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Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)

Hilary Mantel

Start date: February 1, 2020

Finish date: February 29, 2020

Discussion: 2020 Historical Fict. Tournament

Discussion leader: Christopher

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What Members Thought

Dec 25, 2009 Susanna - Censored by GoodReads rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, tudor

Very interesting.

Truly nasty portrait of Sir Thomas More, and a very kind one of Cardinal Wolsey.

Still trying to decide on the reliability of the narrative voice.

Odd ending.

Note to other readers: "he" is nine times out of ten Thomas Cromwell. But sometimes it's someone else, so you do have to read carefully. ...more

25 likes · Like · see review

May 24, 2016 El rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 21st-centurylit, peer-pressure

Not that long ago, I read Thomas More's Utopia and, well, it was fine. I remember seeing A Man for All Seasons in school, which was also fine, though I don't remember much about that class or the other material we were studying at that time because I was a stellar student like that. More was kind of a dick, truth be told, which doesn't always come across in things, but I'm fairly certain that was the reality of things. I feel Mantel did a pretty good job portraying that here.

Like most people, I Not that long ago, I read Thomas More's Utopia and, well, it was fine. I remember seeing A Man for All Seasons in school, which was also fine, though I don't remember much about that class or the other material we were studying at that time because I was a stellar student like that. More was kind of a dick, truth be told, which doesn't always come across in things, but I'm fairly certain that was the reality of things. I feel Mantel did a pretty good job portraying that here.

Like most people, I have an interest in Tudor history. Not as much as a couple other people I know who have read way more historical fiction and non-fiction books on the subject(s) than I have, but a passing interest. In that I watched The Tudors and thus began my girl-crush on Natalie Dormer which I have discussed more than once in reviews on this site, now that I think of it.

I didn't really know what to expect from this book, even though it's an award winning novel and people waved their arms about how great it is for so long. I heard just as many other complaints about the difficulty of the book, the uncertainty over who is speaking when, and the annoying overuse of the word "he" without any real clear indication in the text who "he" refers to. (Spoiler: It's Cromwell.)

I didn't have those difficulties. I found the first half of the book to be fairly enthralling - more so than I was led to believe even by those who wound up loving the book. The second half was a bit harder for me, though that was more about my personal life getting in the way than the book itself. The story is pretty great, actually, very solid. Mantel clearly did her research, and while it's a little misleading by its title since the Seymour family takes almost a backseat in comparison to several other parties (though perhaps that too is accurate to the reality now that I think of it). But the history is still fascinating, I still enjoyed reading every bit of this book, and I even enjoyed the similarities between it and the television show, The Tudors (as unfair as that might be).

Highly recommended for anyone else interested in Tudor history, though I expect all of you have already read the shit out of this book and its sequel. I own the sequel, it is... somewhere in my house amongst the stacks... and I will read it soon (I hope). I now join you all in looking forward to the completion of the trilogy whenever the third book is released.

Now someone convince me whether I should watch the BBC series. I mean, I don't need a lot of arm-twisting. Just tell me whether or not it's good. Remember, I liked The Tudors and I think Natalie Dormer should be in everything. In light of that, don't judge. ...more

22 likes · Like · see review

Jan 16, 2020 Christopher rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, 500-pages-or-more, british, 21st-century

I honestly think I read a different book than everybody else. The praise for the story, the characters, the prose is near universal. Meanwhile, I'm slogging through the pages, feeling like I'm reading a muddled mess.

Disclaimer: I've never read a book about the Tudors, never watched one of the shows, and I have very little interest in royalty. I am very much a beginner when it comes to this history, and maybe this wasn't the right place to start.

So I wasn't too excited to read scenes of princes a I honestly think I read a different book than everybody else. The praise for the story, the characters, the prose is near universal. Meanwhile, I'm slogging through the pages, feeling like I'm reading a muddled mess.

Disclaimer: I've never read a book about the Tudors, never watched one of the shows, and I have very little interest in royalty. I am very much a beginner when it comes to this history, and maybe this wasn't the right place to start.

So I wasn't too excited to read scenes of princes and dukes discussing politics in a throne room, but Cromwell's personal life... now that's something I'm interested in. The plague knocking on their door, the various tragedies he must work through, the young men he takes as apprentices. His preparations for an incoming army of barbaric Northmen. I even enjoy listening to Cromwell explain how to get shillings knocked off the price of a load of bricks. But when he goes to Henry's court to have vaguely sinister and murky conversations with one of the fifteen earls or dukes named Henry or Thomas, well, my brain shuts off a bit. Those scenes are not my favorite part of this book... and unfortunately, that's most of the book.

There is no scene setting. There are very few descriptions of the places—Westminster, Austin Friars, Putney, Calais—our characters move to and from like chess pieces. Sometimes you'll read what seems to be an intimate conversation between two characters, but at the end of the scene you discover it took place in front of Henry's entire court; Mantel just didn't bother to tell you the context. Most of the novel consists of a succession of scenes which don't have any evident connection, and little segue between them. Mantel will simply announce, "1531 Michaelmas, Putney" and then "1532 springtime, Austin Friars."

The narrative voice is ambiguous. Sometimes the story is told by an anonymous limited perspective, sometimes Cromwell himself barges in and takes over the narration himself. Every now and then it even slips into second person. I see no rhyme nor reason to it. Quotation marks are optional for dialogue. Mantel drops in colons liberally. "She smiles: a twist of her mouth." Sometimes a sentence will be populated mainly by semicolons.

Then, of course, there's the whole debacle of the pronoun "he". Mantel generally refuses to name Cromwell, so if there's a "he" that does not obviously refer to someone, it probably refers to Cromwell. The problem is that there are plenty of men in this book, and the pronoun gets confusing. Take this instance, the first sentence of a chapter: "When Hans brings the finished portrait to Austin Friars he feels shy of it." So you think, oh, Hans is feeling humble about his painting. Was it not a good painting? But the next sentence "He remembers when Walter would say, look me in the face, boy, when you tell me a lie." So you think, hmm, who does Hans know named Walter? And then you realize that the "he" in the first sentence doesn't refer to Hans but to Cromwell. "When Hans brings the finished portrait to Austin Friars he (Cromwell) feels shy of it." You constantly have to backtrack to make sure you understand sentences--or sometimes whole scenes--correctly. Since when is this acceptable writing?

There's very little character development. Right at the beginning of the novel, we are given a glimpse into Cromwell's childhood, his abusive father, having to run away from his hometown, becoming a mercenary. Those are events that build a character. But there's little connection between that Cromwell and the Cromwell that is loyal to the Cardinal, or the Cromwell who works so hard for King Henry and Anne Boleyn. Where does that ambition come from? Why does he care to accomplish the king's desires? New characters aren’t introduced, they just exist and then sometimes they don’t anymore. They’re not given many distinguishing qualities, other than a leaf on a family tree in the front of the book. There's a point near the end where Cromwell and Gardiner wax poetic about being characters in a puppet play. A wooden puppet is about how lifelike most of the supporting characters felt to me.

But it really all comes down to this: I had no prior interest in the Tudors and this book gave me no more reasons to be interested. It didn't give me characters to care about and the story wasn't engaging on an entertaining or emotional level. If you're already into the Tudors, have watched some shows and movies about them, know the history, know the cast of characters, then I can imagine this book is like gobbling up morsel after morsel of details from that world. There were a handful of really interesting scenes. But as a novel, it unfortunately did not come close to working for me. ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Jun 11, 2014 Pamela rated it really liked it

A fascinating portrayal of Thomas Cromwell. The events of Cromwell's rise to power, and of Henry VIII's divorce and remarriage, are intertwined with episodes from Cromwell's childhood and his family life, to give a detailed and rounded view of one of the key figures of Tudor history.

Most reviewers have commented on the unusual style employed by Hilary Mantel. The personal pronoun 'He', meaning Cromwell, appears where the subject of the previous sentence is someone else, the King or Cardinal Wol ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Dec 27, 2012 Lise Petrauskas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 21st-century-fiction, novels, history

Wolf Hall picks you up and throws you into the deep end of history. It took over my life for a few days so I couldn't think of anything else. It bent my mind. I love it when that happens.

I think the fact that Mantel does not do too much contextualizing and feeding us the historical background frees her up to write more immediately and compellingly about these characters, but this is not a pulpy book about the intrigues of court life. Reading it is a little like doing push ups (at least for this ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 07, 2013 Jen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 2013-reads, women-s-prize-shortlist, booker-winners, josh

I've just been over to The Morning News Tournament of Books site to check the result of today's face off between Mantel's Bring up the Bodies vs Sheila Heti's How Should a Person Be? Despite having not read either book, I find myself utterly floored by Heti's win. Is this wholly unfair?

In my desperate need to move past this (and get back to work), I'll do two things: add Heti's book to my 'To Read' shelf, and post a review of Wolf Hall.

I won't summarize the story, anyone who knows anything about I've just been over to The Morning News Tournament of Books site to check the result of today's face off between Mantel's Bring up the Bodies vs Sheila Heti's How Should a Person Be? Despite having not read either book, I find myself utterly floored by Heti's win. Is this wholly unfair?

In my desperate need to move past this (and get back to work), I'll do two things: add Heti's book to my 'To Read' shelf, and post a review of Wolf Hall.

I won't summarize the story, anyone who knows anything about English Tudor history (and I didn't know much, for the record) has a general feel for the characters and plot. Lots of things 'happen' in this story of a time and place told through Cromwell's eyes, but plot is not what drives this book. And yet it does...as really, it's nothing more a series of incidents, encounters, conversations, observations.

For me, it's rare (unprecedented?) to connect with history in this way. Textbooks and history lessons never did it for me - I'm interested, maybe - but not entirely engaged. The power of storytelling!

From the first sentence, I was hooked on Cromwell: his humanity, his compassion, his political ingenuity, his fearlessness, his instinct for survival. I felt like I knew him entirely, but he remained a mystery. Where did Mantel find him?

Who knows if he was really like this complex man that Mantel fully brings to life. Who cares for that matter. I experienced what felt to be a completely authentic glimpse into this period of history. And I want more.

I might have been in a trance while reading this book. The story ebbed along, never reaching a crescendo - but softly bubbling away, carried along by beautiful language and a deep underlying tension. I was completely captivated. Mantel's skill as a writer is tremendous, what a remarkable power she has with words. Her ability is more mysterious than her enigmatic Cromwell.

Of course, nothing is perfect. The politics and characters can be challenging to navigate. So what, there's a character map if you need it (eventually you won't). I've seen lots written about confusing pronouns. Maybe a few times I had to ask 'who is 'He''? Just keep reading and it all makes sense.

Maybe it won't thrill you as it did me, but why risk missing out? Sheer willpower has held me back from reading Bring up the Bodies. I'm anticipating more of the same and want to draw out the pleasure as long as I can. I'm afraid Mantel may have ruined my ability to enjoy historical fiction ever again.

As for Heti's How Should a Person Be?, I'm skeptical I will enjoy it anywhere near as much as I will Bodies - but if someone had the gumption to judge it as the better book... well, what can I say, 'To-Read' it is. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

May 28, 2016 Meghan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, own, audio-book, audiobook, historical-fiction, brit-lit, british, award-winning

Finally got around to it. Really fantastic and fun. I'm not a huge British royalty fan so I learned quite a bit. Mantel's writing is so fluid. Gobbled this one up.

One star taken away because I didn't think the narrator was the best pick. He was an excellent reader but just not one of my favorites. His female voices made it difficult to differentiate the characters and when every one of them is named Anne, Mary, Elizabeth, or Jane, it got confusing at times (take that Russian novels). Also, I don ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Jul 30, 2012 Dawn rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, series-abandoned, did-not-finish

I just couldn't finish this.

The writing style was frustratingly difficult to follow and the story endlessly boring. ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Oct 22, 2012 Sera rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, historical-fiction

I found the writing style at the beginning part of the book to be clunky (and it wasn't the use of "he" either). However, once I became used to it, the story really took off for me. Like the Romanovs, I also find the Tudors to be a fascinating group of people, and frankly, I never get tired of reading about Henry VIII.

I really enjoyed having the story told from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell. Is he overly ambitious as history has portrayed him? Or is it just doing his job, which is he very g ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Aug 09, 2025 Zadignose marked it as not-now

Every time I try to read this, I give up almost immediately. This book annoys me from the outset. How can I explain it? It seems theatrical, and phony, and hung up on details that aren't important, as though the author has learned some conventional notion of how a book is supposed to paint a picture for the reader, and let's jump right into action to grip the reader's attention, because, you know, that's what all those "how to write a novel" people say. I can't care. There's no apparent wit here ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 11, 2022 Wendy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, doorstops, booker-prize, 2022, olde-london

Wolf Hall succeeded for me in that it piqued my interest about the time period and the characters. I fell down endless research holes, looking up Hans Holbein paintings or watching episodes of "Tudor Monastery Farm" about archeologists recreating the technologies of the day. Some of the beautiful descriptions of Austin Friars in the snow, or Grace's peacock wings, took my breath away. Finally, I find the spinning of historical villains into more empathetic figures intriguing. With that said, my ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 25, 2013 Irene rated it really liked it

This historical novel of Thomas Cromwell, set during the struggle to nullify the marriage of King Henry to Catherine and the rise of Anne to the throne, has the feel of an impressionistic painting. I felt as if I were watching a series of lavish tableaus fade in and out of focus rather than hearing a well told story. Because of this, I always felt like a distant spectator to the events and frequently felt disoriented. This is a novel that requires the reader to work. Nonetheless, I did value the ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Sep 13, 2009 Rosana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

Warning: Hilary Mantel is not Phillipa Gregory. Hey, I have consumed Gregory’s Tudor Era Historical-fiction with glee, but any reader expecting a cut-form historical novel will be disappointed by Wolf Hall.

Mantel expects a lot of her readers. Her prose is oblique, the dialogues are interwoven with the characters inner voices and memories, historical figures leap at the pages without any introduction to their background (yes, reading Phillipa Gregory first may help those of us without a history ...more

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