Wolf Hall won the Man Booker Prize in 2009. The second book in her trilogy won the same prize in 2012. Yann Martel's Life of Pi was also awarded the prize in earlier years. The literary prize is awarded each year for the best original full-length novel written in the English language. The winner of this prize is generally assured to have international success and recognition and thus, is a very important book for the literary crowd.
I'm not going to lie. I did not want to like this book. When I first picked it up it felt tedious to read. It was somewhat boring, monotonous, complicated, and stylistic. As the book progressed I felt more intrigue into the life of Thomas Cromwell, an important figure in the Tudor dynasty during the reign of Henry VIII. It is extremely interesting to hear about the affairs of King Henry VIII from a different point of view. We've all read stories about his life and his various wives, but we have not heard about Cromwell, a man usually demonized in popular culture for being a vicious and power hungry man from low breeding, but Mantel's book gives us another side of him - a truer side that is extremely captivating. You can't help but admire her version of this complex man.
The book starts out with us seeing Cromwell as he began. A commoner's son who eventually traveled the world and then came back to work with Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey is Lord Chancellor, the King's chief adviser. And he is the most un-humble man in the realm. He is extremely powerful and Thomas Cromwell's patron. Cromwell himself is a lawyer, and extremely dedicated and loyal to Cardinal Wolsey. The book turns more poetic as it goes on as we see Cromwell rise from Wolsey's humble follower to a man that everyone fears. In one part of the book, a painting is made of him, and he remarks that it makes him look like a murderer, and his son remarks, "You didn't know?"
Again, Wolf Hall gives us a different angle to Tudor life. It makes us care about a man that no one likes. We see him as a caring father, who undergoes various forms of redemption, and extreme familial losses. Above all else though, we see how calculating this man is. The Cardinal loses favor with the King when he fails to procure a divorce for the King from his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. Henry wants to marry Anne Boleyn, but to do so he must prove his first marriage was invalid, and the church (particularly the Pope) don't like this. With the Cardinal fast losing popularity and power, Cromwell stays loyal to his patron but must figure out how to avoid his own downfall. Cromwell makes nasty deals with devilish people, and finally the book starts to get interesting and heat up as the Cardinal whom Cromwell loves so well goes down.
Cromwell loves Wolsey, Wolsey loves the King, and the King, himself, is an inconstant lover. He truly only loves himself. We see the King from Cromwell's eyes as a spoiled child, even though he is a grown man. He likes people who can help him get what he wants, and at this particular moment in history - he wants Anne Boleyn. Henry remarks to Cromwell that "what is the country for, but to support its prince in his enterprise?"
But what happens if that enterprise is cursed? We all know that while Henry got his precious Anne Boleyn - history shows us she eventually gets her head cut off.
Cardinal Wolsey goes down, and dies before they can kill him. Cromwell, however, rises from the ashes like a powerful phoenix. Another courtier remarks to Cromwell that "I know our old fellow in scarlet [the Cardinal Wolsey] almost brought you down. But look at you, eating almonds, with all your teeth in your head, and your household around you, and your affairs prospering ..." Cromwell did something the Cardinal could not. He gave Henry his divorce, and now he continues to rise in Henry's favor, and people, even those who despise him, can't help but admit that if you need something done - you need to talk to Cromwell.
Cromwell can humiliate you, make you, break you, and save you. Cromwell is the man to know, and these books give us insight into his life.
The book is cheeky, and oftentimes very humorous. Dialogue truly makes all the difference in this novel, it makes the book come alive and move faster. Through all its complexities, and moments where you want to tell the author to "take a breath, woman and stop writing!" if you can suffer through some of the confusing moments of the book, and particularly if you're an avid lover of English history as I am, then this is a book worth suffering through, because in the end you want it to continue ... and, oh wait! It does. The second book in the trilogy, Bring Up the Bodies, which I'm reading now, as I mentioned before, ALSO won the Man Booker Prize in 2012, and the third book in the series should be coming out sometime in the future. At the end of this first book, we find out why it's entitled Wolf Hall. Wolf Hall is where the court is headed in the second book, and home of the infamous Seymours. A great foreshadowing to what happens after Henry's inconstant loves strikes down Anne Boleyn, the woman he thought he loved, but alas another woman who could not give him a son. Anne is still alive and well in the book, but we can see in the future that Lady Jane Seymour will soon be coming into his sights. Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn overturned all of Christendom in England. It starts a new chapter in English history. Now I go on to a new "chapter" of Cromwell's life; I go on to read about the Tudor's history, from a powerful man's point of view. I'll let you know when I've finished Hilary Mantel's second, award winning, book.
No comments:
Post a Comment