Reviews

• A good story

  The streamline of the story was profound and great.

• Difficult book to assess!

  This is a strange book in that my opinion/enjoyment of it fluctuated throughout and yet I managed to hang in there until the end and feel overall it deserves a solid 4! Firstly as others have pointed out here, the writers technique of ‘he’ always meaning Cromwell is unique, confusing and to begin with quite annoying!! But I must admit I got used to it by the end, although it still made for a lot of difficult to understand sentences requiring careful re-reading!! I think the biggest problem with the book is it’s lack of an overall structured plot - imaking it appear somewhat aimless at times...The plot such as it is, is simply the rambling, ongoing life and times of Cromwell. Anything could happen but at times, nothing does! The saving grace is that there is somehow an interesting ‘psychological depth’ to the writing that maintains interest and makes up for the general lack of action. Mantel seems to given a plausible human face and motivations to her very famous characters which is reason enough I suppose for reading, Overall though, I’d liken it to Game of a thrones but without the action. Or dragons. Or much of a plot either for that matter !!! But it certainly makes you realise how much Tudor England must have been an inspiration for George RR Martin’s epic!

• 歴史（クロムウェル家）ホームドラマ！？

  各賞総なめの一方、辛い評価が一般読者には見られるので読んで見ると成程読みにくい。場面が次々飛ぶ。従来沢山あるヘンリー８世時代の小説と違って、クロムウェルの目と耳からの場面と会話だけから構成されていて、解説とか無し。歴史小説というより歴史ホームドラマで、クロムウェル家の楚々とした日常が描かれていて面喰った！ウルジーの失脚とトマス・モアの処刑が本書の焦点だが、描写はあっさり！そこに至る過程が緊迫した会話で描かれ、ここら辺が評価されたか。王の婚姻により振り子のように揺れる宗教情勢、浮き沈みする側近達。今作はモアまで。名前でしか知らなかった人物がいろいろ出てきたし、稀代の悪党リッチも登場。次作はどうなるか・・・

• An astounding piece of historical fiction.

  𝘞𝘰𝘭𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘭𝘭 by Hilary Mantel is a historical novel with immense political intrigue and an extraordinary case of rags to riches. A man with an abusive father and a difficult childhood, Thomas Cromwell strives to become the best version of himself that he could. Often mocked for his profession as a lawyer and the right hand man of Thomas Wolsey, the Lord High Chancellor in the court of Henry VIII of England; he finds himself in situations that enabled him to use his persuasive skills and conversing prowess that stimulated his sky high ambitions. King Henry VIII was unhappy. As a King who was driven by his own whims tremendously, he favoured those who aided his wishes and did not dawdle in the elimination of those who didn’t. He was a King who wanted everyone around him to dedicate their lives for his pleasure. Incredibly complacent and lover of all things of beauty and grace, Henry was a King who could be won over by flattery. Cromwell is a jack of all trades and 𝘞𝘰𝘭𝘧 𝘏𝘢𝘭𝘭 is him proving to Henry that he is truly the most able man to be by his side. With Anne Boleyn as his partner in crime, Cromwell sets on a dangerous journey to acquire power second to the King of England. A masterful portrayal of the More- Cromwell conflict, the lively presence of historical characters like Catherine of Aragon, Mary Boleyn and the scandalous setting of the Seymour family home Wolf Hall were all achieved by Mantel’s brilliance. Moreover, Anne Boleyn’s exigent presence in the Tudor court and Cromwell’s muted sense of humour made the novel seemingly elegant in its delivery despite the uncustomary actions of its characters. Mantel’s prose and impeccable research is addictive. To read a novel over 500 pages from the perspective of an unpopular historical figure from one of the most tempestuous periods of English history will seem daunting in the initial pages, but gradually it grows on the reader just like its titular character’s status.

• How to win the Booker

  What does a writer have to do to win a major literary prize? Hilary Mantell would be a good person to answer that, since she’s won what is perhaps the most prestigious prize any writer can aspire to – the Booker. And, what’s more, she’s won it twice (for Wolf Hall and for its sequel, Bring up the Bodies) which is an amazing achievement. I’d really like to know how she did it. After all, I’d quite like to win a major writing competition myself. Maybe not the Booker (a man’s got to know his limitations) but something with some serious prestige, and hopefully a nice bit of prize money. So I read Wolf Hall with an extra element of interest. I would have been interested anyway – it’s historical fiction, which I enjoy, and it centres around a particularly fascinating period of English history. But I wondered if, in addition, I might be able to recognise that particular element which made it outstanding. The first and most obvious thing I noticed is that it is written entirely in the present tense. Looking at other reviews (there are nearly fifteen hundred of them on Amazon UK alone) it seems that this caused some people problems. Flicking through the one star comments (and it might say something negative about my character, but I was a little encouraged to see that even a Booker winner gets these!) many found the style confusing and difficult to follow. I can see their point. There are times (for example) when it’s easy to lose track of the conversation, since ‘he’ usually refers to the main character, Thomas Cromwell – but not always. Yet though I understand why it might put some readers off, I didn’t share their experience. There were one or two occasions when I had to backtrack a bit to be sure who had said what, but it never even approached the point where I would have given up reading it. On the contrary, the unusual approach was apparent in the first sentence, and after that I was so absorbed in the story that it barely registered. I was very impressed (especially thinking about it afterwards) by Mantell’s ability to keep it going throughout the book. To take such an unusual approach, and to maintain it consistently for the entire novel – actually for two novels since the sequel is written in the same way – struck me as quite a remarkable feat. But the really interesting question is, why? Why did Mantell choose to write in this fashion? What did using the present tense achieve that a more conventional approach would not have? I would love to be able to ask her that myself. Since I can’t, I can only guess. Does it perhaps give a greater sense of immediacy? Does it help draw the reader into the events, by making them seem to be happening not hundreds of years ago, but now? Is it about creating an ‘atmosphere’? If so, I’m not sure how effective or necessary it is. Not having read any of Mantell’s other writing, I don’t know if she regularly uses such devices in her work. But she is clearly a talented and accomplished writer. Her use of words, her dialogue and description and visual imagery is brilliant. Her research seems impeccable (not that I’m an expert) and she does not merely describe life in Tudor times, she shares it. Through her writing, you can understand how politics and personality and desire and faith and so many other factors blended together to shape some of the most crucial events of history. And the background of the time and the culture is brought smoothly but vividly into the narrative as well, not as something separate but almost as another character in the story. Given all this, would it really have made a difference if she had written in a different, perhaps more accessible style? My feeling is that it wouldn't, she would have still produced a brilliant novel. Of course, I could be wrong about that – perhaps the style made more contribution than I realized. And it’s certainly true that while Wolf Hall might not have been a better book had it been written in (for example) the past tense, it would certainly have been a different book. And is that, perhaps, a reason for writing in this way? To make Wolf Hall not merely good, but different? More noticeable, more distinctive, standing out from other novels of the genre by the way it’s written. No disrespect to Mantell if that was indeed her purpose. After all, it worked, and worked superbly. Maybe that’s what is needed to win the Booker – to do something differently, and to make it work. If I were forced to make a criticism, it would be about the pace. It’s good, but seemed to me to lack variation. OK, it’s not a thriller. But because things move on at much the same speed for the entire novel, no one event stands out. There is a great deal to capture interest, to wonder at and be intrigued by, but nothing that generates tension, nothing that gave me the feeling of events moving towards a crisis point. To be sure, it is the first of two books, and perhaps the sequel (which I have only read an extract from) has more of a climatic feeling. But taking it on its own merits, Wolf Hall did seem a little flat towards the end. On the other hand, if I missed an element of tension, there is a very subtle sense of menace which is incorporated in the title. Wolf Hall is a place that is never actually visited in the book. It is mentioned only a few times, and has the context of scandalous events. But it’s the home of the Seymour family. And whilst the book revolves around Anne Boleyn’s intrigues to become Queen, history records that Jane Seymour would be her successor. Knowing that gives the place a significance to the reader that it did not have at the time. Using it as the title may be one of the most subtle and clever things Mantell has done. It’s certainly a book worth reading – if the style doesn't put you off. I don’t know if it’s got me any closer to writing my own prize winner, though!

• A must read.

  An absolutely unmissable read. History wonderfully retold and perfectly researched. Totally recommend it.

• Challenging, absorbing, rewarding historial fiction

  Hilary Mantel is obviously fascinated with history, but she has no interest in being your history teacher. In this respect, Wolf Hall is a demanding book. The author expects that you remember your high school lessons, and probably that you've encountered some other historical fiction about the court of Henry VIII in the past (The Tudors on Showtime saw me through on my journey). Having liberated herself from the responsibility of being expository, Mantel often chooses to dramatize the aftermath of historical events rather than the events themselves. It's a technique that keeps the reader somewhat off-guard, and over time it trained me to stop reading the book I expected to find and start reading the book that Mantel actually wrote. What I expected was a dramatic period drama, somewhat like The Tudors. I expected sumptuous details of dress and decoration, Machiavellian plots, and corset-bursting sex scenes to remind me how naughty those fancy dead people really were. What I got was something quieter, slower, and immensely more satisfying: I got to spend time with Thomas Cromwell, the most compelling character I have read in many years. That is, Thomas Cromwell as imagined by Hilary Mantel. Who can say how similar the character Cromwell is to the real man? Surely not I. But that barely matters. Mantel's Cromwell is a self-justifying creation. With Cromwell, Mantel shows us the rise of a new kind of man: the administrative professional. Maybe that sounds unglamorous compared to the kings, queens, and bishops who populate that era's ruling class, and the historical Cromwell's bureaucratic nature no doubt contributed to his reputation as King Henry's lawyer-goon. But Mantel's Cromwell won me over with the dignity of his competence. The son of an abusive, drunken blacksmith, Cromwell survived by his wits, first learning to be a soldier in France, then a wool-trader in Holland, then a banker in Venice, and finally an assistant for Cardinal Wolsey back in merry old England. The great Wolsey's career prefigured Cromwell's own rise in some respects; he was a butcher's boy who became the king's most powerful adviser. But the cardinal, humble as his birth was, made his way to power through the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church. Cromwell beat a new, more treacherous path, one that leads him to influence even after the cardinal's disgrace. It feels great to cheer on Cromwell, the consummate professional, as he successfully navigates his way through an England still dominated by idiot nobles and venal priests. But it's also a joy to read Cromwell's thoughts as he tends to his family life. We discover that the king's ruthless enforcer is in private a compassionate and compulsive mentor. In addition to his own son, his household swells to include some half-dozen wards whom he trains in his novel brand of statecraft. In the hands of a worse writer, these parts showing the softer side of Cromwell would read as an obvious ploy for the reader's sympathy. But Mantel's deft unwinding of Cromwell's inner thoughts gives this material shades of subtlety that prevent sentimentality. There is no fatherly conversation that does not come attached to some sardonic observation about the nature of power or the absurdities of court life, or indeed the flaws of Cromwell himself. The following passage, in which Cromwell and his son, Gregory, discuss a new portrait that has been painted of him, demonstrates Mantel's sensitive wit in this area: He [Cromwell] turns to the painting. "I fear Mark was right." "Who is Mark?" "A silly little boy who runs after George Boleyn. I once heard him say I looked like a murderer." Gregory says, "Did you not know?" One of the novel's great beauties is the disparity between what people say of Cromwell and what Cromwell himself thinks. By the book's end, we learn that Cromwell has become immensely rich primarily because people keep mentioning it to him. But money is not what's usually on Cromwell's mind, except occasionally a means to an end. He is more likely to dwell on the well-being of his fellow Englishmen who "love the gospel" -- that is, those who are Protestants, secret and otherwise. Deftly and surreptitiously, Cromwell pulls strings -- first with the cardinal, then the king -- to lessen the harms done to these persecuted heretics when they are discovered. He silently opposes the sainted Thomas More, who appears in Wolf Hall as an unhinged persecutor, eager to send all copies of Tyndale's Bible to the fire, and their readers with them. Cromwell's efforts on behalf of English Protestants during their time of persecution, as well as his ideological devotion to the Bible in English, banish the image of him as an unprincipled hatchet man. In fact, far from being unprincipled, Cromwell emerges as the most revolutionary political thinker of his century. Cromwell is a powerful case study in a politician who has mastered the art of taking incremental steps toward a profoundly radical goal. Cromwell has no use for martyrs; he counsels his fellow Protestants to recant to save themselves whenever he can. But he is relentless in taking the mission King Henry entrusts in him -- securing a divorce from Queen Katherine -- and slowly widening its scope to accomplish the complete separation of England from Rome. Mantel's Cromwell is a complex man, and this review only scratches the surface. I regret that I haven't done enough to communicate Mantel's humor, or the expansive intelligence that she endows her protagonist. Please just read this book.

• One of those “Must Read” books.

  Love Mantel’s style of writing. This is a gripping tale of Henry, Katherine, Anne etc - but it’s Thomas Cromwell that holds the spotlight. His rise and rise has been meticulously researched and translated into this beautifully written book. Couldn’t get enough - except I did with the follow up “Bring up the Bodies” Highly Recommend.

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