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Tags: Wolf Hall View |
wolf hall
The Booker shortlist failing to write the present Tom Chatfield 9th September 2009 A golden age for modern fiction the 1520s A strong female trio dominate the Tags: Wolf Hall View |
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Wolf Hall (2009) is a novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate. It won both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Set in the 1520s and 1530s, the novel is about the rapid rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the Tudor (Tudor dynasty) court of King Henry VIII. Born to a lower-class family of no position or name, Cromwell first became the right-hand of Cardinal Wolsey, and then, after Wolseys fall from grace, the chief minister to Henry VIII. In that role, he oversaw the break with Rome, the dissolution of the monasteries, and Henrys marriage to Anne Boleyn. He was widely hated in his lifetime, and historical and literary accounts in the subsequent centuries have not been kind to Cromwell; in Robert Bolts A Man for All Seasons, for example, he is portrayed as the calculating, unprincipled opposite of Thomas Mores honour and rectitude.
Mantels novel offers a corrective to that impression, an intimate and more rounded portrait of Cromwell and the political machinations of Henrys court. Mantel spent five years researching and writing the book, and the trickiest part, she said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, was trying to match her version to the historical record. To avoid contradicting history, she created a card catalogue, organized alphabetically by character, with each card containing notes showing where a particular historical figure was on relevant dates. "You really need to know, where is the Duke of Suffolk at the moment? You cant have him in London if hes supposed to be somewhere else," she explained.
The title comes from the name of the Seymour (Jane Seymour)s family seat Wolfhall or Wulfhall in Wiltshire; the titles allusion to the old Latin saying "Man is wolf to man" (Homo homini lupus) serves as a constant reminder of the dangerously opportunistic nature of the world through which Cromwell navigates.
Author: Hilary Mantel
Language: English (English language)
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Fourth Estate (UK)
Release Date: April 30 2009
Media Type: Print (hardback (Hardcover))
Pages: 672
Isbn: 0007230184
Dewey: 823/.914 22
Congress: PR6063.A438 W65 2009