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nigellicus's review
dark
emotional
tense
5.0
Beginning and ending with beheadings, and packed in between with the minutiae of royal government, from international intrigues with France and the Holy Roman Empire to noticing the boy who brings in the candles when the king's chambers get dark. This is a magesterial work, never flagging in its exhaustive drive through the mind and soul and heart of Thomas Cromwell, and, through him, the world of Tudor England and the whims and desires of a monarch with absolute power.
deanaj's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
the_3_word_reviewer's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
charlielizabethm's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
flawedamythyst's review
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
n_ck's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
This book took me almost half a year to finish, with breaks. It is long. It is wordy and detail-filled. It doesn’t have the pacing and energy of earlier entries, but it also chronicles a different era of Cromwell’s life. One where he has risen beyond all expectation, transcended his — and even England’s past — and sewed his own fall with same tragic flaws that made him great. Some of the sad pleasures of reading this is noting the small changes in Cromwell that prone him to lose his place, like things he certainly wouldn’t have done in his prime. He’s a flawed, captivating character who I’ve spent hours and hours with since start wolf hall about a year ago. I’ll miss him and I will be forever grateful that Mantel ended her career with such a remarkable trilogy. She was one of our best writers and we’re poorer without her.
hadeanstars's review against another edition
4.0
It is really no exaggeration to say (in my opinion of course) that Hilary Mantel is one of the finest writers of English prose alive today. Her gifts are manifold and dazzling, her perfect grasp of idiom, inflection and innuendo add a profoundness and depth to her writing that is astonishing. She says so much with so little. I loved the first two Cromwell novels, and this is a fantastic final instalment, but mostly because of the aforementioned gifts of its creatrix. The narrative itself is difficult because it is necessarily straitjacketed into an historically precise trajectory. The handling of King Henry is wonderful here, better than previously, the unconscious narcissism and monstrosity of the man, at once refined and brutish, articulate and incoherent, and it is a marvel.
But the story did meander and there were great swathes of introspection and internal monologue which for me, made the novel overlong. Still in almost every respect worth the investment, the writing is nothing short of brilliant, but it could have been two-thirds as long and still fulfillling. It is a very long, very remarkable novel.
But the story did meander and there were great swathes of introspection and internal monologue which for me, made the novel overlong. Still in almost every respect worth the investment, the writing is nothing short of brilliant, but it could have been two-thirds as long and still fulfillling. It is a very long, very remarkable novel.