Review: Wolf Hall

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POSTED: 06 JULY 2009

Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

(Fourth Estate; 654pp paperback; $32.99)

Just about everyone is familiar with big, beefy King Henry VIII and can remember trying to memorise the order of his six wives. Like most, I can picture the clothing, transport and housing of the period, but before reading Wolf Hall had minimal perception of the actual life and personality of these figures.

Hilary Mantel has done a brilliant job of turning that gap around.

Her central character, Thomas Cromwell, is the confidante, controller and creator of events in the period of the dissolution of Henry’s marriage to Catherine and his marriage to Anne Boleyn, the split between England and the Roman Catholic church, and the rise of the protestant or reformed church.

Thomas is a commoner, the physically abused son of a blacksmith, who rises to become the chief minister and administrator of Henry’s court and kingdom. It is a true story of merit and intelligence winning over privilege and birth. Just how much of Cromwell's character as portrayed by Mantel is true doesn’t really matter ... this is a work of fiction.

In Wolf Hall, Cromwell is an enlightened and likeable man, in contrast to his looks, which are described as murderous. He has experienced much in the way of cruelty and hardship but has emerged with a fundamental kindness and good humour. While his forgiveness and pardoning of those who betray or misuse his trust is explained as storing up favours for the future, nevertheless you believe that this is how Cromwell wants to behave anyhow.

Cromwell is an ace strategist and master politician, one step ahead of the mainstream, and admired personally even by his enemies. He is a multi-linguist, well read and an independent thinker, shown, for example, in his attitude to the women in his house and to his daughter Anne’s desire to learn Greek.

He works hard ... extremely hard, which rings true. After all, he lives at the beck and call of an effectively absolute monarch and a woman who will be Queen. The characters of both Henry and Anne as portrayed are interesting ... Henry, a much more likeable and vulnerable character than I would have imagined, and Anne Boleyn, a lot less so.

It is a long book, and it covers a lot of ground, but Mantel handles the historical events and intrigues well. It does not bog down in detail; rather the detail supports and extends the theme and character development. Descriptions of the treatment of condemned prisoners, for example, chill your marrow!

Writing in present tense brings a sense of personal attachment between reader and hero, although there are some challenges in keeping track of the “he” in the dialogue and who is speaking.

It is a significant feat for an historical fiction writer to carry the reader through 650 pages and leave them wanting more. Mantel has done that in spades.

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