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Wolf Hall: A Novel |  | Author: Hilary Mantel
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Category: Book
List Price: $27.00
Buy New: $9.99
as of 11/23/2009 12:18 MST details
You Save: $17.01 (63%)
New (36) Used (11) Collectible (1) from $8.99
Seller: smokymtnbooks
Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 40
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 560
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.9
ISBN: 0805080686
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780805080681
ASIN: 0805080686
Publication Date: October 13, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best of the Month, October 2009: No character in the canon has been writ larger than Henry VIII, but that didn't stop Hilary Mantel. She strides through centuries, past acres of novels, histories, biographies, and plays--even past Henry himself--confident in the knowledge that to recast history's most mercurial sovereign, it's not the King she needs to see, but one of the King's most mysterious agents. Enter Thomas Cromwell, a self-made man and remarkable polymath who ascends to the King's right hand. Rigorously pragmatic and forward-thinking, Cromwell has little interest in what motivates his Majesty, and although he makes way for Henry's marriage to the infamous Anne Boleyn, it's the future of a free England that he honors above all else and hopes to secure. Mantel plots with a sleight of hand, making full use of her masterful grasp on the facts without weighing down her prose. The opening cast of characters and family trees may give initial pause to some readers, but persevere: the witty, whip-smart lines volleying the action forward may convince you a short stay in the Tower of London might not be so bad... provided you could bring a copy of Wolf Hall along. --Anne Bartholomew
Product Description
In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII’s court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king’s favor and ascend to the heights of political power England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. The quest for the king’s freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph? In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 58
 Wolf Hall November 23, 2009
Doug R (Minneapolis, MN)
I love historical fiction and have read many books from the Tudor period. I read the reviews for Wolf Hall and disregarded one that said it was difficult to follow the characters due to the author's failure to identify them as they spoke. I have finished 7% of the book on my Kindle and can go no farther. The book is confusing regarding characters and makes jumps in time that are unexplained. For me, the book is unreadable, and I have deleted it from my Kindle.
It stinketh November 23, 2009
lauren sylvan
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Wolf Hall is artsy, literary, and contrived. The method of telling is confusing, compounded by the author's insistence of referring to her protagonist as 'he' in the middle of paragraphs where there are other characters to whom the pronoun would, under normal rules, refer.
Her mastery of detail is excellent, but that seems to be all there is to the book--endless detail and lots and lots of internal monologue (philosophizing, going on and on about motivations) most of which is very tangential to whatever is happening in the story's present. There are unannounced flashbacks, side-steps, references to characters not introduced-- in short, the story weaves and ducks like a drunken prizefighter, but never connected with this reader.
This is an excellent novel for those who abhor plot in any form.
I want my money back from this book purchase November 22, 2009
Dr. Peggyann Zaenger (Jacksonville, FL)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I eagerly looked forward to receiving this novel. Tudor history is a favorite of mine whether it be travel or text. This book was difficult to get into, the players poorly revealed and the writer's style of third person presentation very irksome. I have no argument with the facts; the detail is spot on. The presentation was a bore.
 Not history's usual view of Cromwell November 22, 2009
Amy M. Ernest (Houston , TX)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I too have read many a book - fiction and other - on the Tudors. Cromwell never came off as anything but a calculating opportunist. This book was fascinating to me in that Cromwell was lovable and Wolsey was downright charming. My Catholic headmaster frowned at me when he saw me reading this - I guess the Catholics don't like the less-than-flattering portrait of Thomas More. I'm not sure I'm behind all the characterizations, but SOMEONE must have loved the guy! It is fun to see one's notions of history turned upside down at times. And this book does it impeccably. I recommend it highly.
It Can't Be Helped November 21, 2009
Peter W. Broido (Chicago, IL USA)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
Although I have published several reviews on Amazon, I have not done a book review. I thought Wolf Hall would tell a straightforward story. Henry Viii did not have a male heir, decided to get rid of Katherine his long standing wife by annulling his marriage to her and in so doing change England and separate it from the Catholic Church which freed him to marry Anne Boleyn. Hilary Mantel who received the Man Booker Prize for this novel has taken this rather straight forward story and complicated it beyond credibility. It is told from or by Thomas Cromwell obfuscating it by reference to he. I slogged through to the bitter end and reached the conclusion that was almost as silly as this novel. Ms Mantel in her historical research should have read a bit of Shakespeare where my good old buddy Polonius states "Brevity is the soul of wit."
Showing reviews 1-5 of 58
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