Written by Hilary Mantel
“The fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. This is how the world changes: a counter pushed across a table, a pen stroke that alters the force of a phrase, a woman’s sigh as she passes and leaves on the air a trail of orange flower or rose water; her hand pulling close the bed curtain, the discreet sigh of flesh against flesh.”
Calling this novel a surprise is a vast understatement.
I’ve become something of a specialist in Tudor affairs over the years. The era of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I is full of enough intrigue, warfare, politics, sex & violence to keep scholars entranced for centuries. Certainly, the vast amount of films, TV series, and documentaries have offered us many interpretations of this time, and each is driven by an agenda regarding the characters. Whether you’re watching The Tudors or The Other Boelyn Girl, or watching and reading anything by Simon Scharma & David Starkey…each book, TV episode, and film has something different (and very adamant) to say about the players of the time.
But the one character who seems to be defined by strict boundaries and cliches — the one who rarely steps outside his machiavellian, oily, plotting persona — is Thomas Cromwell. No matter what you watch, or what you read, Cromwell is a malevolent force, dripping menace and radiating obsequiousness. A tool of the powerful, and a power-craving operator of the first rank. A portrait that runs continuously through the multitude of Tudor-inspired works.
Read Wolf Hall…and everything you think you know about Cromwell will change forever.
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: this IS a novel, not a work of scholarship, or a doctoral history dissertation. This is a novel that uses research to create the profile of a man who is trying to survive the events of his time, and doing his best to shape them…not only for his own benefit, but for his family, his government, and his nation. This is not the story of an oily, backroom operative.
Wolf Hall is the story of a man who ran away from an abusive childhood. A man shaped by his experience as a soldier in France, and a man who grew up under the supervision of Italian bankers, financiers, diplomats, cut-throats, and schemers. A man who returned to England and found himself in the service of the Cardinal Wolsey. Together, they set out to drag England from the parochial clutches of the Middle Ages…a task Cromwell continues after his beloved Cardinal’s fall. This is a man of extreme loyalty, and enormous physical & spiritual courage. A man who loses his young family, but finds himself a new one, among the young men and women of London that he rescues & educates. He gives them a home and a purpose. In between, he applies his skills to translating the demands of the King and the upper classes into something workable, feasible, and tangible. He plots a course through the King’s Great Matter, with a deft touch that leaves lesser (and more stubborn) men in his wake.
This is not the Cromwell I’ve experienced in the popular literature and scholarship. This is not the Cromwell of blackened legend. This is a sharp, common-born man of the world, who thrusts himself into the titanic affairs of the giants of history. He has only his education, his wits, his courage, his confidence…and the love of his family. He succeeds beyond all expectations.
It’s epic, breathtaking, and invovling in a way I can’t describe…on par with The Pillars of the Earth, but more immediate, more personal. It’s written in an odd, third-person style, yet the technique brings the first-person quality of the narrative front and centre. It’s a paradox, but it pays off in spades…and it forces you to pay attention. In short, this is not a book for those with the attention span of a butterfly. No Dan Brown lovers need approach this masterpiece. Too much deep thought would be required on their part…
Stunning in every way, it leaves open the path to the inevitable — and tragic — sequel. I hope I don’t have to wait too many years for its arrival. Wolf Hall has certainly whet my appetite for more…in spite of the fact that I know what is waiting for Thomas Cromwell. For the time being, I will continue to bask in this extraordinary tale of one remarkable man’s slow-and-steady rise to power…
…and make no mistake, you WILL be re-evaluating this remarkable man by the time you finish the novel. Wolf Hall recently won the Booker Prize, and as far as I’m concerned, Hilary Mantel deserves every penny of the award money.
