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waytoomanybooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Ooooooo, this book, it’s sequels, and the show have devoured my life! I’m obsessed with it.
This is unequivocally the best novel I have read in the last decade. Rarely does a book like this come along and completely change your brain chemistry, but this is just such a one. I cannot overstate the sumptuous descriptions, the thorough characterization of Cromwell, and the faithfulness to the historical time line of Tudor England.
In this first novel you watch Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn’s meteoric rise, Thomas from peasant to peer, and Anne from Lady to Queen. You get excited for them...until you remember what happens to them both. You know what happens. We all do. And it overshadows *everything*. Can you be truly happy for them when you know the man who has raised them up so high will also bring about their downfall? God, it’ll break your heart in such an achingly good way.
Normally when a book so wonderful comes my way, I cannot put it down and move through it quickly, but for *Wolf Hall*, I couldn’t help but stretch out my reading of it over the course of several months. This is a book to be savored. There is nothing else quite like it, except, perhaps, Hilary Mantel’s other works within this trilogy, though I know the events and prose will utterly devastate me. Even the t.v. show adaptation blows me away! I cannot recommend this book/series/t.v. show enough.
This is unequivocally the best novel I have read in the last decade. Rarely does a book like this come along and completely change your brain chemistry, but this is just such a one. I cannot overstate the sumptuous descriptions, the thorough characterization of Cromwell, and the faithfulness to the historical time line of Tudor England.
In this first novel you watch Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn’s meteoric rise, Thomas from peasant to peer, and Anne from Lady to Queen. You get excited for them...until you remember what happens to them both. You know what happens. We all do. And it overshadows *everything*. Can you be truly happy for them when you know the man who has raised them up so high will also bring about their downfall? God, it’ll break your heart in such an achingly good way.
Normally when a book so wonderful comes my way, I cannot put it down and move through it quickly, but for *Wolf Hall*, I couldn’t help but stretch out my reading of it over the course of several months. This is a book to be savored. There is nothing else quite like it, except, perhaps, Hilary Mantel’s other works within this trilogy, though I know the events and prose will utterly devastate me. Even the t.v. show adaptation blows me away! I cannot recommend this book/series/t.v. show enough.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Antisemitism, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism
naomi_k's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Confinement, Self harm, Torture, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Classism
Minor: Cursing, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Antisemitism, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting
mmic's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
This is a gorgeously written historical novel that goes hard on the history.
The prose is phenomenonal. The only qualm I have with the language is the excessive use of "he." It's sometimes difficult to understand which "he" is being referred to.
Unfortunately (for me), there isn't much plot to speak of. Mantel faithfully (I assume, I'm not a historian so I can't say for certain) follows the life path of Thomas Cromwell. That doesn't leave room for the usual beats we except from fiction story and as a result this book feels more like a biography than a novel.
The lack of a plot made the story drag in places, though the nature of the historical events was enough to keep me engaged to the end.
If you like historical novels, especially if they go hard on the history, this is a must read.
If you're not too keen on biographies or history, probably give it a pass.
The prose is phenomenonal. The only qualm I have with the language is the excessive use of "he." It's sometimes difficult to understand which "he" is being referred to.
Unfortunately (for me), there isn't much plot to speak of. Mantel faithfully (I assume, I'm not a historian so I can't say for certain) follows the life path of Thomas Cromwell. That doesn't leave room for the usual beats we except from fiction story and as a result this book feels more like a biography than a novel.
The lack of a plot made the story drag in places, though the nature of the historical events was enough to keep me engaged to the end.
If you like historical novels, especially if they go hard on the history, this is a must read.
If you're not too keen on biographies or history, probably give it a pass.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Physical abuse, and Blood
ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition
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.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, and Grief
Minor: Incest, Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Medical content
nadia's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
I first read this book in 2013. I remember enjoying it but finding it quite hard to get into. 9 years later, older, and wiser, I thought I'd have a much easier time with it, but I was surprised by how hard I found it to follow passages of dialogue, the characters and their relationships and motivations, and to fully grasp why or how certain things had come to pass.
However, on the whole, I still found this book intriguing, captivating, and tense at times. I love reading about behind-the-scenes political machinations and strategy, and I've always been a fan of the Tudor period. The writing was excellent, though a few times too many on the ambiguous side, at least for me.
This is one of those books that was a real challenge but I welcomed it and I look forward to revisiting Bring Up The Bodies.
However, on the whole, I still found this book intriguing, captivating, and tense at times. I love reading about behind-the-scenes political machinations and strategy, and I've always been a fan of the Tudor period. The writing was excellent, though a few times too many on the ambiguous side, at least for me.
This is one of those books that was a real challenge but I welcomed it and I look forward to revisiting Bring Up The Bodies.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Alcoholism