Summary and Reviews of Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Media Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Christopher Benfey …dazzling…Thomas Cromwell remains a controversial and mysterious figure. Mantel has filled in the blanks plausibly, brilliantly.

The New York Times - Janet Maslin. In Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel's arch, elegant, richly detailed biographical novel centered on Cromwell…characters are scorchingly well rendered. And their sharp-clawed machinations are presented with nonstop verve in a book that can compress a wealth of incisiveness into a very few well-chosen words.

The Times (UK) As soon as I opened the book I was gripped. I read it almost non-stop. When I did have to put it down, I was full of regret the story was over, a regret I still feel. This is a wonderful and intelligently imagined retelling of a familiar tale from an unfamiliar angle — one that makes the drama unfolding nearly five centuries ago look new again, and shocking again, too.

The Washington Post - Wendy Smith Hilary Mantel has created a novel both fresh and finely wrought...unfolding cogent insights into the human soul within a lucid analysis of the social, economic and personal interactions that drive political developments, Mantel has built on her previous impressive achievements to write her best novel yet.

The Guardian (UK) This is a burstingly large book, so densely peopled that the cast-list alone takes up five pages. It rattles back and forth across the Channel and reaches, sometimes confusingly, back through time. Much of Cromwell's past is told in flashbacks - somnolent, slippery sequences that add to the novel's dreamlike sense. For all her meticulous historical reconstruction, Mantel's world remains a strange place, permeated by the many dead. None the less, it is both linguistically and sensually vital, stacked with images and phrases that linger in the mind.

Library Journal It should appeal to many readers, not just history buffs. And Mantel achieves this feat without violating the historical record! There will be few novels this year as good as this one.

Kirkus Reviews The characters, including Cromwell, remain unknowable, their emotions closely guarded; this works well for court intrigues, less so for fiction. Masterfully written and researched but likely to appeal mainly to devotees of all things Tudor.

Publishers Weekly Unfortunately, Mantel also includes a distracting abundance of dizzying detail and Henry's all too voluminous political defeats and triumphs, which overshadows the more winning story of Cromwell

Reader Reviews

Cathryn Conroy
Old-Fashioned Storytelling at Its Best: The Life and Drama of Thomas Cromwell
History comes vitally alive when it's told not with facts and dates and lists but rather through the drama of the people who lived it. And author Hilary Mantel does a magnificent job of bringing to life Thomas Cromwell, a man long cast as a cunning ...   Read More DumboDenizen
Worth your patience
I started and stopped WOLF HALL three times before I really made up my mind to focus and become immersed in Mantel's storytelling style. Once I did, I was richly rewarded. This book is so finely wrought that you feel you are practically living ...   Read More Frances
Stream-of-Life
I thought this was one of the best novels I've read in a long time. I enjoyed the challenging writing style as well as the story of Cromwell--and it really is Cromwell's story, not so much as a stream-of-consciousness but as a stream-of-life. It's ...   Read More Canadian Chickadee
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
I found this book exasperating in the extreme. Mantel's gift for a telling phrase is unsurpassed (black fur that ruffled like feathers, ruby rings like droplets on blood on the king's knuckles, e.g.) but I longed for a red pencil to edit this tome!...   Read More

Write your own review!

Books with similar themes

• Historical Fiction
  
• UK (Britain) & Ireland
  
• 17th Century or Earlier
  
• Top Books of 2009