100 Things: Wolf Hall
2012-06-30 18:43![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muneca_bravaI promised, months ago, to do 100 Cultural Lifechangers as a series of Lj posts. I haven’t forgotten, I just don’t feel up to making big lj posts a lot of the time. But, I have just finished Bring up the Bodies, want to rave about it, and thought; what better way to finally start this thing.
I have been making lists of the things – books, movies, art, etc – I want to talk about in this series, and one of the first titles I wrote down in the list of books was Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I was slightly doubtful about including it because I only read it last fall so I worried that maybe I should give it some time to see if it stayed with me. But then the sequel, Bring up the Bodies, came out in May. I reread Wolf Hall and immediately followed it up with the new book, which I finished earlier today. I feel confident that I am not in any way overstating things to claim this as one of the most important books I have read.
I do feel like, since this is basically a post raving about these books, that I should put up a disclaimer, which goes for all future posts. These things are personal. You may not like this book, and I would understand if you dislike it, because while it’s very very good, it may not be your thing. Every one of these 100 Things will by default be a recommendation, and I hope that if you read it (which, good on you if you wade through my word vomit) you want to give the thing a try. But sometimes, probably more often than I realize, the reason I love a story is because of personal taste or the place it has in my life at the time I read it.
Also, a note on spoilers; I don’t think I can really…spoil these books? I mean, plot-wise, these things happened 500 years ago, I don’t think that it still counts as a spoiler if I tell you what happened to Anne Boleyn :P
For those of you who don’t know the books, a short introduction to the plot: Wolf Hall is set in England in the early sixteenth century: the Tudor era, when Henry VIII was king. The main character in Thomas Cromwell, an infamous historical figure who becomes a layered and surprisingly likeable character throughout these books. We follow him as he rises above his humble origins as a blacksmith’s son and becomes the King’s right-hand man. Henry VIII is in this period trying to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn, and Cromwell helps him to achieve that. In the sequel, Bring up the Bodies, Henry turns against Anne and she famously is convicted of treason, and is beheaded at the Tower. Again, Thomas Cromwell is the man responsible.
The plot itself is, of course, just your basic history lesson, and I suppose it will only excite you if you are interested in the period. I have been very interested in the Tudors and especially in Anne Boleyn for a few years now, ever since I read Alison Weir’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII, a book that is also very important to me and could have been on this list, because it sparked an interest in historical biographies. I’ve always resisted fictional accounts of the period because most, especially the popular ones (The Tudors and The Other Boleyn Girl come to mind) are terrible with historical correctness and I’m a nerd like that. But Wolf Hall seemed legit, and people whose opinion on these things I trust assured me it was great so I read it. I think the way Mantel handles the history is absolutely magnificent. She sticks to what we know happened, and fills in the gaps in such a way that the known facts gain importance and emotional resonance. She fills out the characters until they are fully formed people, but they always fit exactly with what I have imagined them to be.
But what’s important, I think, in reccing this book, as I constantly do, is to emphasis that you don’t need to know anything about the Tudors (other than, maybe, that Henry’s third wife was called Jane Seymour). It’s a pretty long and complex book, admittedly, and the cast of characters is big. That’s a good thing, though, because it creates a world, and you never feel lost in the intricacies of the foreign time period. It’s a book about politics, primarily, but politics filtered through people, their choices, their desires, and their mistakes. Mantel’s writing is stunning – she’s one of my favourite writers not just plot-wise but stylistically. It never gets boring. The scenes are short and dialogue-based, and there are always things being unsaid and implied.
Another thing, besides the writing, that stops the books from being boring, is the characters. Thomas Cromwell works wonderfully as a main character and I just realized that he’s probably one of my favourite literary characters ever. I was never interested in him or had any feelings about him reading the history, but he is fascinating in these books. I think it says a lot that while reading Bring up the Bodies, I felt really emotional and realized that it wasn’t over Anne as expected (because I get emotional over Anne on a regular basis), it was over Cromwell. It never bothered me for a second that he is the character we spend all out time with, instead of the chacracters I used to be mostly interested in.
The side characters are all amazing, and even though most of them only show up in a few scenes, they are fully formed and impressive. Katherine, Mary, Mary Boleyn, all these historical people come to life. The women are also really important, probably more so than the men, and that is always admirable in historical fiction.
But why is it a lifechanger, and why is it one of ten books I'm discussing? I can tell this part is going to be a problem for the other 99 things too because damn, that's hard to articulate. Basically, I think what it comes down to is that it hits on the right combination of quality, personal interest, and emotion for me. I wouldn't be as into it if I didn't have all those feelings about the period and the people (ie Anne) already, I wouldn't rave about it as much if the writing wasn't so compelling, and I definitely wouldn't be writing this post of overflowing words if I hadn't had such an emotional reaction to it. On several occasions throughout reading the books I got overwhelmed with emotions and did this. I don't get that enough, that feeling of being completely involved in a story so that you can't put it down and you just have to force yourself to stop and breathe. And this is the first one in a long long time that combines that lovely feeling with extremely good writing. These novels have restored my faith in historical fiction and have assured me that I can truly love books that aren't fantasy or YA.
Wolf Hall
He never sees More—a star in another firmament, who acknowledges him with a grim nod—without wanting to ask him, what’s wrong with you? Or what’s wrong with me? Why does everything you know, and everything you’ve learned, confirm you in what you believed before? Whereas in my case, what I grew up with, and what I thought I believed, is chipped away a little and a little, a fragment then a piece and then a piece more. With every month that passes, the corners are knocked off the certainties of this world: and the next world too. Show me where it says, in the Bible, 'Purgatory'. Show me where it says relics, monks, nuns. Show me where it says 'Pope'.
Bring up the Bodies
Where to begin with Cromwell? Some start with his sharp little eyes, some start with his hat. Some evade the issue and paint his seal and scissors, others pick out the turquoise ring given him by the cardinal. Wherever they begin, the final impact is the same: if he had a grievance against you, you wouldn’t like to meet him at the dark of the moon. His father Walter used to say, ‘My boy Thomas, give him a dirty look and he’ll gouge your eye out. Trip him, and he’ll cut off your leg. But if you don’t cut across him, he’s a very gentleman. And he’ll stand anybody a drink.
I have been making lists of the things – books, movies, art, etc – I want to talk about in this series, and one of the first titles I wrote down in the list of books was Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I was slightly doubtful about including it because I only read it last fall so I worried that maybe I should give it some time to see if it stayed with me. But then the sequel, Bring up the Bodies, came out in May. I reread Wolf Hall and immediately followed it up with the new book, which I finished earlier today. I feel confident that I am not in any way overstating things to claim this as one of the most important books I have read.
I do feel like, since this is basically a post raving about these books, that I should put up a disclaimer, which goes for all future posts. These things are personal. You may not like this book, and I would understand if you dislike it, because while it’s very very good, it may not be your thing. Every one of these 100 Things will by default be a recommendation, and I hope that if you read it (which, good on you if you wade through my word vomit) you want to give the thing a try. But sometimes, probably more often than I realize, the reason I love a story is because of personal taste or the place it has in my life at the time I read it.
Also, a note on spoilers; I don’t think I can really…spoil these books? I mean, plot-wise, these things happened 500 years ago, I don’t think that it still counts as a spoiler if I tell you what happened to Anne Boleyn :P
For those of you who don’t know the books, a short introduction to the plot: Wolf Hall is set in England in the early sixteenth century: the Tudor era, when Henry VIII was king. The main character in Thomas Cromwell, an infamous historical figure who becomes a layered and surprisingly likeable character throughout these books. We follow him as he rises above his humble origins as a blacksmith’s son and becomes the King’s right-hand man. Henry VIII is in this period trying to annul his marriage to Katherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn, and Cromwell helps him to achieve that. In the sequel, Bring up the Bodies, Henry turns against Anne and she famously is convicted of treason, and is beheaded at the Tower. Again, Thomas Cromwell is the man responsible.
The plot itself is, of course, just your basic history lesson, and I suppose it will only excite you if you are interested in the period. I have been very interested in the Tudors and especially in Anne Boleyn for a few years now, ever since I read Alison Weir’s The Six Wives of Henry VIII, a book that is also very important to me and could have been on this list, because it sparked an interest in historical biographies. I’ve always resisted fictional accounts of the period because most, especially the popular ones (The Tudors and The Other Boleyn Girl come to mind) are terrible with historical correctness and I’m a nerd like that. But Wolf Hall seemed legit, and people whose opinion on these things I trust assured me it was great so I read it. I think the way Mantel handles the history is absolutely magnificent. She sticks to what we know happened, and fills in the gaps in such a way that the known facts gain importance and emotional resonance. She fills out the characters until they are fully formed people, but they always fit exactly with what I have imagined them to be.
But what’s important, I think, in reccing this book, as I constantly do, is to emphasis that you don’t need to know anything about the Tudors (other than, maybe, that Henry’s third wife was called Jane Seymour). It’s a pretty long and complex book, admittedly, and the cast of characters is big. That’s a good thing, though, because it creates a world, and you never feel lost in the intricacies of the foreign time period. It’s a book about politics, primarily, but politics filtered through people, their choices, their desires, and their mistakes. Mantel’s writing is stunning – she’s one of my favourite writers not just plot-wise but stylistically. It never gets boring. The scenes are short and dialogue-based, and there are always things being unsaid and implied.
Another thing, besides the writing, that stops the books from being boring, is the characters. Thomas Cromwell works wonderfully as a main character and I just realized that he’s probably one of my favourite literary characters ever. I was never interested in him or had any feelings about him reading the history, but he is fascinating in these books. I think it says a lot that while reading Bring up the Bodies, I felt really emotional and realized that it wasn’t over Anne as expected (because I get emotional over Anne on a regular basis), it was over Cromwell. It never bothered me for a second that he is the character we spend all out time with, instead of the chacracters I used to be mostly interested in.
The side characters are all amazing, and even though most of them only show up in a few scenes, they are fully formed and impressive. Katherine, Mary, Mary Boleyn, all these historical people come to life. The women are also really important, probably more so than the men, and that is always admirable in historical fiction.
But why is it a lifechanger, and why is it one of ten books I'm discussing? I can tell this part is going to be a problem for the other 99 things too because damn, that's hard to articulate. Basically, I think what it comes down to is that it hits on the right combination of quality, personal interest, and emotion for me. I wouldn't be as into it if I didn't have all those feelings about the period and the people (ie Anne) already, I wouldn't rave about it as much if the writing wasn't so compelling, and I definitely wouldn't be writing this post of overflowing words if I hadn't had such an emotional reaction to it. On several occasions throughout reading the books I got overwhelmed with emotions and did this. I don't get that enough, that feeling of being completely involved in a story so that you can't put it down and you just have to force yourself to stop and breathe. And this is the first one in a long long time that combines that lovely feeling with extremely good writing. These novels have restored my faith in historical fiction and have assured me that I can truly love books that aren't fantasy or YA.
Wolf Hall
He never sees More—a star in another firmament, who acknowledges him with a grim nod—without wanting to ask him, what’s wrong with you? Or what’s wrong with me? Why does everything you know, and everything you’ve learned, confirm you in what you believed before? Whereas in my case, what I grew up with, and what I thought I believed, is chipped away a little and a little, a fragment then a piece and then a piece more. With every month that passes, the corners are knocked off the certainties of this world: and the next world too. Show me where it says, in the Bible, 'Purgatory'. Show me where it says relics, monks, nuns. Show me where it says 'Pope'.
Bring up the Bodies
Where to begin with Cromwell? Some start with his sharp little eyes, some start with his hat. Some evade the issue and paint his seal and scissors, others pick out the turquoise ring given him by the cardinal. Wherever they begin, the final impact is the same: if he had a grievance against you, you wouldn’t like to meet him at the dark of the moon. His father Walter used to say, ‘My boy Thomas, give him a dirty look and he’ll gouge your eye out. Trip him, and he’ll cut off your leg. But if you don’t cut across him, he’s a very gentleman. And he’ll stand anybody a drink.