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The Wolf Hall Trilogy: Wolf Hall, Bring up the Bodies and The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel |
The Mirror and the Light reaches the end of Mantel's trilogy describing the life of Thomas Cromwell. Wolf Hall covers his service to Wolsey whose decline and death results in Cromwell becoming Henry VIII's faithful right-hand man. In Bring up the Bodies we follow Anne Boylen's rise and Cromwell's part in her downfall. Throughout both books he is strangely absent from the action, moving behind the scenes fulfilling Henry's wishes no matter what they are. Henry is portrayed as a self-indulgent and spoilt despot, using and discarding people on a whim. In The Mirror and the Light Cromwell emerges from the shadows revealing the motives behind his actions: the success of Protestantism, the fall of the old Catholic families and the expansion of King and State. Beautifully written with such detail that you live, sleep and eat with Cromwell as he moves around London and S.E. England negotiating and plotting against his, the King's and the Country's enemies but eventually all to nought. His enemies win because Henry abandons him as he has abandoned Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Anne of Cleves and a host of others. I've read many books about the Tudors but none captures like Mantel the darkness and bloodshed while describing the beginnings of national identity in the context of our complex relationship with Europe.
(Helen Allan - bwl 100 Spring 2021 ) |
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