Wolf Hall

Tudors!!!

An extremely interesting novel, with a twist on the traditional storyline: Cromwell (the traditional heavy or villain) is our sympathetic narrator. It also features a *nasty* portrait of Sir Thomas More.

An interesting question is if Cromwell here is an "unreliable narrator" or not.

Note: "He" is almost always Cromwell himself, but occasionally it's someone else, so do read carefully.

I couldn't put it down, and am praying that the sequel is still on the shelf at the library where I saw it last week. The somewhat stream-of-consciousness writing can be confusing, but as another reviewer noted, if you keep in mind that “he” in most instances is Cromwell, you will be OK. Other reviewers have also noted the need for family trees and access to Wikipedia while reading, which is not a bad thing. I have never been able to wrap myself around the whole York/Lancaster genealogy, but I'm closer now, having read this book and subsequently (within a week!) two non-fiction books about the Wars of the Roses and the rise of the Tudors.

Not much of a review, is it? I'll repeat that I couldn't put it down, and a lot of that had to do with just how funny a lot of the book was, surprisingly. The Cromwell of this book may bear no resemblance to the historical Thomas Cromwell, but the book version is hilarious. I like that in a book, and will definitely read the sequel, and be looking at the author's other novels.

There is no denying the achievement here, recreating an era nearly 500 years ago, through the eyes of one man at the centre of the maelstrom. Imaginary conversations and made up encounters all based on history and woven together into a tapestry of fact and fiction. It is really quite remarkable, as the central “character” Thomas Cromwell navigates the politics and interpersonal mean-spirited-ness of the court of Henry VIII, enduring personal tragedy and loss along the way. My reservation about this book is that I admired and was impressed by it more than I enjoyed it. Some of the detailed descriptions and conversations were there more for verisimilitude than to advance the telling of the story and I often went from being enthralled to being bored in the space of ten pages. I can understand why this won awards, but maybe I'm not a serious enough history buff to enjoy it as much as others clearly have. I don't think I'll be reading the other two books.

This is the book I needed right now, an epic historical fiction that makes clear to me why I fell in love with the genre in the first place. The whys and hows that lurk behind the whats of history take center stage, and what was once a jumble of dusty facts and names becomes a vivid human drama. I'm smitten, captivated, swept off my feet by this book.

Note: as others have mentioned, the author uses “he” almost exclusively to mean Thomas Cromwell, even if the preceding sentences make it seem otherwise. Here's an imaginary example: ‘The king was displeased. He got up and walked over to the window.' In this example the “he” refers to Cromwell, not the king. It takes a handful of pages to get used to it, and then it's just second nature.

Not sure why this book is so lauded. A mediocre read in my opinion.

This was more of a slog than I anticipated, although I suspect I'm in the minority and had more to do with my energy level - her language demands close attention. Plus, after bringing on the Tudors in my late teens I've had little patience for any kind of narrative that concerns them (I still haven't seen Blanchett's Elizabeth for example), but I thought that Mantel's re-visioning of Cromwell was worth the effort. Her portrait was too positive with only hints at what makes a man that successful (and at what costs), but I willing to go along and enjoy my time with Cromwell. I was also completely taken with Mantel's use of language - I adored her bit on Cromwell's metonymies - and her insistence on keeping religious persecution in the forefront.

Diving into this a second time to prepare for the third and last installment that has just been published. It probably re-kindled my interest in historical novels as I see myself returning to the genre much more than I used to. And the best part is that, second time round, you are not furiously trying to commit to memory the bewildering number of characters.

Best novel I've read in a while; the kind of book I was sad to stop reading. It's been on my mental “to read” list since The New Yorker profile a bit ago on Mantel (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/15/121015fa_fact_macfarquhar), and I found that the actual novel exceeded my expectations. Simply enthralling.

It wasn't until the end that I realized that part of my great affinity to Mantel's prose is probably due to its Durrell-ian quality (although her style is in no way derivative). It struck me in particular in this quote:

“It's the living that turn and chase the dead. The long bones and skulls are tumbled from their shrouds, and words like stones are thrust into their rattling mouths: we edit their writings, we rewrite their lives.” (p. 602)

  For most of the books I read, how I feel about the book matches with the quality of its writing.  In other words I like well-written books and don't like poorly-written books.  But every now a book comes along that throw these two factors out of alignment.  Wolf Hall is one of those books.    Let's start with the good.  Wolf Hall is very well-researched and impeccably detailed.  Mantel clearly knows this era of history inside and out.  Through this knowledge she is able to make 1500s England come to life in a marvelous way.  This knowledge also allows her to make these historical figures feel totally alive.  This is not an easy task but Mantel accomplishes it spectacularly throughout Wolf Hall.    In addition to her historical chops, Mantel is a damn good writer and it shows.  Her characters pop, her descriptions are vivid and everything is quite well-paced (a major feat for a book that is over 500 pages).  There are a whole lot of words in this book and Mantel is able to make each one of them feel meaningful.  It is easy for a historical drama to get a bit superfluous but I feel like Mantel avoids that pitfall.    And yet despite all my praise... I just don't care.  This is a well-written, well-researched book that inspired exactly zero emotion out of me whatsoever.   I like to have emotions when I read and this book didn't give me them.  I feel like I should say more but it's hard to write about a book that didn't make me feel anything.  I will still read Wolf Hall's sequels as I have heard they are better, but I can't say I'm looking forward to them. 

4,5 stars.

This was by no means an easy read. As a non-Brit, I was not really familiar with the history of Henry VIII. Of course, I knew bits and pieces, mainly that he just split the church because of a marriage, or a divorce if you like. But that's about it.

And if you are not familiar with this part of history, you need to do some work because Hilary Mantel is not going to make it easy for you. She starts the story and expects the reader to keep up; if you can't, too bad, she's not waiting for you. She provides some background information in the second or third chapter, but I found myself needing Wikipedia and family trees to get a contextual picture that made sense.

On top of that, everyone is called Thomas, which can be confusing. Sometimes she uses the person's titles (duke of Norfolk, or just Norfolk) and then all of a sudden she uses their real name (Thomas Howard, yes another Thomas...or even just Howard) and when you have found out, she turns back to Norfolk. And be aware, the “he” in the book is, in 90% of the cases, Thomas Cromwell, but not always. If you're lost, just assume the “he” is Cromwell and you'll probably be good.

So, having said that, this book is very rewarding if you're willing to put the effort in. Because of the somewhat unpersonal approach and writing style, you get the feeling that this is a real account of events, not a romanticized story. I can only recommend it to everyone. And, oh yes, read it in English if you can. I found the Dutch translation even more confusing at times; not the vocabulary, but copying the original writing style into the Dutch translation made it more unnatural than the original

2.5 stars. As beautifully written and well researched as this is, it was not an enjoyable read. It really felt like a chore to pick up. Such a pity. I may not be in the correct headspace for this though (we are all filled with anxiety atm) I will probably continue series, but on audio at 1.5x speed.

I just couldn't finish it. I made it about 80 pages through but it didn't capture my attention at all.

Long book, but I loved it.

2020: Audible version: amazingly done. Adding a star.I love this book.

I know a lot about Henry VIII. I know quite a bit about his first wife, Katherine. I'd say I know an enormous amount about his second wife, Anne Boleyn. I'd even say I know tons about Thomas More. But what did I really know about Thomas Cromwell? Not much. Until now.

So, this book. All about Thomas Cromwell. And Henry. And Katherine. And Anne and More. Even though I generally knew the story, every page, every sentence felt new. An excellent book. I honestly cannot imagine anyone who would not be enthralled with this one.

It took me a bit to read this book but not because it was difficult or boring but rather because I decided to do the slow sip. It is [a:Hilary Mantel 58851 Hilary Mantel https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1334862633p2/58851.jpg] and every sentence and paragraph are worthy of being savored and digested with no rush. Its not as if this is a mystery. We all know of Henry VIII and his marital woes. For those who don't I'd suggest a primer on English history before delving into this book.What Ms. Mantel does so brilliantly here, as she did in [b:A Place of Greater Safety 12593941 A Place of Greater Safety Hilary Mantel https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1363862651s/12593941.jpg 1168385] is illuminate and bring focus on characters we think to know so well from countless history classes. In this case it is Thomas Cromwell a man who always seems to veer between an opaque cypher or Machiavellian villain in most historical accounts but in [b:Wolf Hall 6520929 Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1) Hilary Mantel https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436162980s/6520929.jpg 6278354] he comes off as that modern day hero: the self made man who rises the heights of power despite of his less than auspicious beginning. Thankfully Ms. Mantel keeps him a man of his time, modern yes, but 1530's modern. As Cardinal Wolsey he chooses his prince, Henry, and serves him ushering in the new England divorced from Rome and all that ensued.I'm sure there are more eloquent reviews around so I'll just say that I found it brilliant: the writing, the story telling, the insight into human nature. I'll be starting [b:Bring Up the Bodies 13507212 Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell, #2) Hilary Mantel https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1330649655s/13507212.jpg 14512257], the follow up ASAP.

Strange storytelling in this finnish translation. My reading did not really translate into understanding what was going on in the book. Maybe the book assumes that the reader already knows the centre pieces of this story from the history lessons. It does not really explain peoples motives and the characters are somehow loose.

I was looking forward to reading this book for so long, and then...it turned out to be rather disappointing. The writing style was cumbersome and hard to follow (e.g., just who does “he” refer to?). The word that best describes this book? Pretentious.

Lots of head-chopping, lusting and scheming.

I now understand historical and political reasons for the English Reformation. That's always something nice to take away from a great story.

This book sucked me in more and more as I read it, at least half of that was because I had to be sucked in to be able to keep track of all the Henry's and Mary's. I was constantly flicking back to the character list at the start to know who was who.

Written in a style I'm not sure what it is but it took a while to wrap my head around, it's all from the point of view of Cromwell but still in third person, it leaps around in time very casually and sometimes doesn't bother with dialogue but just keeps it in a “then they talked about this and then that” style of writing. I'm not sure why this is the style but hey, once I'd figured out that ‘he' was almost always relating to Cromwell I was able to keep up.

Looking forward to the rest of the series.

I am pretty disappointed, but I just can't seem to get into this one...

DNF at 30%. This book has won awards and the author sadly recently passed away so I thought I'd finally give it a crack. It's historical fiction about Thomas Cromwell (dude that was around the time of the infamous Henry the Eighth). Unfortunately with the writing style and the lack of background it was really hard to follow. Maybe if you are more familiar with the time period it will be easier..

Without a knowledge of English history around the time of crazy King Henry it's difficult to understand the characters and their interactions. Its definitely got some interesting parts and I think if I come back to it a second time I'll pick up a lot I missed. This is all due to my lack of background on the history of that country and that time.

A lot of the reviews for this book mention the difficulty of working out who is saying what to who. One answer is to go for the superbly narrated audio book. The production was superb and the story gripping, though I think a passing knowledge of England in the 16th Century would be a help.
I'm about to download the next in the series.

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