Book Review: Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

 

Wolf Hall is a historical fiction work focussing on the life of Thomas Cromwell, how he worked his way from pauper to King's aid and back down again. Hilary Mantel is well known for producing accurate historical fiction works and this is probably her best, if not only her most famous. 

In this first of a trilogy of books, we meet Cromwell as a young boy and Mantel details the turbulent relationship between Cromwell and his father very well. As the book progresses we learn much of Cromwell's involvement with Cardinal Wolsey who was the King's right hand man through much of his marriage to Katherine of Aragon. Wolf Hall looks upon the King's Great Matter from Wolsey's point of view and covers in great detail his fall from grace, through the eyes of Cromwell himself. 

I think Mantel's research to write this book must have been fervent to have written such an in depth and lengthy book. I appreciate the level of detail that has been put in. 

In saying that, my own enjoyment of the book lacked. I felt like it struggled to encapsulate me as other historical books have. I am an avid enjoyer of the Tudor history but Wolf Hall felt lacklustre in comparison to other forms of study I have partaken in. The book is outrageously long and it isn't even the longest book in the series and it is difficult to follow and you are often back and forth between the present day (in the book) and Cromwell's childhood. Further to this I found the language difficult, although that is more a fault of my own than Mantel's, as her language follows the Tudor style brilliantly. 

I gave this 3⭐️