Reviews

From the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, a councilor to Henry VIII, Wolf Hall takes a man who is usually portrayed in histories as the cold, calculating toady to a lustful Henry and shows him as compassionate, sensitive, loyal and wise while also self-promoting. It is a fascinating alternate view of the history. Mantel's writing is engaging, at times funny and tender. The scenes with Cromwell and his family--a collection of relatives and wards--show Cromwell as affectionate and benevolent. He is a man of mercy, loyalty and ingenuity.

While I have always had sympathy for Catherine, the displaced queen, I also have found the history of the break with the Roman Catholic Church an essential part necessary for the reformation of Christianity. Wolf Hall details more of the inner decisions of men working closely with Henry VIII who also wanted reforms and were bothered by the wealth, greed, power and corruption of the papacy. It was a most interesting period of time and I very much enjoyed Mantel's carefully scripted version of events and characterizations of the players.

The reader must work for the enjoyment and enlightenment within, however. It took me at least 50 pages to get used to the unique writing style which rarely referred to Cromwell by his name but rather by pronouns. I found myself reading dialogue sections over frequently to try to determine just who was saying what. Every word is essential to understanding. And really, it was very much worth the work.

markgoodyer's review against another edition

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4.0

Great read, well written and has sparked curiosity in me to research the Tudor period to find how much of this narrative is rooted in history.
At times the dialogue jumped around a bit and I found I had to go back a paragraph or two to figure out who was addressing whom but this was a minor thing and probably owed more to my inattention than any failing of the author.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book which despite it's length moved along at a good pace, looking forward to reading the next two installments.

smusie's review against another edition

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5.0

"Suppose within every book there is another book, and within every letter on every page another volume constantly unfolding; but these volumes take no space on the desk. Suppose knowledge could be reduced to a quintessence, held within a picture, a sign, held within a place which is no place. Suppose the human skull were to become capacious, spaces opening inside it, humming chambers like beehives."