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Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel

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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Thu November 18th, 2010, 5:29 am

The Mirror and the Light strikes me as an awfully blah title - the kind of title one might find on a romantic novel from the 40s or 50s. The idea of mirrors is pretty cool, though, the way they reflect and distort. I'll bet she changes the title before it gets to the publisher. Wolf Hall is a much better title!
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info

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sweetpotatoboy
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Post by sweetpotatoboy » Thu November 18th, 2010, 9:55 am

And Hilary is a cover girl now!
Saw her staring back at me in the newsagent from rows of "Intelligent Life", the quarterly magazine from The Economist.
http://moreintelligentlife.com/page/autumn-2010

I think you can read the full article at the website...

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Margaret
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 2440
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
Location: Catskill, New York, USA
Contact:

Post by Margaret » Fri November 19th, 2010, 1:04 am

I think you can read the full article at the website...
Yes, you can read the full article, and it's a great read. Mantel is not only wise, she's hilariously funny.

Thanks for the link, SweetPotato.
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info

Greg
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Re Wolf Hall

Post by Greg » Tue April 12th, 2011, 2:33 am

I don't know whether this has been mentioned elsewhere but here is a link to Youtube showing a dialogue between David Starkey and Hilary Mantel. I have found three parts. There may be more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRQbyjvpYwU
Thank you very much for putting up that link it was very interresting to see both Starkey and Mantle discussing Cromwell and Wolsey.
As for the novel Wolf Hall, I started it before christmas and I fear I had to put it down, as to why well I'm not to sure. One suspicion is that I am too close to this period in my own writing right now and my perceptions on Cromwell were bleeding across to my reception of the story. I think I'll give it few more months then I'll try again and I hope give the story a fairer evaluation then.
Regards Greg

JRTomlin
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Post by JRTomlin » Thu April 14th, 2011, 11:37 pm

[quote=""Margaret""]A good review - I would say it very accurately reflects the appeal of the novel. Cromwell is an intellectual, but not a book-trained intellectual like More whose abstract notions of right and wrong allow him to order people tortured and still get a reputation for saintliness. Cromwell has a practical turn of mind that foreshadows a more modern world, and it works very well for him - until it doesn't, but that part is being saved for the sequel.

I highly recommend Wolf Hall, perhaps especially for those who feel all Tudored-out. It has a refreshing complexity that is worlds away from the usual romantically exaggerated Tudor glitz, passion and beheading. And it's going to be our Book of the Month here, starting tomorrow![/quote]One of the very few (no, amend that--the ONLY) Tudor novel I've ever enjoyed. It's quite good.

The Tudor "glitz" is strictly a gross romantic exaggeration as far as I'm concerned, I'm afraid.

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Margaret
Bibliomaniac
Posts: 2440
Joined: August 2008
Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
Location: Catskill, New York, USA
Contact:

Post by Margaret » Fri April 15th, 2011, 11:55 pm

Well, Elizabeth I wore some pretty glitzy, jewel-encrusted dresses. Someone, I think it was Catherine Delors, put up an eye-opening blog post awhile back about what it was like to wear a dress like that - the dress was a French one from one of the Louis courts, but the same principle undoubtedly applies.
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info

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