Thursday, December 4, 2014

Book Review: Wolf Hall





It's getting to look a lot like Christmas, so I'm madly working on finishing up the gifts that I make, so my reading has been limited to eaudiobooks.  I was looking for a new book when I finished The Golem and the Jinni and found that we had Wolf Hall available.  I'd been wanting to read it for a few years so I downloaded it.
This is the story of Thomas Cromwell.  He started out as the son of a drunkard blacksmith who ran away from home and joined the army in France.  He stayed on the Continent for many years, picking up languages and a trade.  When he returned to England he was well on his way to becoming a successful businessman and lawyer.  He eventually worked for Cardinal Wosley, through whom he met Henry VIII.
The story is told through the eyes of Cromwell.  Although it is fiction, it keeps true to the historical record as far as possible.  It is a fascinating look into the world of England during the Tudor reign.  The book won the Man Booker Award in 2009.

Wolf Hall
Wolf Hall
By Mantel, Hilary
2009-10 - Henry Holt & Company
9780805080681 Check Our Catalog
Awards:
Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2010), Costa Book Awards (2009), Indies Choice Book Awards (2010), Man Booker Prize (2009), National Book Critics Circle Award (2009), Orange Broadband Prize (2010), Women's Fiction AKA Orange Prize (2010)


In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man, Thomas Cromwell, dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political power.
HPL patron:  A personal and in depth treatment of Thomas Cromwell.  From child to adult.  A view more compassionate than history-well researched but still fiction-illuminating about the …More


Complimentary Reads
The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn
The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn
By Weir, Alison
2010-12 - Ballantine Books
9780345453228 Check Our Catalog
Richly researched and utterly captivating, "The Lady in the Tower" presents the full array of evidence of Anne Boleyn's guilt--or innocence. Only in Weir's capable hands can readers learn the truth about the fate of one of the most influential and important women in English history. …More


The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn
The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn
By Maxwell, Robin
1998-05 - Touchstone Books
9780684849690 Check Our Catalog
"Entertainment Weekly" has written of this novel, "History doesn't come any more fascinating--or lurid--than the wife-felling of Henry VIII". Robin Maxwell recreates the story of the doomed second wife of Great Harry, telling an exuberant and bawdy tale of lust, betrayal, love, and murder. …More


Secrets of the Tudor Court: By Royal Decree
Secrets of the Tudor Court: By Royal Decree
By Emerson, Kate
2010-12 - Gallery Books
9781439177815 Check Our Catalog
Emerson returns to the Tudor Court, where lady-in-waiting Bess must resist the handsome Will Parr, who is betrothed to another. …More


The Children of Henry VIII
The Children of Henry VIII
By Weir, B. Alison
Author Weir, Alison
1997-07 - Ballantine Books
9780345407863 Check Our Catalog
At his death in 1547, King Henry VIII left four heirs to the English throne: his only son, the nine-year-old Prince Edward; the Lady Mary, the adult daughter of his first wife, Katherine of Aragon; the Lady Elizabeth, the teenage daughter of his second wife, Anne Boleyn; and his young great-niece, the Lady Jane Grey. In this riveting account Alison Weir paints a unique portrait of these …More


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