Wolf Hall is one of those rare books that I enjoyed whenever I was reading it, but didn't feel an overt pull to pick up again once I paused in my reading. (This is why it took some 13 months to finish while sitting resolutely on my "currently reading" shelf.) I even got an e-book copy for my nook in May so that I could have it in a portable format, and perhaps more importantly, have it on my trip to Northern Ireland (maybe proximity to the culture would inspire reading? This thought actually did work, but for the much less critically renowned World Without End by Ken Follett.) In the end, it took me a year of dilatory reading to finish half the 500-page book, and less than a month to complete the rest.
To begin with, a brief summary: the novel follows Thomas Cromwell, born the son of an abusive blacksmith father. Very intelligent and well-traveled, Cromwell is able to rise above these lowly beginnings to become the close advisor of Cardinal Wolsey. When Wosley fails to provide the King with his desired divorce from Katherine of Aragon, however, the king has him arrested and he dies of complications while in custody. Wily and cunning, Cromwell survives the fall of the cardinal and successfully negotiates the King's divorce with Parliament via a break with the church in Rome. Cromwell becomes one of the king's closest advisors. No spoilers, in my opinion, because the book follows the historical timeline pretty exactly. The brilliance of the book is in its narration, which I will return to, and the insights Mantel gives into Cromwell's relationships and reputation.
Where Mantel veers from strict factual history, in my opinion, is in her sympathetic depiction of Mary Boleyn and the somewhat shady depiction of Sir Thomas More. Much has been romanticized about Mary Boleyn, Anne's sister who was the king's mistress for several years long before Anne returned from France. Mantel's Mary, seen through Thomas's eyes, is one of the only pure and respectable characters in the book, even if she is something of a flirt. More, on the other hand, is regularly depicted positively as the author of Utopia who remained true to his beliefs, tied to the church in Rome, and refused to sign the king's Act of Succession (which stated in part that the marriage to Katherine was false and bigamous, her daughter Mary a bastard, Anne the true queen, her children the true heirs to the crown, and most importantly, established Henry as the head of the church in England). Mantel's More, however, is an elitist snob who treats his wife miserably while favoring his daughter Meg. Seen through Cromwell's eyes, More is a staunch conservative who found it morally permissible to torture those suspected of heresy and therefore a cruel hypocrite. In a surprising turn, the book centers around Cromwell's relationship with More. As a boy, Cromwell served in the household where More began his tutelage, and Cromwell somewhat idolized the teenager. As men, More looked down on the lowly born and educated Cromwell. Mantel's depiction of the subtle aggressive dinnertable diplomacy between the two is superb. The book ends with More's execution for refusing to sign the Act of Succession, thus rounding out Cromwell's rise and More's decline.
I'll be the first to admit that I don't know much about Thomas Cromwell, but I found the focus Mantel placed on his relationship with More to be an interesting choice. Mantel offers very few hints about what happens to the characters after the book's end, making the conclusion feel somewhat abrupt. Historically speaking, shortly after More's execution, Henry's councilors accused (probably falsely), arrested, and executed Queen Anne for infidelity. A mere seven days after Anne's execution, Henry marries Jane Seymour, who plays a liminal role in the book, only noticeable to the reader who knows who she would become and as a slight interest of Cromwell's. Except for the title of the book, but more on that later. I found it somewhat odd to chart the novel around Cromwell's relationship with More when Cromwell would go on to become Henry's chief minister, instituting government reforms before failing in the king's fourth marriage to German princess Anne of Cleves and being executed for treason in 1540. For a book that so intensely occupies the mind of one man to end abruptly at the start of his rise to power felt slightly arbitrary and I have yet to figure out the thematic and artistic motivations behind that decision.
I blame (not to make excuses) part of the difficulty I found in reading the novel to also be the source of its narrative brilliance. In Wolf Hall, Mantel achieves a kind of stream-of-consciousness narration that I find more persuasive and readable than any I have encountered before. At the beginning, this presents something of a challenge to the unaccustomed reader. The most obvious example of this is in conversations when Cromwell speaks, he is referred to solely by the pronoun "he." Even if another character, say More, mentions something, that quote could be followed by a "he thought" sentence that always refers to Cromwell's thoughts. It takes some getting used to, but once you get used to the convention, it greatly enriches the experience. Every time I set down the book, I felt like I had to readjust to being within my own head, so convincing was Mantel in occupying Cromwell's thoughts. Related to this is Mantel's excellent handling of memory - once again, the way Cromwell's thoughts linked between the "present" of conversation, plans for what he will do or wants to say, and thoughts of the past, especially of the lingering presence of those he has loved, represent what I take to be a true picture of our mental state. Though it was at times difficult to follow when Cromwell was thinking of the past, present, or future, the challenge made for a much more rich and enjoyable experience.
Very much worth the effort and time.
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