Wolf Hall question

I have extensive knowledge and interest in this period and particularly in the characters involved in this story and am an avid reader on the subject. This, however, was the most dull, boring and totally dry book I have ever read. None of the characters were convincing. Not even Cromwell. I don't see how this could win any prizes. Pretentious rubbish.

Loved loved loved it. Read Bring up the Bodies and loved it too. Thought everyone would like it. Surprised by comments

Whenever "he" is mentioned, the author is referring to one person - Cromwell. Once you get that the book becomes much easier to read.

The tragic thing about this book is that it could and should have been much better. The subject matter deals with one of Tudor history's most complex and interesting figures and his relationship with Thomas More.

I am well versed in Tudor history and the people the story is about and I still struggled to keep my interest.

Mantel's writing style irritated me no end. Why this obsession with present tense? Precisely what is it supposed to add to a plot? A shame that it was over-written and badly set out, it could have been one of the greatest works of modern literature. I too do not understand why it is heaped with endless praise.

I too really wanted to like this book. For a few pages the poetry of language was interesting. After a while I felt like I was lost in a fog I did not care about. I was confused and although I know a good deal about the Tudors and like that Cromwell was humanized I did not care about any of the characters. I stopeed halfway through the book something I almost never do. Life is too short for a book that takes that much work for no reward.

Challenging for a bedtime reader like me. I see why it has won awards, but sometimes following it feels like too much work. Giving it a second try.

It could have been a masterpiece, some claim it is. I read it. I slogged through it, swam through some of the laziest, most narcissist writing I have ever read. You may love it, but I hate it.

I agree and so glad others felt the same. I had high hopes as this is a historical character that really interests me and I love reading about the Tudor period. I didn't even finish it which never happens.

Fascinating subject, talented writer ... dull, meandering, bloated book.

But I did like the character of Jane. And Mary. And Thomas. Which ones, you ask? Good question!

I perfectly understand being frustrated with the novel. Mantel's writing style is a bit challenging and occasionally confusing. If you are still at all interested, I would suggest listening to the audio book version. The reader does a much better job of distinguishing characters speaking, even when two or more are named Tom.

I am on page 500 I love this period of history, i always finish a book BUT i hate this book with a passion, other than the obvious historical content, it lacks any story whatsoever. Please let it end.

Loved both "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up The Bodies," immensely. I'd call them both page-turners, but I love history, and was pleasantly surprised that Cromwell could be such a full-bodied protagonist. I love history, and I already did know a fair amount about the period, so I found Mantel's handling of detail delightful. I'll be reading the third volume the moment it comes out. By the way, "A Place of Greater Safety" was Mantel's first foray into historical fiction, and is not quite as sure in narrative touch.

On a side note: A friend of mine did some research and found out that during Henry VIII 38-year reign, an average of 140 persons were executed every month. That's nearly 64,000 people, in a kingdom whose total population was only three-plus million.

I really enjoyed Wolf Hall, but haven't gotten around to yet.

The way the author writes the book uses "close third person", which means that it is written in third person, but it is so close to the narrator that it almost seems like it is 1st person. I was a hundred pages into it, or so, when I suddenly thought, is this 1st person or 3rd person? But it is 3rd person throughout.

Also, her word choices are very plain and concrete - not a lot of adverbs or adjectives decorating her sentences. And yet, when I was reading the book the images it evoked were almost like an Impressionist painting - all soft edges, but with strong colors, no pastels.

As a long time fan of historical fiction, I found her sympathetic view of Cromwell different from the historical one, but plausible. And as I have come to realize as I've gotten older, just because someone gets bad press does not automatically mean they deserved it. Or all of it.

Who else has a crush on Cromwell?

Kristal wrote: "I'm having a hard time getting into Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. So far it's not seeming like anything that would win the Booker Prize...I keep expecting Cromwell to hop into a sports car. How long ..."

I had the opposite reaction: I was in from word one, couldn't put it down. I thought it was the best Booker Prize winning book I've read in decades, and I'm now in love with Hilary Mantel. I can't wait to start the sequel. Of course, I've heard from others who didn't care for Wolf Hall; possibly Mantel's style is difficult or off-putting to some. It's a polarizing book: you love it or hate it.

It's kind of weird reading a mystery when everyone in it is already dead.

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I'll never give up on historical fiction set during the Tudor period and have read many books on the subject but this book will go down as one of only a FEW that I could not finish in any genre. After reading over 200 pages and finally putting it down (I usually give a book about 100 pages), I'm very disappointed in the loss of my time. I agree with other reviewers that point out the overuse of "he" without making it clear who the heck the author is talking about. The writing style was confusing and characters poorly developed. The Booker Award?? Really?
Now I will have to decide whether to read Bring Up the Bodies which is in my TBR stack.... Not sounding like a good bet.

totally agree, it was boring and obscure and I cannot understand how it won!

Kristal wrote: "I'm having a hard time getting into Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. So far it's not seeming like anything that would win the Booker Prize...I keep expecting Cromwell to hop into a sports car. How long ..."

I like historical fiction in general and the Tudor period in particular, and I thought I would really like this book. I kept reading not so much because I liked it, but because I thought eventually it would get better and I would be glad for have read it. Not so, and I have no plans to read "Bring Up the Bodies."

I tried reading this book--twice. It failed both times to engage me. I could follow the story, but it just didn’t interest me...snore. I’m a huge history buff of all kinds but like my historical fiction to feel real—not contrived. I also don’t need superfluous sex or meaningless violence thrown in just to spice things up—pretty much why I can’t stand TV or most movies nowadays. (Every time I came across this senseless stuff in this book I kept hearing a little editor's voice saying “Mantel…go back and add in some sex and violence…if you don’t, it won’t sell.”) I prefer my historical fiction to be intellectually thought provoking and entertaining. Maybe I’ve just read too many great books to appreciate this sort of thing.

Hardly that Louise, maybe not to your taste but certainly different. The writing style did take a bit of getting used to but after that it was great and Bring up the Bodies is far better in my opinion.

I actually finished the book, but I'm not sure how. I know the period well and liked the characterisation of Cromwell, but... nothing happens!

I am so glad others found this book difficult to read. I love the Tudors and since it got so many great reviews I really wanted to like it. But I have tried twice to get into it and just couldn't. I finally had to give it up as someone else in this post said "Life is to short" to be reading a book I found confusing and boring!!!

Having complained bitterly about the book being so boring, I did watch the TV series. It was everything the book could and should have been. Absolutely brilliant. Just shows what decent writers could do with the subject.

I see a lot of people didn't like Wolf Hall... I'm surprised, because I loved it. It's one of my favorite books. Not everyone has to like it, but... the vitriol is surprising.

I liked this book as well. The negative reactions are surprising , am I missing something?

Unless you are a sucker for Tudor history, Wolf Hall can offer nothing pleasant to you ! It's absolutely tiring, dry, boring and ridiculous. I can't believe this series won 2 bookers

I tried. Lord knows I did. I’d rather watch a BBC procedural with 16 references to “I’ll have another cuppa” per episode than endure another page, so dry and Melba toast-like was this abomination. The roof of my mouth is still scarred.

I found this book hard going at first, the style of writing unusual but once I adjusted to that I loved it, the whole series was fantastic. I recently read the last book in the trilogy 'The Mirror and The Light' I went back and read the series again!
The series on TV brought it to life as well. Really well written.
It's really surprising to see all the negative reviews! Just goes to show it takes all sorts!

Also very relieved to chance on this page as several of my friends loved the book, and I generally enjoy historical fiction and hard science fiction. I truly could not get going on this book. I got lost amidst all the irrelevant details and could not pick up any narrative direction and just gave up. I thought Murakami sometimes got self-indulgent, but this was exponentially worse for me.

So glad to find these posts. All I could find before were positive. I slogged through the first two books of the trilogy and am one third into the last one. I am determined to make it through but it is not easy or fun. I think the style is pretentious and that is probably the reason she got the awards. I am fine with humanizing Cromwell but I don’t understand why you would make it so hard for the readers. I won’t read anything else that she has written after this. I also have a reasonable knowledge of the Tudor periods. I think anyone without some would just give up entirely.

The worst thing about this book for me was the present tense. Totally unnecessary. It kept me at a distance. I can't comment on the boring aspect, because I watched the mini-series first, so that helped visualize. it. This book is an example of how the process of choosing top awards is extraordinarily weak and flawed. It's the handful of academic 'elite's' choice, not the millions that make up the popular choice.

I really don’t think it was pretentious, a bit of a strange writing pattern to be sure but the story itself was great as were the other 3 in the series. Not your thing obviously but not pretentious rubbish.

I had a lot of trouble getting into this book, and I blamed it on English not being my first language. Having said that, I have to admit that once I went through those first pages, I LOVED IT. I knew almost nothing of the historic events or the characters, but it totally grabbed me and I was so sad when it ended, that now I'm looking forward to the sequel!
I also happened to run into THE TUDORS series at the time and that made it so much more colorful for me, tho' the approach is very different.

Indeed, Wolf Hall is a tiring novel, with quite alot of material to sift through to get to the actual story, however, I think it's worth it.

I'm one of the few who frankly didn't like it. It's true I'm not into Tudor much, but had to find out about this one, promised as "fully a novel that just happens to be historical" - I'm keen on that idea. But I just found it dull. Nothing against the style or techniques - I'm happy to see experiment - just the story/characters didn't grip me, nor even the writing. The worst sin is to be dull... sorry to its fans.
I persisted to the end but on my experience I'd guess, if you haven't gotten into it so far, that's unlikely to change.

very very dull book. didn't understand the praise it recieved at all

What a relief to chance on this page. I thought I was the only man in England not to like it. It's not a case of her writing in the present tense that concerned me: after all, Philippa Gregory's chronicles of the Wars of the Roses are in the present tense and she is absolutely convincing. But Mantel is obscure. (I almost said deliberately obscure.)I too have a fairly extensive knowledge of the characters involved - in fact I rather liked the way in which she humanised Cromwell - but in 'Wolf Hall' it was never obvious who was doing what, where and when. No doubt about it, Hilary Mantel is a fine writer but here, alas, she's not at her best.

I too recommend listening to the unabridged audio book. It's a stunning reading; very colourful and has just the right voice for the characters.

Mind you if you don't like it, fair enough. Why bother with a book you don't like?

Although I found parts of it interesting, overall I found the book boring. I listened to the audiobook, so I was able to skim though the boring part with just one ear.

I did not like the writting style, that besides con fusing i found it elitist, as she writted on the present tense,in the 3rd person as a way of distiguishing herself form the other historical novelists - snobism: that´s the word!

Aside the very near approach to Cromwell,that few authors do and stay awayfrom, the story did not ring my bells; i had previous knowledge of the characters and events but still she was not abe to grab me and by Jove! i cannot understand all the praises....i would bet that half of the people that praise to the skies just do it because it´s PC,because the book won an important award and it sticks out they say that they didn´t particularly liked it - makes them sound dumb!

I stick to my guns: i did not liked it and will only read bringOn the Bodies if someone lends it to me - not about to spendmy precious money on another thing by her, again.

I had to read it for uni, and had done Tudor history at A Level so made it a very dull read for me. The whole time I was counting down to Cromwell's death (won't spoil when/;how/why for anyone) and it didn't happen. Took ages to read and although the tense choice was interesting, I only made my way through it to prove a point with everyone else who had given up

\i agree. ai have tried twice to get into thi book and have given up.

It is confusing sometimes but I still really enjoyed it all in all. I wish it would have gone up to Cromwells death.

Desperately wanted to like this book. Clearly Mantel is a gifted writer but the pacing, off-putting use of present tense and just plain literary "fog" that she generates put me off. Another post here says: "obscure". That is spot on. Gave up a third of the way through but might try again once I gather my courage. UPDATE: Tried again a few years later. Same result. How can such a talented writer work so hard to make a book so difficult to digest? If this is "literary" fiction triumphing over genre then they can keep it I'm afraid. No one will remember it in twenty years anyway.

I'm so glad it's not just me...

I, too, had difficulty with pronoun antecedents, or lack of. However, I could not get past the title. Why call it Wolf Hall when that is the Seymour home and the Seymours are pertinent to the next book? I will admit I can be obtuse at times, but I cannot figure this one out. I hope someone will point me in the right direction before I read the sequel.

I abandoned it about half way through.

I quit on it at about page 300. It just felt so dry and removed...none of the characters or scenes felt real or vivid. I usually love stuff about the Tudors, but this was a serious snore and I don't understand the hype.

I love Tudor England, but I have tried a few times to get into this boo. I have failed each time. I may give it another try, but I am fairly reluctant to.