Wolf Hall
2009 • 604 pages
Ratings78
Average rating3.9
15
Ratings78
Average rating3.9
Wolf Hall (2009) is a historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family's seat of Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, in Wiltshire. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a sympathetic fictionalised biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII through to the death of Sir Thomas More. The novel won both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2012, The Observer named it as one of "The 10 best historical novels".
The book is the first in a trilogy; the sequel [Bring Up the Bodies](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16547664W) was published in 2012. The last book in the trilogy is [The Mirror and the Light](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20665410W) (2020), which covers the last four years of Cromwell's life.
Featured Series
3 primary booksThomas Cromwell is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2009 with contributions by Hilary Mantel.
Reviews with the most likes.
An extremely interesting novel, with a twist on the traditional storyline: Cromwell (the traditional heavy or villain) is our sympathetic narrator. It also features a *nasty* portrait of Sir Thomas More.
An interesting question is if Cromwell here is an "unreliable narrator" or not.
Note: "He" is almost always Cromwell himself, but occasionally it's someone else, so do read carefully.
I couldn't put it down, and am praying that the sequel is still on the shelf at the library where I saw it last week. The somewhat stream-of-consciousness writing can be confusing, but as another reviewer noted, if you keep in mind that “he” in most instances is Cromwell, you will be OK. Other reviewers have also noted the need for family trees and access to Wikipedia while reading, which is not a bad thing. I have never been able to wrap myself around the whole York/Lancaster genealogy, but I'm closer now, having read this book and subsequently (within a week!) two non-fiction books about the Wars of the Roses and the rise of the Tudors.
Not much of a review, is it? I'll repeat that I couldn't put it down, and a lot of that had to do with just how funny a lot of the book was, surprisingly. The Cromwell of this book may bear no resemblance to the historical Thomas Cromwell, but the book version is hilarious. I like that in a book, and will definitely read the sequel, and be looking at the author's other novels.
There is no denying the achievement here, recreating an era nearly 500 years ago, through the eyes of one man at the centre of the maelstrom. Imaginary conversations and made up encounters all based on history and woven together into a tapestry of fact and fiction. It is really quite remarkable, as the central “character” Thomas Cromwell navigates the politics and interpersonal mean-spirited-ness of the court of Henry VIII, enduring personal tragedy and loss along the way. My reservation about this book is that I admired and was impressed by it more than I enjoyed it. Some of the detailed descriptions and conversations were there more for verisimilitude than to advance the telling of the story and I often went from being enthralled to being bored in the space of ten pages. I can understand why this won awards, but maybe I'm not a serious enough history buff to enjoy it as much as others clearly have. I don't think I'll be reading the other two books.
