, politics, owned, religion, literary-fiction

The story of Henry VIII's divorce in order to marry Anne Boleyn is the back-drop to the life story of Thomas Cromwell, a commoner who managed to persuade and manipulate his way into becoming one of the most powerful men in England.

This book had many strengths, the major one being Mantel's ability to make this much written about period of English history somehow seem fresh and modern. It didn't seem like a Phillipa Gregory style period romance, or even a period book at all - the characters all ju...more The story of Henry VIII's divorce in order to marry Anne Boleyn is the back-drop to the life story of Thomas Cromwell, a commoner who managed to persuade and manipulate his way into becoming one of the most powerful men in England.

This book had many strengths, the major one being Mantel's ability to make this much written about period of English history somehow seem fresh and modern. It didn't seem like a Phillipa Gregory style period romance, or even a period book at all - the characters all jumped off the page and events seemed immediate and compelling, even though everyone knows how it was going to turn out.

The character of Cromwell was a masterpiece, he was so complex and I loved how Mantel showed the distinction between what he was thinking and what he was saying as he slowly manipulated people and got his revenge. Although there was plenty of historical happenings and legal proceedings, these were interspersed with personal events from Cromwell's life, which gave the book a balance and broke things up a bit.

But there were definitely things I didn't like so much about the book. It was a hard slog - whilst I didn't have trouble keeping track of who was talking as others seemed to (the 'he' pronoun causing difficulties), it's the kind of book you have to concentrate on and be fully awake to read. I know a fair amount about this period of history but sometimes it was hard to follow all of the minor characters and the legal proceedings.

And one of the book's strengths was also it's biggest weakness - writing as Cromwell gave the book immediacy and something fresh, but it also meant there was no room for the back story of other characters. People going into a meeting don't spend twenty minutes reviewing the life stories of all the participants in their head beforehand, and if Mantel did so the book would have seemed a bit stuffy. Consequently, not at lot was explained and Mantel was relying on you knowing your history. I knew a bit about Cranmer and More, but not enough.

Now that I've finished it, I'm glad I read it, but it was hard going at times. It's like spring cleaning your house - you may find it boring at times and tough, but you love having everything sparkly clean once it's all done. There's a sequel on the way, not sure if I will pick it up or not.(less)

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Dec 26, 2011 Susan Anderson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction

This review is over the top, but, then, I confess to being a WOLF HALL junkie, reading the book straight through twice on a kindle, buying the paperback, flipping through the pages, underlining favorite passages, listening to the audio version again and again, finding peace in the rhythm of its prose.

WOLF HALL by Hilary Mantel is a magnificent novel, a fictionalized biography of Thomas Cromwell. Except for early scenes involving Thomas’s youthful break with his family, the novel’s present spans...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
The Book Vipers: Wolf Hall	59	40	22 hours, 49 min ago
2013 Reading Chal...: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel	26	49	May 14, 2013 09:16am
to finish or not to finish	39	243	May 03, 2013 02:07pm
Use of the word 'he'	20	348	Apr 17, 2013 07:08pm
Is it just me...	44	430	Apr 03, 2013 03:40pm
*~Can't Stop Read...: Wolf Hall	61	78	Mar 19, 2013 03:20am

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Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell Trilogy #1)

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