MUST READS if you like history!
Wow... I finished reading the second book: Bring Up the Bodies about five hours ago and I'm still filled with a sense of excitement!
Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies are two books written about the rise and fall of Henry VIII's second wife Anne Boleyn but there is something beautifully different about them. The story is told through the perspective of Thomas Cromwell! "Thomas who?" you say and I say "Yes, Thomas Cromwell." For those of you who know your history you know who he is and the changes he brought to the English kingdom but I speak for myself when I say I had no idea WHO Thomas Cromwell was...
Wolf Hall starts when Thomas Cromwell was around fifteen and the sorry son of an alcoholic blacksmith. It is the vicious beatings Cromwell suffers that persuade his older sister and her husband to send him on his way in the world and who would have guessed where he would end up!
I love, love, love the much needed change in perspective. Thomas Cromwell was a nobody. Thomas Cromwell was you and I in 16th century Europe, with no education system and no title. He was a remarkable man who managed to make something of himself despite all the odds and ended up being the King's right hand.
By focusing on Cromwell people like Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More... they all fall into the background and become supporting characters. Henry VIII helps us understand who Thomas Cromwell is and I find this idea very refreshing. The Henry VIII shown in the book is a very interesting interpretation because stories that focus mainly on the King make him just that. In these books Henry is the tenderhearted, easy-to-anger, child-at-heart King who knows what he wants but is not sure if he can get away with having it so he seeks counsel at almost every turn and at odd hours of the night. No leader rules without guidance and counsels and this book helps us understand the resemblances between rulers and ourselves. At some point we are all unsure of our actions and need another's opinion to reinstate or change what we already think.It just so happens that our actions don't necessarily mean cutting off the Vatican. Humans generally think the same way and have always done so since they came into existence and Mantel gives us the chance to see ourselves in Henry.
The interpretation of Anne Boleyn is also very realistic. She is the commoner made Queen through strategic manipulation and it takes a certain sort of character to achieve that. She is cold and calculating but she still has that sharp tongue that Anne is still infamous for. As for her trail, Mantel has shown and interesting and believable take on it. The only disadvantage of telling the story through Cromwell's eyes is that we saw the trail through his as well and he is a lawyer. As Cromwell himself says in the books: "When he says "Are they guilty?" he means were they found guilty..." so you do feel a slight emotional detachment from the event but Cromwell couldn't have got where he did by being emotional.
I don't know if it took me a book to get used to Mantel's style of writing or I was just easily distracted at the time but Wolf Hall took me longer to finish than Bring Up the Bodies because I read other books at the same time. Not because I wasn't enjoying it but because I found it a bit heavy however I devoured Bring Up the Bodies like I didn't know what was going to happen. The new perspective on the topic makes you forget everything you know already and pulls you into the story filling you with a nervous excitement. I spent the last chapters of the books fretting over Wyatt and his fate and refused to look it up so as to not ruin the suspense. And what suspense it was...
Wonderful, wonderful books and I hope to hear more from Cromwell. These might not be easy reads for those of you who don't like history, in fact I don't recommend them to you if you don't but for me this was a fresh take on one of my favourite eras. Thomas Cromwell has managed to become an inspiration today and he has Mantel to thank for it.
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