Bring Up the Bodies: The Booker Prize-winning and bestselling sequel to Wolf Hall, now a major TV series (The Wolf Hall Trilogy)

"Bring Up The Bodies", is - like its prequel ( "Wolf Hal"l ) - a superb piece of writing: original in its approach, gripping, deeply analytical of personality, motive and situation, brilliant and original in its descriptive as well as in its narrative style. Ms. Mantel raises the historical novel to a new level of excellence. Shortly before experiencing this superb brace of biographical exposés, I had read a representative of the genre written by one of its best known and most widely read authors. I was so bored by it that I had almost resolved never to venture into that area again. A chance meeting and a recommendation led to my reading Hilary Mantel, and the difference in quality taught me a lesson I am still enjoying. When "Bring Up The Bodies" ended, I felt genuinely sad. I wanted more. There was one small matter that caused me minor irritation: in "Wolf Hall", in order to create a sense of Thomas Cromwell's pervasiveness, his ubiquity, Ms. Mantel almost always refers to ( or identifies ) him with a personal pronoun rather than with his name. In that way the impression of Cromwell's thoughts and ideas, the thoughts behind the words, is cleverly conveyed. However, there were times when it proved a little confusing and even tiresome. A person ( other than Cromwell ) has just been referred to or quoted, and when the "he" of the next paragraph follows, one naturally assumes that the person now referred to or speaking is the same person....whereas, in fact, we have 'switched' to Cromwell. I questioned one or two other people who had read the book and their reaction was as mine. One had even ceased to read "Wolf Hall" because he found the device too irritating. I found, happily, that after the first few chapters I had adapted to this stylistic eccentricity, though occasionally it still proved a distraction. When I picked up "Bring Up The Bodies", I was prepared for it and thought myself more or less inured to it. To my surprise, it was almost absent! Whenever Cromwell was referred to or quoted, it was now, almost always, "he, Cromwell" or "him Cromwell" or "Cromwell himself", with some other variations. To be honest, this 'clarification' appeared so insistently that it began to feel awkward...affected; and at times it was actually unnecessary. I'm curious to know: were there so many adverse comments about this aspect of the style after "Wolf Hall" that Ms. Mantel decided to adjust it in the sequel? I doubt that. In fact, the revised ( 'corrected'? ) style was so obtrusively altered that I suspect the change ( no doubt accepted by the author - though maybe with reluctance ) was the work of a proof reader or sub-editor. I wonder if anyone can enlighten me. I can think of no other explanation for this change. None of this, however, spoiled my enjoyment of an outstandingly good book and I would recommend it without any serious qualification to any serious reader.

Who ever thought someone could paint Thomas Cromwell as loveable? Hilary’s next challenge might be to do the same for Henry VIII. Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to volume 3 of the Cromwell saga which might go under the umbrella title, Lawyer for hire, Divorce and Church alterations a speciality. As a follow-on from Wolf Hall, quality control has been maintained. Although the historical events the book covers are well known, Mantel still manages to make it into a page-turner. How can that be? I think partly it’s due to her use of the present tense. Unusual, especially for historical novels, but it gives the story an immediacy and the reader the feeling of being there, watching events unfold. Also, she tells the story not just of the end of Anne Boleyn, but reveals how, in a public arena encompassing all of Europe, base motives can be brought to fruition without anyone mentioning the emperor’s state of undress. We should study this book. She puts her finger on not just the 16thC, but homo politicus from the garden of Eden up to and certainly including the 21stC. And Cromwell is the magician who convinces the emperor he is indeed wearing the most rare and wondrous clothes. Mantel begins to find her love affair with Cromwell somewhat smudged but does her best to acquit him of what is usually assumed: that the evidence of Boleyn’s adultery was obtained through torture. She explains Mark the lute player’s confession by having Cromwell simply invite him to sit at his table (with a witness to hand) and talk. Without even getting him drunk and by asking a few gentle questions, Mark begins to brag of the Queen’s love for him, saying he’d had her ‘a thousand times’. The young man was a cunning survivor who, according to Mantel, both feared and hated Cromwell. Why would he say these things to him? A boast in a drunken moment to another non-entity maybe, but to brag of treason to the King’s enforcer? Later, to get him to confess and name more names, Mark was ‘tortured’ by being locked in a cupboard of Christmas decorations overnight. An amusing idea and odd enough to be true, although what followed is still very unlikely. Cromwell’s interviews with the other four accused men – all courtiers close to the King who were said to have once made an object of derision of his beloved Cardinal Wolsey – is very artfully done. Magnificent in fact. So beautifully reasoned and written. Definitely worthy of prizes to show how men can come to be convinced they are ‘guilty although not as charged’ and accept death as the consequence. Only one fights back to claim his innocence, Anne’s brother George Boleyn. As in Wolf Hall, again the theme of incest. But we do not know Cromwell’s real motives for choosing these four men. Was it less to do with a slight to someone he loved and more to do with removing men who were standing in the way of his ambitions? The fall of these men also meant their wealth was forfeit, wealth which would pass through Cromwell’s hands for redistribution. Mantel says the first and there is no one other than Cromwell’s shade to gainsay her. She does, however, acknowledge his corrupt practice of taking ‘gifts’ when redistributing the sequestered properties of the Church. As with WH, little is said of the reformation even though it must have affected far more lives and created stronger opinions for and against as it unrolled during the 16thC than ever the loss of Anne Boleyn’s head did. And, of course, Cromwell was at the heart of the English reformation. What is Mantel telling us? Here she speaks of Thomas Wyatt, the man whose name was on everyone’s lips when first the possibility of Anne Boleyn’s adultery was put about: When Wyatt writes, his lines fledge feathers, and unfolding this plumage they dive below their meaning and skim above it. They tell us that the rules of power and the rules of war are the same, the art is to deceive; and you will deceive, and be deceived in your turn, whether you are an ambassador or a suitor. Now, if a man’s subject is deception, you are deceived if you think you grasp his meaning. You close your hand as it flies away. Wyatt was never accused because Cromwell found him ‘a useful man’; instead he was held in the tower until the trials of Anne and the men were concluded, and released when their heads were firmly off. When Cromwell interviews Wyatt: He rests his eyes on the prisoner, he takes his seat. He says softly, ‘I think I have been training all my years for this. I have served an apprenticeship to myself.’ His whole career had been an education in hypocrisy. Eyes that once skewered him now kindle with simulated regard. Hands that would like to knock his hat off now reach out to take his hand, sometimes in a crushing grip. He has spun his enemies to face him, to join him: as in a dance. That’s politics! Hilary might like to stand for leadership of the Labour Party as they are currently in need of a plausible leader, and she has both a clear and elegant understanding of how the dirty game of politics is played. Two Hilarys? And again: Intrigue feeds on itself; conspiracies have neither mother nor father, and yet they thrive: the only thing to know is that no one knows anything. This is it in a beautifully turned nutshell, carved with finials, inlaid with graceful marquetry. Mantel’s use of the present tense is more meaningful still; this is our 21stC world as well. False flag operations, American and British sponsorship of so-called terrorists in order to keep the ‘war on terror’ running along the lines the occult policy makers have decided on. Invading oil and mineral rich Afghanistan and Iraq because of what a dozen Saudi Arabians are alleged to have done, and never did anyway. Where’s the difference, except in scale, between this and cutting off six innocent heads to give King Henry his divorce so enabling him to follow his venal path? And reward Cromwell, of course. Here’s the synopsis of an article published in June 2015 found on globalresearch.ca site with an updated example of Cromwellian plotting, only this time we do know something as it begins to unravel: ‘The prosecution of a Swedish national accused of terrorist activities in Syria has collapsed at the Old Bailey after it became clear Britain’s security and intelligence agencies would have been deeply embarrassed had a trial gone ahead… ‘This may very well be the biggest news story of the year so far, yet hardly anyone is talking about it. ‘A terror trial taking aim at a Swedish national named Bherlin Gildo, has suddenly collapsed at the Old Bailey British court. The suspect’s defence argued that British intelligence service MI6 was supporting the same groups that the suspect was supposedly fighting for, including the not-so-moderate ‘Free Syrian Army’ by providing them with both weapons and “non-lethal aid”.’ There’s also a Guardian editorial by Seumas Milne ‘Now the truth emerges: how the US fuelled the rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq’ published on 03.06.15 following the collapse of the trial of Bherlin Gildo. Hilary’s portrait of Henry VIII is a compelling argument for real democracy. We give our power away and it is inevitably abused. Just as with Henry VIII, it’s not those ostensibly in charge who manipulate history, but the Cromwells, the ones with wealth and influence. The G7 is one thing but the Bilderberg group is much scarier. It will be meeting once the G7 ends on 8th June 2015. These are 150 or so of the superrich who control the IMF, the World Bank, the central banks in nearly all countries and the US Federal Reserve. This year they intend to discuss in particular secret trade agreements which bypass state governments to enforce, for example, things such as GM crops and the use of glysophate. Any country which bans these can be sued by agrochem companies for loss of profits. Democracy, real people-powered democracy, fully informed as to choices. At least if we all dig the hole together, we know why we’re in it if we fall. And who knows? Unlike the Bilderberg group, we may build peace and prosperity, a planet which is loved and cared for in its entirety.

I jumped straight into Bring Up the Bodies after finishing Wolf Hall, such was my eagerness to dive back into Hilary Mantel's Tudor England and, of course, sit on the shoulder of the inscrutable, enigmatic Thomas Cromwell as he led us through it. Mantel still prefers to overuse her third person pronouns rather than use her main character's name, which in the previous book could get considerably confusing, however, towards the end of Wolf Hall she begins using "he, Cromwell..." a lot more, and it's that form that she utilises in Bring Up the Bodies. It admittedly clears up a lot of potential confusion, but I stick by what I said in my review of Wolf Hall, that it renders the "he" altogether redundant and it's a clumsy solution compared to the simplicity and clarity of just using a character's name where appropriate! Mantel's strength is still her expansive knowledge of the English language, her storycraft in creating a compelling plot, and her attention to detail which bring the book alive. This attention to detail creates subtle characterisations, full of their own peculiar eccentricities and unique personalities. Mantel has show, don't tell down to a fine art, letting her characters' personalities grow and build up organically through their actions and speech - and, of course, Thomas Cromwell's sardonic observations about them. My one disappointment with the characterisations has been that I think they could be even stronger, and that I feel Mantel adheres to stock stereotypes of the Boleyn family a little too much. Mantel had previously tempered her characterisations of the Boleyns by giving them a good dose of ambiguity, but now, in order to gear up for the big showdown, certain negative traits are exacerbated to adhere more closely to stereotype - such as Jane Parker's unfeeling cruelty, and Anne Boleyn's self-absorbed haughtiness. Mantel also omits the dispute between Anne and Cromwell over what should be done with the proceeds of the dissolution of the monasteries. Other than that, I felt that Mantel created the downfall tremendously well, getting into the nooks and crannies of just how it unfolded, dispelling certain myths about what happened, and, most importantly, leaving the truth ambiguous for the reader. Cromwell masterfully constructs his case against the Boleyns through hearsay and implication, and through his machinations weaves enough doubt to make it plausible that some of the other characters believe the truth of it. However, he never has any direct proof, and, tellingly, Cromwell himself studiously avoids answering a question put to him by his son about whether the people he arrests actually did what they are accused of. A whole dark undercurrent permeates proceedings, in which one feels that the truth is being meticulously suppressed. Though I would have wished for the Boleyn clan to have been characterised with more subtlety and humanity, Mantel treats their downfall with dignity, not only creating this masterful ambiguity, but striking the right balance of factors of those responsible between Cromwell, the king, and the conservative faction at court, and demonstrating the consequences through Cromwell himself. Two scenes were particularly striking - Cromwell's conversation with Thomas Wyatt about justice in the realm, and Cromwell's realisation of some change that has happened to him after all this. I thought this was a seminal moment, and moving - the spider caught in his own web; having constructed this mirage of half-truths and circumstantial interpretations, Cromwell can no longer cut to the truth like he used to, and finds his certainty obscured by the miasma he himself has created in the new climate in England. Bring Up the Bodies is transporting, seamlessly segueing between the tarnished glitter of the treacherous court and the busy-bee day-to-day life of London, creating characters who inhabit these worlds who break out of the two-dimensional confines of the page and appear three-dimensional in the mind's eye. Written with skill, richly detailed, subtle characterisations, and a compelling plot that drove me onwards towards the dreadful conclusion.

Almost a year on from my self-enforced battle through Wolf Hall, I decided the time had finally come for me to return to he, Cromwell and the life of the Tudor court. Having struggled with the endless exposition and character list in Wolf Hall, I did have some trepidation about reading Bring Up The Bodies. As it turns out, I needn't have worried! I enjoyed this about 100 times more than Wolf Hall and didn't want it to end, ever. Whereas Mantel's first book in her Cromwell trilogy dealt with a vast timeline covering Cromwell's rise and Henry's break with Rome, Bring Up The Bodies has a narrower timeline, following the events of just one year leading up to the fall of Anne Boleyn. Henry has his eye on meek, plain Jane Seymour, the antithesis of his volatile, passionate wife Anne ("She is very plain. What does Henry see in her?'" "He thinks she's stupid. He finds it restful.”). Anne has failed in her duty to give Henry a son. You had one job, Anne Boleyn! Unfortunately for her, Henry has now lost interest in her, has even come to despise her, concocting up a fantasy that she must have bewitched him. How else can he explain that he's spent ten years madly in love with the woman? Men! It's left to Thomas Cromwell, the brains behind Operation Divorce Katherine, to undo all his hard work getting Anne on the throne as queen and find a way to take her off it again. And so ensues a dangerous game of cat and mouse for the men of the Privy Chamber as Cromwell expertly ensnares them in his master plan. “He needs guilty men. So he has found men who are guilty. Though perhaps not guilty as charged.” Bring Up The Bodies is just so deliciously written. Mantel's evocative descriptions transport you right into the heart of the dangerous Tudor court. The last scenes featuring Anne's execution at the Tower are some of the most powerful prose I've ever read - I felt like I was there, watching her remove her gable hood, fumbling over the cap holding up her hair, the silent crowd watching with baited breath as the French executioner swung his sword. It still gives me goosebumps a week after reading it. And the portrayal of Cromwell is expertly handled - traditionally a pantomime villain, I felt sympathetic towards him in Wolf Hall but in this novel you can see how difficult his position is. He knows the men he's sending to the scaffold are likely innocent, yet he knows if he doesn't succeed, it will be his head instead of theirs. Very poignant is the moment he acknowledges that if he were to ever lose favour with Henry, his own head could be on the block. His unwavering loyalty to Wolsey is touching. His inability to move on from his wife is endearing. And yet he still has, as he says himself, a heart of stone, and the clever way he trips up the accused during their interrogations in the Tower is terrifying. I really commend Hilary Mantel on this book. I found the smaller cast of characters easier to get to grips with, the narrower timeline meant she could go into more depth with her plot, and there was a lot less confusion over which 'he' was 'he'. Perhaps I'll appreciate Wolf Hall on a repeat reading one day, but for now, I conclude that Bring Up The Bodies was a worthy Booker winner and deserves every one of the five stars I give it here. I can't wait for part three!!

Brilliant story and piece of writing Very enjoyable and also uncomfortable! Mantel is one of the best writers around of historic fiction

From the opening line "His children are falling", we are transported into the complex piece of machinery that is Thomas Cromwell's mind. Following on from Wolf Hall, this book covers his masterminding of the downfall of the very woman whose path to the throne as Henry the Eighth's second wife, had been facilitated by his hard work and was his triumph as much as Anne Boleyn's. The masterful prose and highly innovative style of the story telling, takes us deeply into the machinations which had to be gone through on a daily basis in order for 'Cremuel' (Anne's Frenchified mispronunciation)to satisfy an absolute monarch whose conscience in matters matrimonial came and went like the tides. So now, having secured the divorce from Katherine of Aragon, thus initiating the devastation of the Church in England, and overseen the annointing of the new queen, Anne Boleyn, in a process which saw many good men die for their refusal to accept her, Cromwell now has to put the whole process into reverse in order to remove the obstetrically challenged second wife, who produces only one daughter and miscarried sons, in place of the nursery full of heirs that she had promised to Henry in their long, passionate courtship. Cromwell's methods are ruthless in the extreme, and take no account of friendships, or indeed the innocence of many of the men who stand accused of adulterous treason with the Queen. The pressure he exerts, the relentless pressure placed upon him, have rendered him something of a split personality. Pitiless fixer for his mercurial King, yet a kindly mentor to young scholars, and bereaved, indeed devastated, widower who has lost both wife and daughters, leaving him one precious son. We are subtly shown how Henry longs for this single simple thing, that he cannot (apparently) have - a healthy, legitimate, male child. Of course, lacking today's knowledge of human fertility, such problems were always the fault of the woman! Thus, Cromwell now has to"fix it" for Jane Seymour - new woman, new womb - and so we try again!! Pale, pliant Jane, with her ambitious family pushing her forward, must now take on the burden of Henry and his dynastic expectations. The brilliance of this work is to show us Cromwell's duality; showing that he, as much as the King himself, was worthy of friendship and love, but also an efficient destroyer when occasion demanded. Of the two, man and master, Cromwell is the one who appears most in control of his often powerful emotions, and yet, and yet, when the King demands to be free of Anne, the task of providing evidence of her misconduct simultanously provides Cromwell with the perfect opportunity to be revenged on some of the men who had vilified and mocked his late mentor, Cardinal Wolsey - every cloud and all that!!! We know the story of Anne's downfall, and we are shown with absolute dispassion how it was engineered, which is Mantel's unique achievement. There is no faux Shakespearean language, and the characters are allowed the idiosyncracies of speech and behaviour which every age, ancient or modern, possesses. This makes them very immediate as human beings. I read this book quickly when it first arrived. It is now never far from my hand, as I re-read it more slowly and savour what is historical fiction at its finest. Can't wait for the 3rd part of the trilogy, as I am now experiencing symptoms of Mantel withdrawal.

Bring Up The Bodies is the sequel to Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel's acclaimed Booker winner about Henry VIII's advisor, Thomas Cromwell. I loved Wolf Hall, to the point where I have to sit on my hands when talking about it in order to stop myself from grabbing people by the shoulders and shaking them in excitement. So could Bring Up The Bodies ever, in my eyes, live up to its predecessor? As it turned out, yes. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it surpasses it. Bring Up The Bodies has a tighter structure and a little more pace than Wolf Hall, and Thomas Cromwell - as he carefully, cleverly, calmly works to engineer the downfall of Anne Boleyn and fulfil the whims of the capricious king, while neatly taking revenge on those who wronged his beloved Cardinal Wolsey - becomes a more intriguing and ambiguous character with every turn of the page. His motives are complex, his relationships fascinating. He can be a genial father figure and a compassionate statesman one moment and coldly vengeful, chillingly pragmatic and almost sociopathic, the next - and yet Cromwell never seems inconsistent or implausible. Adept when it comes to acquiring money, power and influence, Cromwell is also all too aware that his position at the right-hand of King Henry is a precarious one. Many fear him, and rightly so - but as readers, we're privy to his vulnerability, and Bring Up The Bodies is packed with dark foreshadowing to hint at what could be to come in the third planned instalment in Mantel's Cromwell trilogy. "I have everything, you would think," Cromwell tells his nephew. "And yet take Henry away, and I have nothing." Other characters, too, are sketched with exquisite verve. Cromwell's sweet-natured son Gregory, his ward Rafe Sadler, servant Christophe and the imperial ambassador Chapuys are particularly engaging, and the Seymours, bent on making their daughter Jane the King's mistress, are darkly comic as they and Cromwell to make use of a daughter who has previously been 'as much use as a blancmange' but could become a commodity if she is prepared to 'earn her keep'. The wider roles of women in the Tudor court, and the rigid class structure that applies even to torture methods, are also fascinatingly explored throughout. I read this book on my Kindle, which provides a neat little facility for highlighting and noting passages of novels that particularly appeal. Generally, I'll highlight a couple of lines or paragraphs in a book, but when I read Bring Up The Bodies, I had to stop myself from highlighting everything that stood out for me because there was simply too much. There are examples of beautiful prose, of descriptions that balance poetry with precision, of sharp wit and pitch-perfect dialogue on every page; at every turn, I could find something new to praise. I know that there are readers who detest Mantel's style, and I can fully understand why it is not to everyone's taste, but for me, her books are are a writer's masterclass in making perfection seem effortless. It's only July and yet I'm confident in naming Bring Up The Bodies as my book of the year. Can the final book in Mantel's Cromwell trilogy be as good as this, I wonder? It seems too much to ask, but my hopes are high.

A Man Booker Prize winner and sequel to the Man Booker Prize winner 'Wolf Hall' continues the story of Thomas Cromwell through the turbulent final weeks of Anne Boleyn's life (I'm not apologising for that spoiler, you should know that by now). In 'Wolf Hall', Thomas Cromwell was responsible for (well, he was the lawyer who made it happen) England's break with the Catholic church in order for Henry VIII to become head of the Church of England and annul his marriage with Katherine of Aragon (still with me?). Henry did this so he could marry Anne Boleyn. In this novel, Henry falls out of love with Anne after she fails to give him a male heir, so Thomas 'finds' men to testify that they had affairs with Anne (no one knows if she actually did have any affairs) so she could be tried for treason and beheaded, then he would be free to marry again. Simples! The story is not narrated by Cromwell, but continues the 'fly-on-the-wall' narration of 'Wolf Hall'. I wonder why Mantel didn't make Cromwell the narrator? Maybe there were events which she couldn't have covered as he wasn't there, but much of the story is told by people reporting to him. I'm undecided whether this change would have added much to the novel. I love this period in history, I read anything I can get my hands on about the Tudors, I find them fascinating. I enjoyed the insights into the Tudor court, the descriptions were lavish and the characters larger than life. I really appreciate the amount of research which must go into a novel like this. Mantel admits in a postscript that Cromwell's life is not hugely documented so a lot of the plot was embellished with accounts from other people's life. Cromwell really came to life in this book, his character was really well explained and I felt as if I knew him. Looking just at the events, you would be forgiven for thinking that Cromwell was a selfish, unfeeling servant of Henry's, he caused the death of at least 5 people (Anne and her 4 lovers), but this novel places him in a better light. He thought he was just annulling a marriage at the start of the investigation, removing Anne to a convent very much like Katherine (although she retired to semi-house arrest). As he found more and more evidence, it's clear to see that he'd started a roller-coaster which took on it's own life, culminating the only way it could. I ended up feeling quite sorry for him. Although this is a long book (432 pages) and it does take some concentration to follow the story (which at times goes off on a train of thought which confused me), I think it's worth it. I highly recommend this book and it's predecessor 'Wolf Hall' and can't wait to read the final novel in this trilogy 'The Mirror and the Light' next year.

I didn't review Wolf Hall, but I read it, loved it, and like many reviewers here I feel that Bring Up the Bodies would lose something in the translation if you didn't precede it with Wolf Hall. I too am waiting eagerly for the third and final volume. I have always been somewhat obsessed with English history starting with the very ancient through Elizabeth 1. The saga of Henry VIII in particular has always fascinated me and after having read a number of books centered on this tale, most of the characters surrounding Henry, as well as Henry himself, have been fleshed out pretty well for me. The one character, however, that has always seemed remote and obscure has been Thomas Cromwell. These books have definitely served to bring this man to vivid life. I think telling this story through his eyes is a brilliant and unique literary twist, and definitely brings a very fresh perspective to the plot. In addition to finally bringing Cromwell out of the gray into the light, Ms Mantel has added new colors to all of the other familiar players in this drama. This, the second volume of the trilogy, chronicles the three week period prior to the execution of Anne Boleyn. Anne has also fascinated me as she, like Henry, seems to be such a contradiction, and as there are multiple portraits of her depending on which book you happen to pick up, the reader always has to try to separate what seems logical and makes sense relative to the sequence of events. Because I believe Anne to have been a highly intelligent woman, I don't think she would have been foolish enough to have gotten herself into an adulterous situation, however, she seems to have been a born flirt which certainly didn't help her case. I also believe that her arrogance and her pride contributed much to her undoing...and then again perhaps none of these really made that much difference once Henry became weary of her and she failed to bear him a son. Owing to Mantel's matchless prose, and even though I had read many previous descriptions of Anne's demise, I could not put this book down as the suspense builds from the first page through to the well-documented end. This particular retelling is unsurpassed and certainly illustrates why both volumes have won Ms Mantel the Man Booker prize. I fervently recommend this book (which really should be preceded by Wolf Hall) not just to devotees of this particular phase of English history, but to anyone who craves a superbly crafted and deeply moving account of an always mesmerizing story.

Es fantástico, quizá el primero me impresionó más pero este segundo es espectacular también. Los retratos psicológicos y el desarrollo de los acontecimientos estan descritos con una riqueza y precisión que pareces estar en el lugar que la autora describe, percibiendo los estados de ánimo de los personajes, los olores y temperatura de cada secuencia del relato. Hace creer al lector q lo q realmente ocurrió es lo que está leyendo. Recomiendo su lectura y quedo a la espera de la publicación de la tercera entrega de la trilogía.

A autora conferiu profunda dimensão humana a figuras históricas, que tão frequentemente são retratadas de forma estereotipada. Este livro e Wolf Hall, que o antecedeu, são ambos perfeitos tanto para os que amam história, quanto para quem busca boa literatura.

This is a worthy successor to Wolf Hall, and in my opinion, a better novel. The first ends with a marriage; the 2nd with an execution. I much prefer executions to marriages. The intrigue surrounding the elevation of Ann Boleyn and the banishment of Katherine of Arragon from the royal bed, is modest stuff compared with the sexual politics that led to the former losing her head, as well as her crown. Hilary Mantel charts her every false step on the way to the block with intense precision, and a densely textured narrative that skillfully combines clarity and an ambiguity that is essential for an author who attempts to make her fiction match the truth of History. No one can be certain of the absence or extent of Ann’s guilt, and in the context of this novel it is not all that important. It is a foil with which to explore many intriguing issues: the rise of a blacksmith’s son to penultimate power in a court dominated by venal aristocrats busy looking over their shoulders as they stab the back of the courtier in front of them; the brutal clash between Church and State in which the former is stripped of its wealth and the latter of its soul; the initiatives and concessions needed to secure England’s peace with Europe, or a position of unassailable strength through strategic alliances, marriage being the most durable form of diplomatic cement; the gluttonous appetites of newly-promoted families for power and position-------indeed the fall of the Boleyn family is such a satisfying outcome that it almost justifies Anne’s demise for that reason alone. Every good novel needs a hero, and in Thomas Cromwell, Mantel has found or created one to suit her purpose admirably. As a devoted husband, now widower; an exemplary father who has lost all but one of his children, and whose own childhood was marred by paternal cruelty and brutality; a loyal disciple of his mentor, Cardinal Wolsey, who displays equal loyalty and concern for the disciples whose mentor he has now become; he stands as a beacon of common decency in a world of deceit. Mantel paints him, in biblical terms, as a “Noah in his Generation”: no big compliment in being the best of a generation so evil, that God decided to eradicate human life from the planet he had created only a short time ago. Actually, it is not quite like that. As with the very best novelists, Mantel creates or recruits characters who mix good and evil in varying proportions into different shades of gray. Thomas’ father Walter is about as monochromatic as she will allow in her cast of thousands, apart from whom there is no other that lacks some likable features. Her writing is scholarly; at times pedantic; at others mellifluous to the point of daring the reader to recite it rather than read it so that its sonority will not go unappreciated; but she is not shy about words, ideas, or actions that 50 years ago would have raised the hackles of the censors. The enormity of the number of characters places a great strain on the reader’s memory, but the task is made easier by a sort of Cast List that precedes the opening of the novel, and also by the fact that we have met most of them before in Wolf Hall. In fact it is pretty senseless to tackle this one prior to the latter, any more than one can start a Play in the 2nd Act. There will after all be a 3rd to follow, that apparently is already written. As in WH, the production standards of this paperback version are very satisfactory: thick paper, clear medium-sized print, and reasonably durable covers. At Amazon’s price, averaging out around 3 cents per page, this is not only great literature: it is also great economics.

Delivery very gd...product is also good..