Wolf Hall (Hardcover) ~ Hilary Mantel (Author) Cover Art

Wolf Hall (Hardcover)

By: Hilary Mantel (Author)


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Review

"[A]s soon as I opened the book I was gripped. I read it almost non-stop. When I did have to put it down, I was full of regret the story was over, a regret I still feel. This is a wonderful and intelligently imagined retelling of a familiar tale from an unfamiliar angle--one that makes the drama unfolding nearly five centuries ago look new again, and shocking again, too."

"[An] arch, elegant, richly detailed biographical novel....Ms. Mantel's velvet-gloved delivery of...devastating observations, her book's broad historical sweep and her counterintuitive choice to make Cromwell its primary focus...have helped make WOLF HALL a widely favored contender for this year's Man Booker Prize...

"WOLF HALL succeeds on its own terms and then some, both as a non-frothy historical novel and as a display of Mantel's extraordinary talent. Lyrically yet cleanly and tightly written, solidly imagined yet filled with spooky resonances, and very funny at times, it's not like much else in contemporary British fiction. A sequel is apparently in the works, and it's not the least of Mantel's achievements that the reader finishes this 650-page book wanting more."

"[B]eautifully written and terrifying fiction....This is a splendidly ambitious book, ample enough to hold a crowd of people and to encompass historical events across all of Europe....I wait greedily for the sequel, but WOLF HALL is already a feast."

"Mantel captures the atmosphere of the times and brings to life the important players..."

Publisher's note

Assuming the power recently lost by the disgraced Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell counsels a mercurial Henry VIII on the latter's efforts to marry Anne Boleyn against the wishes of Rome and many of his people, a successful endeavor that comes with a dangerous price. By the Hawthornden Prize-winning author of Eight Months on Ghazzah Street. 40,000 first printing.

Annotation

In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political power

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king's freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum.

Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death.

Hilary Mantel presents a masterful fictional revision of the court of King Henry VIII, as seen through the conniving eyes of Thomas Cromwell, the king's chief minister, who is often credited with engineering England's break from the Church of Rome. History has often portrayed Cromwell as a selfish opportunist who reaped enormous personal riches by parlaying the king's lust for Anne Boleyn into a seismic political and religious shift now known as the English Reformation. Mantel provides details of Cromwell's childhood, which was marked by abuse and poverty, and his education among the merchants of Italy, where he learns the intricacies of political intrigue. She also fills in the context of his rise to power, which was indeed based on his support of Henry's decision to declare himself the head of the English Church in order to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. This riveting historical epic was nominated for the 2009 Man Booker Prize.



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