Wolf Hall: A Novel
Wolf Hall (2009) is a historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family's seat of Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, in Wiltshire. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, Wolf Hall is a sympathetic fictionalised biography documenting the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII through to the death of Sir Thomas More. The novel won both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2012, The Observer named it as one of "The 10 best historical novels".
The book is the first in a trilogy; the sequel [Bring Up the Bodies](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL16547664W) was published in 2012. The last book in the trilogy is [The Mirror and the Light](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20665410W) (2020), which covers the last four years of Cromwell's life.
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Community Reviews
Hated the way this was written. I didn't finish it. The tense was so awkward and it was just very hard to read. It's a shame b/c I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this period in history and really was excited to read this book and it's sequel, but I just couldn't get through it. I probably read about half of it.
I had put off reading this book for quite some time, but several friends recommended it, so I gave in. I find the story fascinating, but the way it's told had me a bit lost more than once. Just when I thought, ok, now I know what's going on... I would be lost again. It's a good thing that I had seen the series "Tudors", or I would have given up. For me, it felt like the author couldn't decide on a writing style. Mostly it was direct "reporter" writing, then she would switch into dream-like prose and introduce characters that didn't seem to have much relevance, and there were already so many characters to keep straight (the Thomas's alone!!) Perhaps those "once mentioned" people will re-appear in the sequel, but I will have long forgotten about them. I will certainly read the next one, but I will take a breather... maybe next month!
I loved the idea of this book and the beginning caught my attention nicely. As it progressed, I found it difficult to follow - maybe there was too much unattributed dialogue, but I seldom knew who was talking.
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