This book can be found here.
This is the final instalment of her celebrated trilogy on
the life of Thomas Cromwell, who rose to be Lord Privy Seal to King Henry VIII
of England, basically running the government of the realm. He helped solve the
King’s Great Problem of how to divorce Katherine of Aragon and marry Anne
Boleyn in the first two books. Now there is a third Queen hoping to deliver the
much-anticipated son and heir to carry on the Tudor dynasty. History tells us
that three more Queens will await their fate after this Queen. Remember the
rhyme:
Divorced, beheaded, died
Divorced, beheaded, survived.
Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour
Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard, Katherine Parr.
The earlier books in the trilogy, "Wolf Hall" and "Bring up the bodies", each won the Mann Booker Prize in 2009 and 2012,
respectively. They were worthy winners. We won’t know until later in the year
if this third book will be nominated, I will be surprised if it isn’t. Her
style in these books is to create a vast, much peopled canvas, to follow the
diverse nobles and the few commoners who shaped events, to have an overarching
commentary from Thomas and to range back and forth in time. This enables her to
bring forward incidents that developed his character, talents, networks and
alliances as they are relevant to the current action. I found the back and
forth in time a little bit jarring in Wolf Hall; it seemed much smoother in the
next two, or perhaps the scene had been set and I had adjusted to her style.
Thomas Cromwell was the son of a brewer, from a poor part of
London, near to the bottom of the social hierarchy. As a child, he worked in
the kitchens of great houses. He went to the Netherlands and Italy, working
with merchants and understanding finance. Double entry bookkeeping had been
invented to keep the accounts of the great Italian merchant companies and
printing was underway and books were becoming available to the rising merchant
class as well as nobles and Church dignitaries. Whilst in Italy, he acquires a second-hand
book. This is one example of Mantel’s
research. She knows the printer/publishers and their printer’s marks or
devices, giving this book the mark of the dolphin and anchor of a famous
Venetian printer: https://nyamcenterforhistory.org/2018/05/07/makers-mark-a-look-at-early-modern-printers-devices/.
This is one small detail and it is matched by her careful attention to all
aspects of Cromwell’s life and of English life during Tudor times.
When Cromwell comes back to England, he works for Cardinal
Wolsey, then high in Henry’s favour. It is a great learning ground for a man
who does appear to have been exceptionally able, much to the chagrin of the
various nobles who envy his rise to power and who believe that lesser people in
the social strata just are less able. But if the head that wears the crown is
uneasy, it is more dangerous to be close enough to the King to know his secrets
and weaknesses, and fatal not to be able to give him what he wants. Cromwell
rises further on Wolsey’s fall and in turn will fall himself.
I normally like to race through a book to find out how the
story develops but this is a familiar story to me as the Tudor period is one in
which I have a great interest. I found I took this book at a more leisurely
pace and there is much detail to digest. Knowing his story, I tended to linger,
to enjoy the Tudor milieu, to delay the inevitable void. No more will there be
a volume to look forward to. I might have to start again at the beginning and
re-read the three of them.
It is long at 875 pages, but it is a pleasure to read, full
of very readable detail about clothes, food, court etiquette etc. Mantel’s
prose soars on the page, transporting you to Cromwell’s urban childhood in
Putney; to the spring gardens of the great houses; to the bloody work of the
butchers that provide the vast quantities of game, beef, lamb and pork to the
great house tables; to the political machinations of the great families, and to
the dreams and fancies of Princess/Lady Mary who was raised and lowered by
their father with every passing marriage. Elizabeth, her half-sister was so
much younger that she does not figure as much in the story, although equally
affected by the succession uncertainties. If Cromwell was an intelligent, hardworking
man able to conceptualise and keep track of all the economic, religious and political
activity in the kingdom, he is surely matched by his creator in fiction. She
illuminates her subject in every chapter.
Henry gives Cromwell a vacant position in the Order of the
Garter, the highest award for the nobility to aspire to, some of whom are not
impressed that they must share the honour with a commoner. But it is not
politic to grumble at the King’s decisions. New people are appointed as
vacancies arise. There are two vacant places but one is being held for the
Royal child currently kicking in Queen Jane’s womb. On the night before he is
invested with the Order, Cromwell goes to bed early…
He needs a space in which he can watch the future shaping
itself, as dusk steals over the river and the park, smudges the forms of
ancient trees: there are nightingales in the copses, but we will not hear them
again this year. Tomorrow, all eyes will turn, not to the Garter stall he
fills, but to the vacancy, where a prince as yet unborn reaches for the statute
book, and bows his blind head in its caul. Why does the future feel so much
like the past, the uncanny clammy touch of it, the rustle of bridal sheet or
shroud, the crackle of fire in a shuttered room? Like breath misting glass,
like the nightingale’s trace on the air, like a wreath of incense, like vapour,
like water, like scampering feet and laughter in the dark….furiously he wills
himself to sleep. But he is tired of trying to wake up different. In stories
there are folk who, observed at dawn or dusk in some open, watery space, are
seen to flit and twist in the air like spirits, or fledge leather wings through
their flesh. Yet he is no such wizard. He is not a snake who can slip his skin.
He is what the mirror makes, when it assembles him each day: Jolly Tom from
Putney. Unless you have a better idea? -- pp 504-5
If you want an impartial consideration of this book you will
have to seek that elsewhere. I love the period, I love English history (it is
my heritage) and I love this book. It’s not for everyone, but it is definitely
for me. I hope it is for you, too!
For further reading, other worthy historical novelists
dealing with the period include Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir.
-- Wendy
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