Bring Up the Bodies

I read Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel years ago and eagerly anticipated its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, and got a copy as soon as it was released...and then proceeded to let it sit on the shelf until I finally got an audio copy and listened to it over the past few weeks.

What an amazingly good book.  I know the story of Anne Boleyn and HVIII very, very well, but I was still on the edge of my seat as Mantel told the familiar story with Thomas Cromwell as the protagonist. Mantel hit on a singularly brilliant premise since Cromwell is the guy everyone loves to hate, but how can you hate him when you learn about his relationship to his family and staff.

True, he is cold-blooded and calculating, but Mantel softened this by making his overriding motivation to be his loyalty to his mentor, Cardinal Wolsey.  Exacting revenge on those who brought Wolsey down guided Cromwell even more than self-preservation in Mantel's version of the story and I think it is this, as well as his treasuring of his son, Gregory, that makes Cromwell into the hero of this sad, sordid story.

I really enjoyed this as an audio book as well--the reader really made me dislike Anne, with her affected accent, and Henry, with his callous, slightly nasal sound.  I think the reader, Simon Vance, really enhanced Mantel's novel with his rendition of it.

Now I'm ready to rewatch Wolf Hall, seasons 1 and 2, as we await the third book in the series, The Mirror and the Light, which is due out in 2017.  Although it will be so very difficult to witness the downfall of Cromwell, as I expect book 3 to chronicle, I trust Mantel to close her story of Thomas Cromwell in a way that will make us mourn this much maligned figure of history.

The writing in Bring Up the Bodies is even better than Wolf Hall--clear, immediate, powerful, spare but rich in imagery and dense with meaning.  Absolutely first rate historical fiction.

This is the 9th book in my TBR Pile Challenge that I have finished so far.  

Wolf Hall

Without a doubt, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel deserves every accolade that it has received. It is an amazing book--interesting, innovative, satisfying, thought-provoking.

Let's start with interesting. The Tudors--HVIII and Anne Boleyn in particular--have captured the imagination for centuries, and with the current TV series The Tudors, this book couldn't have hit the market at a better time as Tudormania seems to build with each season. That said, before I started the book I wondered if Mantel could really say anything new about HVIII and AB. Turns out she could. Telling the story of HVIII and his quest for a son from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell is little short of brilliant. In most tellings of the story, he is painted as the Machiavellian master--cold, calculating, ruthless. Your classic 'yes' man. In Wolf Hall, he is all this but more as well. Hall didn't sugarcoast him ("In essentials, I believe, he is very much what he ever was."), but seeing him at home with his wife and children, watching him raise his son, mentor the young men in his household, and reminisce about his childhood and siblings humanized him. He is a hard man, a ruthless man, even a "yes" man, but now I have an understanding of his heart and can say that despite the record, he was a good man.



Looking at the story of HVIII and AB from Cromwell's persepective was refreshing--his take on the king and his queens and their families, friends, supporters, and enemies was fascinating and fresh. I loved the slang he used for the Boleyn/Howard clan (e.g., "Uncle Norfolk"); I enjoyed the interactions he had with Mary Boleyn and Jane Seymour, which added spice and depth to the story; I enjoyed his back story. I also really liked the interaction with Hans Holbein, the painter who did this portrait of Cromwell as well as painted portraits of so many of the other significant players in the story.



It struck that Thomas Cromwell is really an epitome of the American hero--completely self-made, pulling himself up from humble origins by sheer grit, intelligence, and the ability to take advantage of opportunities. What's more, he doesn't distance himself from his origins, nor pretend he is anything other than he is. This pride in himself aggravates the peers of the realm who squirm under the power he holds over them, and they cannot understand why he doesn't invent a more prestigious past for himself. I was particularly amused by HVIII trying to convince Cromwell that he was really descended from a noble family when in fact Cromwell kept on denying the connection. This was one of the aspects of Cromwell that I really admired--he didn't pretend to be noble even when titles were thrust upon him. He was the son of a blacksmith who beat him whenever he had the chance. This one trait convinced me that he had personal integrity despite how savage his actions might appear.

Moving on to innovative, I'll agree with the gripe that many have expressed about the book being hard to read. It does take some getting used to--it's written in 3rd person present tense with the point-of-view being entirely Cromwell's. It would have been far easier to read had Mantel merely opted for first person, but once you get used to the pronoun "he" almost always referring to Cromwell even if she has invoked his name for pages, the narration works well to get the reader inside the head but without making the story read like a confessional, which it most assuredly is not. It does have stream-of-consciousness feel, but this provides a level of intimacy that I think is essential to making Cromwell sympathetic in the end.

While Wolf Hall doesn't tell the whole story and I've heard that Mantel is working on a sequel, the novel was satisfying, ending with the king headed toward Wolf Hall and the arms of Jane Seymour.

All great books linger in the consciousness for a good long while after you read the last words. Wolf Hall has certainly hung around with me this past week, and it's prompted me to pick up a few Tudor non-fictions I have to refresh my memory on the historical record of both Thomas Cromwell and his counterpoint, Thomas More.

Wolf Hall was a magnificent read--worth the trouble of getting comfortable with and definitely on the reread pile when the sequel eventually comes out.

Diving into Wolf Hall

I started Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, last week. It's not a quick read, but it is compelling and Mantel has a lovely way with words and some interesting ideas.

I particularly liked this part in which Thomas Cromwell, the protagonist, is musing over Thomas More's contribution to the charges being brought against Cardinal Wolsey.

Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor, has put his signature first on all the articles against Wolsey. They say one strange allegation has been added at his behest. The cardinal is accused of whispering in the king's ear and breathing into his face; since the cardinal has the French pox, he intended to infect our monarch.

When he [Cromwell] hears this he thinks, imagine living inside the Lord Chancellor's head. Imagine writing down such a charge and taking it to the printer, and circulating it though the court and through the realm, putting it out there to where people will believe anything; putting it out there, to the shepherds on the hills, to Tyndale's plowboy, to the beggar on the roads and the patient beast in its byre or stall; out there to the bitter winter winds, and to the weak early sun, and the snowdrops in the London gardens.

I love this passage because it examplifies why I think Wolf Hall is such a wonderful novel and is garnering so much acclaim. In these two paragraphs, my regard for Cromwell is cemented because how can I not love a man who tries to imagine in such poetic and yet concrete terms what another is thinking when he knowingly slanders a colleague? This passage expresses indirectly and so powerfully Cromwell's scorn for More, and it reinforces my faith that despite Cromwell's rough edges, he is the honorable man in the story, the man whose thoughts are worth knowing. With this passage, Mantel secures my regard for her protagonist, and she does it without singing a word in his defense. It's all done with smoke and mirrors...this is a really a wonderfully written novel.



James Frain as Thomas Cromwell in The Tudors.