Wolf Hall

This is the most compelling historical novel that I have ever read. It won both the Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle award. It is the perfect mix of history and soaring political language. The characters jump off the page and are oh-so-very human. Ms. Mantel's knowledge of the period is extraordinary. I stand in awe.

Hilary Mantel was not a historian. She was not a psychologist. She was an insightful and imaginative novelist who wrote in searing psychobiographical style. With Wolf Hall Mantel gave us an understanding of and sympathy for one of history’s most misunderstood and maligned men – Thomas Cromwell – and in the process she transformed historical fiction. When asked if she believed in an afterlife, Mantel answered. “Yes. I can’t imagine how it might work. However, the universe is not limited by what I can imagine.” And yet, I always believed Hilary Mantel’s imagination was limitless. Read Wolf Hall. I… show more.

In Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel recreates the world of Thomas Cromwell in such a personal, tangible way that you feel you are immersed in his time. You can imagine the historical period, the buildings, the clothes, the knife's edge balance of political actions, the manipulation of events, the tragedy of power and illness. Henry VIII becomes much less of a cipher for a king without an heir and more of a complicated, sometimes capricious, personality. The man, Cromwell, who Holbein immortalized in his portrait, lives as a complicated individual: a man driven by ambition and at the same time, a… show more.

This is the first in a trilogy, and the whole series is excellent, but you have to start at the beginning. Wolf Hall is a reading experience unlike any other. Mantel’s masterful command of prose and her willingness to use language in unusual ways completely enmeshes the reader in a dream-like sense of being actually inside the mind of a 16th-century man—Thomas Cromwell, the central figure of the series. It can be a little tricky to read the first time you tackle it, so I recommend the audiobook version, which is superbly narrated.

The ultimate choice for me, even if it is an embellished biographical account of a real person (not my usual preference). It is an exploration of the life and times of a man of “humble birth”, who hasn’t exactly gone down as a glamourous hero and is often regarded as a villain, but who laid many of the foundation stones of modern Britain. It’s written in the third person but through the thoughts and perceptions (but never feelings) of Thomas Cromwell, and its style either fascinates or repels readers. In my case it fascinates, to the point that it was… show more.

This is the first in a trilogy that combines authentic history with riveting fiction. This book is focused on Thomas Cromwell, a henchman for King Henry VIII. Mantel creates a compelling depiction that readers have no choice but to believe. It is impossible not to sympathize with the Cromwell character she creates. 

My first introduction to Mantel’s Wolf Hall was from the PBS series of the same name. I always wonder, when something on TV is very good if it was based on a novel. Well, this certainly was, and it is one of those books (actually book one in a trilogy) that makes other writers jealous. Mantel is not a sci-fi fantasy writer, but she absolutely could be, for she constructs a forgotten world, the 16th century of Henry VIII and his court, so magnificently that one believes to be there. Great prose style and world building emerge only when… show more.

This historical novel is set in the 1500s and follows the rise of Thomas Cromwell in the court of the infamous Henry VIII. Hilary Mantel’s writing is unlike anything else I’ve read. Her prose is somehow rich and full yet feather-light. Incredibly I found myself falling for a character who I’d learnt at school was a calculating, cold, and violent man. With great skill and the merest breath of the supernatural, she plays with language and tense, to make us feel that we are Cromwell – that we have his thoughts. This text takes some getting used to but once… show more.

From its first sentence, Mantel’s novel grabs you and plunges you deep into the world of 16th-century England in all its astounding cruelty and visceral complexity. It doesn’t let go until, really, the last sentence of the third book in her Tudor trilogy, more than a thousand pages later. Part of the brilliance of this novel is Mantel’s choice of Thomas Cromwell as her protagonist. Cast as the villain in the standard account of Henry VIII’s tumultuous reign, the blacksmith’s son who became a king’s confidante is shown here to be a man before his time: committed to his beliefs… show more.

Another famous man from the sixteenth century, this time Thomas Cromwell. The Holbein portrait of Thomas Cromwell shows us a very grim-looking character with shrewd eyes looking away from us. History gives us Henry VIII’s political fixer. Hilary Mantel gives us the living, breathing man, abused by a cruel father, later grieving for his dead wife and his adored daughter while negotiating a political world in which a man must be as ruthless as his enemies. Hilary Mantel shows us that history is not as simple as it might seem, and Thomas Cromwell is a human being with all the… show more.