Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1) in Reading the Chunksters

Nov 25, 2010 MichelleCH rated it really liked it

Shelves: european-history, historical-fiction, group-reads, tudors

Excellent portrayal of Thomas Cromwell in addition to one of the best depictions of Anne Boleyn I have yet read. Cromwell is fascinating and calculating moving through history making deals and alliances that allow Henry the VIII to sever his marriage to Katherine. In addition to the politics, the reader gets an inside view of Cromwell's personal life the tenderness of which is a sharp contrast to his public face. As others have noted there is some confusion with the use of 'he' throughout the bo ...more

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Sep 19, 2015 Nicola rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction

I've always enjoyed the Tudor era of English history and I've read a lot of history books. Generally I don't enjoy reading 'historical fiction' all that much if it shows an actual period of history because the writers either clearly don't know what they are talking about or, if they do either run off on a pet theory of their own for certain events or have decided to disregard the known events entirely in favour of plot.

All of which is extremely aggravating to someone who then spends a fair chun ...more

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May 19, 2010 Drew rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mcl, summer-reading-2012

I thought about giving this 4.5 simply because Mantel's habit of mainly referring to Cromwell as "he" was confusing at times. Great story, grippingly told. ...more

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May 15, 2012 Amy rated it liked it

Shelves: book-club-selections

I was conflicted by this book. It took me forever to finish, but the story was interesting. It was a chore to read, yet the book was well written. I went back and forth on whether I actually LIKED it or not. It was long and detailed--perhaps too long and detailed, at 650 pages. I think it could have been edited and not suffered from the cuts. And it took a while to get into the mindset of reading from the point of view of Thomas Cromwell--as he was only referred to as "he" when talking about him ...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Alana rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: political, biographical, in-a-series, historical-fiction, man-booker-prize

I have never struggled so hard to finish a book. It's not that the writing was overwhelmingly horrible or the subject matter uninteresting, but I just could not engage in this book. I didn't care a wit for the characters and large sections were so boring that I found myself nodding off and not feeling like I had missed anything. I would rank it a 1 for my enjoyment of it, but I feel the book deserves a little better than that, so I'll give it a 1.5/5. Just not for me. ...more

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