Wolf Hall is the first book from Hilary Mantel’s trilogy about Thomas Cromwell.
Henry VIII doesn’t like the idea of a Queen inheriting England’s throne. His only child is a girl and he’s given up on his wife to produce another heir. He’ll change the world to have a legitimate prince from another woman. Wolf Hall is a book describing how poorly he treated some of his closest people and how evil he was towards his queens. The point of view is Cromwell’s, a smart and ambitious guy with goals and incredible street wisdom. However, the main character is Henry’s ego which twists the world around it like a black hole. I disliked Henry VIII so much that it almost ruined the book for me, and the book is great. It’s well written, with a pace that makes it like a song.
This first part of the trilogy covers the period from Thomas Cromwell’s childhood to Thomas More’s demise.
5*/5
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When I was a child I used to wish I could go back in time and tell Henry VIII that having a daughter would work out well.
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Henry VIII was a murderer, it’s not that obvious in the book but the Wikipedia articles for all the characters reveals one beheading after another.
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Absolutely. 💯 School children in England (where I grew up) are often fascinated by him because of his six wives. He’s one of those larger than life figures who intrigues them. I suppose like Dracula or Frankenstein’s monster. As a little girl, I felt sorry for him because he couldn’t see the future. He worried so much about getting a male heir, yet ironically his daughter Elizabeth I became a great monarch. I suppose it was a child’s logic. i.e. Go back in a time machine and tell him that his worries are unfounded.
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Not sure what to say. The book shows people who get addicted to power and become more and more evil with time until their head rolls.
I read about Mary I and Elizabeth I, and they were treated very poorly. I’m surprised that only one of them became Bloody Mary.
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I remember debates at school over whether Mary deserved her reputation. If memory serves, as many Catholics died under Elizabeth as Protestants died under Mary. But, Elizabeth had a reputation advantage over Mary because she came afterwards and set up structures that remained powerful for centuries afterwards. The victor always get the better write up in history.
Late medieval/early modern monarchs were a bloodthirsty lot by modern standards. Although Henry’s fellow monarchs undoubtedly thought his behaviour towards his wives was very extreme, they were all living in a world where executions were commonplace. Just usually, the victims were rivals for power or the peasantry.
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