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Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)

Hilary Mantel

Start date: October 1, 2019

Finish date: December 31, 2019

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What Members Thought

Jul 01, 2020 Maureen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: tudor, nyt-best-books-21-centuty

I love to read historical fiction,I couldn’t get into this book. It was too confusing and distracting the way it was written. There are may good parts of this book but over all I did enjoy it.

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Jan 17, 2016 Theresa rated it it was ok

Shelves: first-in-a-series, contemporary-general-fiction, z-pop-sugar-2016-reading-challenge

Update on finally finishing this: OMG I finally have finished! I had a very long hiatus from reading the last 200 or so pages, and only picked it up again recently. I think Mantel fails in her efforts in these last 200 pages to show just how Cromwell's humanity was lost as his influence and power increased. Cromwell is now becoming more a caricature of a lawyer shark than a well-rounded (albeit fictionalized) character. Still dragged through it, becoming increasingly irritated by the writing and Update on finally finishing this: OMG I finally have finished! I had a very long hiatus from reading the last 200 or so pages, and only picked it up again recently. I think Mantel fails in her efforts in these last 200 pages to show just how Cromwell's humanity was lost as his influence and power increased. Cromwell is now becoming more a caricature of a lawyer shark than a well-rounded (albeit fictionalized) character. Still dragged through it, becoming increasingly irritated by the writing and very impatient for it to end. I have no intentions of reading any sequels.

Original review:
I am quite late to the party on reading 'Wolf Hall', but it fits the 'all things Tudor' hole I seemed to have dropped into these last few months (you know what I mean, where a trip to see Hampton Court leads to Tudor cross stitch design projects and hearing Donizetti's 3 Tudor queen operas) coupled with possibly seeing the BBC version. It also fits as my book more than 600 pages for Pop Sugar 2016 reading challenge, pulled from my collection too (purchased when I thought I might see the staged version. Ultimately did not.)

Right now, about 3/4 through it, I am wondering how it won the 2009 Man Booker Prize for fiction, let alone the sequel repeating in 2012.

The point of view, being the story of Thomas Cromwell during the Boleyn years, that of viewing the events through his eyes, is intriguing, truthfully quite wonderful and unique. It is refreshing to have Cromwell humanized, and perhaps as a result placing us closer to the real man rather than just the extreme villain of the piece. As Cardinal Wolsey says early in the story: "imagine what they are wearing under their clothes." We are seeing Cromwell under his clothes, as imagined by Mantel. Anne Boleyn and her family come off less well, ditto Sir Thomas More. Which is all fine, giving a different spin as we say these days (think about some of the portrayals of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential Campaign, especially by far right conservatives or those she is defeating - extreme to say the least) which forces us to rethink what we know. And the intrigue! The Tudor court and the machinations leading to the break with Rome, creation of the Church of England, all because the king wanted both a son and to bed Anne Boleyn who was holding out for a wedding ring (smart girl!), is just as compelling as any season of HBO's Game of Thrones.

So if I am enjoying the story what is the problem? Simply put it is the writing and structure. I am finding the lack of linearity in the story a bit confusing, and essentially unnecessary to development of plot or character. Why jump to 1529 from 1527 for the chapter detailing Wolsey's eviction from Hampton Court then in a few pages go back and spend 100 pages filling in the events that led there from 1521? I fail to see any benefit to the narrative. There are much smaller instances of this as well - in the middle of a chance meeting with More, in the midst of a conversation extending a dinner invitation we suddenly spend several paragraphs flashing back to some tangential point before returning to the middle of the conversation/invitation again.

Then there is the excessive use of the pronoun 'he' and possessive 'his'. I get that we are essentially seeing everything from Cromwell's POV, but doing the first person narrative from this removed third party perception is confusing and irritating because others are also 'he' and 'his'. This makes dialogue almost impossible to sort out and pulls away from following the story.

My last complaint is basically minor. There is a detailed 'cast of characters' in the front but no historical timeline or locations map. The narrative does not truly compensate - failing to identify where you are in many scenes, such as in the first chapters when Wolsey & Cromwell are meeting, location is never clearly mentioned. Also, references to 'the Emporer' ruling Italy have me looking for a computer. I have a pretty decent history education, but mostly American, Europe and England from French Revolution onward, and French in some depth. The rest is vague, and I am not really sure who this Emporer was. Or exactly what the Tynsdale Bible was. I don't mind looking things up but I am not always reading someplace where I have internet service. It seems to me these are serious failures on the part of the author. Perhaps all British school children are versed in this and retain the knowledge through their adulthood, but the author should be writing for any reader.

The modernity of the writing does not bother me, as the thinking revealed is not particularly modern.

One wonder that has resulted from reading 'Wolf Hall', however, is that I am appreciating the shear brilliance of Cromwell's mind, his legal mind that is. Most do not seem to understand that the lawyer's role or job, is to accomplish by legal means what his client wants. King Henry VIII wanted to marry Anne Boleyn, a desire that did not change for years. Cromwell managed to figure out how to break with Rome and accomplish this by legal means, and by a legal means that survives to this day as the Church of England. Astonishing accomplishment solely by legal means. Is there another religion so calculatedly created? One where there was no covering of intense religious fervor to mask the power grab? I think not.

It is taking me forever as I can only tolerate the writing style in relatively small doses, but I will certainly finish 'Wolf Hall', even though the writing will irritate me to no end. Not too sure I will bother with the sequel! ...more

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Jul 03, 2014 Kris (My Novelesque Life) rated it did not like it

DNF

"England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell ...more

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