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

Feb 22, 2024 cloudyskye rated it liked it · review of another edition

Rejoice with me, I've made it!!! This has taken me an age and a half. It's a good story well written, but it was sooooooooo long. It didn't help that aside from Thomas Cromwell most of the male characters are named Thomas. So now I'm back from Tudor England.
(I remember touring the Cotswolds and visiting Sudeley Castle where Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's 6th wife, is buried. She was the one who "outlived him".)
Now back to present-day Korea: The Kinship Of Secrets ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 03, 2022 Lulufrances rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Well! Wasn‘t this a stunning one!
Once you get all the Thomases, Marys and Katherines sorted and a slight grasp on the vast cast in general, this is a great great novel about Henry VIII and Tudor times through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, which Mantel crafted wonderfully.
(I’ve always been fascinated by Anne Boleyn after visiting certain landmarks in England where she‘d stayed and hearing about her history; however it is only now that I feel like I know more about her real life.)
Such beautiful wri ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 04, 2020 Nina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: chunksters, united-kingdom

This is a quiet book. By that I don't mean that it's a calming read or even a comfort read, but that the tone is very calm; sombre. There is no fast-paced action. Most of the book is dialogue and then the action takes place off stage. Mantel doesn't set the scene for you - you are placed in the middle of one and left to find out yourself what is going on. All the superfluous has been cut away, all the flourishes.

The BBC mini series with Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis captured the tone of the boo This is a quiet book. By that I don't mean that it's a calming read or even a comfort read, but that the tone is very calm; sombre. There is no fast-paced action. Most of the book is dialogue and then the action takes place off stage. Mantel doesn't set the scene for you - you are placed in the middle of one and left to find out yourself what is going on. All the superfluous has been cut away, all the flourishes.

The BBC mini series with Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis captured the tone of the book perfectly, I think.

I knew Henry VIII divorced his first wife (or rather, had the marriage annulled) - divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, died - but I enjoyed being close to the political and spiritual difficulties involved in making this come about. I guess today divorces are so common, you forget how unheard of they were back in the 1520s. And the consequences it had for not only Katherine and Princess Mary, but for all who supported them.

At the centre of the story is Thomas Cromwell. He is ambitious, clever, quick-witted and cunning and manages to elevate himself from "blacksmith's son" to the king's right hand and Master Secretary. If there is one man Henry listens to, it's Thomas. His rise to the top is impressive, but you don't achieve as much as he has by being nice. Though that is exactly what he is to his extended family - his wife and children, his sister-in-law and her family and his many wards. His household adores him, but outside it there are many who speak ill of him.

This is a book that makes you work. You have to figure out Cromwell's motivations and what's going on in each scene. On top of that, Cromwell is referred to as "he" throughout the text, which often made it confusing who was talking or acting. Consider this sentence which is the beginning of a new section: "The evening before Fisher is to die, he visits More". "he" is Cromwell. But you only figure that out because
1. mostly "he" means Cromwell in this book, even when other male characters/historical figures have just been mentioned, and
2. when you keep reading, it doesn't make sense that it's Fisher who visits More.

Mantel doesn't serve it to you on a silver platter. The book demands attention, but if you give it that, it is very much worth the effort. ...more

Like · see review

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

Shelves: biographical, in-a-series, historical-fiction, political, 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

1 like · Like · see review