Wolf Hall

The reign of Henry VIII has been endlessly fascinating to novelists, and Hilary Mantel, in her Booker Prize-winning novel, Wolf Hall, has found a different approach. Her protagonist is Thomas Cromwell, who has long been a character in novels and films about Henry, but usually as something of a villain, particularly when it comes to the story of Thomas More. In Mantel's hands, Cromwell becomes a witty, almost cuddly figure, perhaps not a man for all seasons, but one who is genuinely good company.

Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith, a soldier of fortune, and then a lawyer, began his rise to the court as an adviser to Cardinal Wolsey. When the Cardinal fell out of favor (he was arrested after failing to secure an annulment from the Pope for Henry's marriage to Katherine of Aragon) Cromwell, somewhat amazingly, was not tainted, and instead moved over to advise the king himself. He is a shrewd and political creature--late in the book the King tells him, "I have promoted you to a place in this kingdom that no one, no one of your breeding has ever held in the whole of the history of the realm...Do you think it is for your personal beauty? The charm of your presence? I keep you, Master Cromwell, because you are as cunning as a bag of serpents. But do not be a viper in my bosom."

The story of Wolf Hall (Mantel is writing a sequel, and those who know history know that Cromwell does not come to a good end) starts with the Cardinal's fall, and goes through Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn and then the trial and execution of More. Mantel etches some vivid characterizations, especially Anne--her meetings with Cromwell have dialogue that dances. More comes off as odd and sadistic--his torture of heretics is vividly described. Anne's sister, Mary (having seen The Other Boleyn Girl I pictured Natalie Portman as Anne and Scarlett Johansson as Mary), Jane Seymour (who begins this tale as a lady-in-waiting) and the ruthless Duke of Norfolk are all brightly-painted characters. I loved this description of Norfolk: "The duke is now approaching sixty years old, but concedes nothing to the calendar. Flint-faced and keen-eyed, he is lean as a gnawed bone and as cold as an axe head, his joints seem knitted together of supple chain links, and indeed he rattles as he moves, for his clothes conceal relics: in tiny jeweled cases he has shavings of skin and snippets of hair, and set into medallions he wears splinters of martyrs' bones."

One notes that the prose is in the present tense; Mantel spins her yarn as if if were a thriller, or if Raymond Chandler had tackled the subject. It lends an urgency to the proceedings, and at times the pace is taut. But on other occasions the writing is so dense that I had read a half a page and realized I didn't know who was speaking or what about. Despite a helpful list of characters at the front of the book, I had trouble keeping everyone straight. I probably only got about seventy-five percent of the book, but what I did get was so rewarding that I found the equation satisfactory.

The greatest strength of the book is Mantel's rendering of Cromwell. His humanity sings from the pages--the passages covering the quick deaths of his wife and daughters from "sweating sickness" are heartbreaking. He comes across as the kind of advisor that any of us would like to have--loyal and witty. But for those who revere St. Thomas More, this may not be the book for you. Consider what Cromwell tells him: "A lie is no less a lie because it is a thousand years old. Your undivided church has liked nothing better than persecuting its own members, burning them and hacking them apart when they stood by their own conscience, slashing their bellies open and feeding their guts to dogs. You call history to your aid, but what is history to you? It is a mirror that flatters Thomas More. But I have another mirror, I hold it up and it shows a vain and dangerous man, and when I turn it about it shows a killer, for you will drag down with you God knows how many, who will only have the suffering, and not your martyr's gratification. You are not a simple soul, so don't try to make this simple. You know I have respected you? You know I have respected you since I was a child? I would rather see my only son dead, I would rather see them cut off his head, than see you refuse this oath, and give comfort to every enemy of England."