Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Wolf Hall

This is probably the fourth time I've read Wolf Hall. I love the writing - it's immediate and it’s subversively funny, and I find myself rereading parts just because I enjoy them so much. The novel opens with a riveting scene of a teenaged Cromwell being beaten almost to death by his father, dazed on the paving stones, crawling away as best he can, wondering if this is the day he dies.

Told in the present tense, it feels as though you're right there with Cromwell as he tries to escape his father's next kick. The attention to detail - the knot in the twine of his father's boot ripping his forehead open - also brings every scene to life.

This obviously doesn't sound like the opening to a funny book, but the sardonic humor makes the corner of your mouth twitch in a smile, and it's so, so clever. There are secret nicknames that are both insulting and fitting - the Princess Mary is a shrimp. When Cromwell leaves home in the morning he pats his wife, kisses the dog. Cromwell's perspective is askew from everyone else's. and it's that difference that results in much of the humor.

I will gladly reread this again in a couple of years. It brings me so much joy.

Content Warnings

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

chelsaat's review against another edition

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challenging funny informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I’m not usually a fan of what one may call a “pretentious novel,” as so many reviewers like to call this book. But idk man, I really dug this!

Sure, there are a million characters, all named Thomas and Mary (I still have no idea the difference between Thomas Audley and Thomas Cranmer), but ultimately they are all side characters to Cromwell, even the king.

And boy did I like Cromwell!! I always love a story of someone overcoming their humble beginnings through wits and cunning. And I appreciated that he wasn’t a total asshole about it, either. Mantel’s Cromwell has a penchant for collecting fellow lost souls and building a little found family. He has a wry and frank observation of the human condition, especially when it comes to the Catholic religion.

(When he shot back at Thomas More about his hypocrisy at the end, I screamed. Man was holding a grudge for years only to make it known on the dude’s deathbed. Iconic.)

Plus the jokes! This thing is peppered with dry British humor that sometimes knocked me dead. Examples:

- "Already there are too many books in the world. There are more every day. One man cannot hope to read them all."
- “The trouble with England, he thinks, is that it's so poor in gesture. We shall have to develop a hand signal for ‘Back off, our prince is fucking this man's daughter.’ He is surprised that the Italians have not done it. Though perhaps they have, and he just never caught on.”
- “No ruler in the history of the world has ever been able to afford a war. They're not affordable things. No prince ever says, 'This is my budget, so this is the kind of war I can have.”
- “At New Year's he had given Anne a present of silver forks with handles of rock crystal. He hopes she will use them to eat with, not to stick in people.”

Other fave elements: Mantel's rendition of the Boleyn sisters. Anne is a cunning bitch and I couldn’t help but admire her. Lord knows I couldn't have had her patience. Mary is also smart, but much more of a tragic figure. (Henry VIII is actively disgusting, I hate him in every adaptation.) Cromwell respects their intellect, in fact he's the only one to really respect women in this book. I have to stan!!

Minus some points, because yes, I hated the overuse of “he.” It’s too twee and confusing! With so many characters you can’t be doing this, Mantel!

Pairs well with: The SIX soundtrack, admiring Natalie Dormer in The Tudors

Content Warnings

quickermorequickly's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

“If England lies under God’s curse, or some evil spell, it has seemed for a time that the spell has been broken, by the golden king and his golden cardinal. But those golden years are over, and this winter the sea will freeze; the people who see it will remember it all their lives.”

I was *so* surprised by this book. First of all I can’t believe I was even talked in to reading an enormous historical fiction novel about a white man set in Tudor England. 😅 Never something I would be interested in and yet everything I’d heard about this book from a lot of readers whose opinion I trust made me decide to give it a chance and wow am I so glad I did.

First of all, I have definitely found a new favorite author. The uniqueness of the writing style took me a minute to get into a good reading rhythm, but once I got the hang of it, I absolutely loved it. Mantel did an amazing job of having the reader see everything that was happening as though we were Cromwell ourselves. At times I felt the action of the story so viscerally I thought I could have been in the actual room where it was all taking place, watching every character and their mannerisms and the way they were dressed and hearing their speech and witnessing their subtle interactions with everyone around them, every detail accounted for. It was truly just brilliantly executed. Maybe even the best-written book I’ve ever read, tbh.

I was also very impressed with the very complex, human characters she created. No one was stereotypical or a cliche at all (which is my number one complaint about most historical fiction). And Mantel was not dealing with highly sympathetic figures at all and yet she was able to demonstrate their humanity in spite of both their situation and my preconceived notions of who they were as historical figures.

“Some of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories.”

I was also struck by her depiction of the stark contrast between the very fragile mortality and transience of life in early modern England and that society’s beliefs in the immortality of souls and personal legend. The speed at which the sweating sickness killed its victims, the constant threat of plague, war, and famine, were clouds that often seemed to blot out any hope of finding joy in such a world—and yet, life, at least somewhere and for some, went on anyway. All of this arranged alongside the whim of one man dictating everyone else’s lives—a man whose legend is most guaranteed to live on—created such an impossibly unstable house of cards you can’t see how anyone could possibly succeed in such a volatile situation. Which, spoiler alert—well nevermind. Wait until the sequels. 😁

This book also presented (imo) a slightly different image of England and English history than I was familiar with—a country and culture that I feel like I’ve always been given such a specific one-sided narrative about. There’s obviously *such* a huge difference between the extremely white-washed and even often sugar-coated “history textbook” narrative and the “reality” of history and since we are so often aggressively fed the former version, it is shocking sometimes to see an alternative proffered that makes the past seem not only more real, but more relatable, which is what I think Mantel accomplishes with this book.

I’m really looking forward to finishing this series (as soon as I can order the edition I want from the UK 😂) as well as exploring more of Mantel’s work.

“They could tell Boccaccio a tale, those sinners at Wolf Hall.”

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