Wolf Hall

[GeorgeEliot]

Been struggling to get through this ever since I got it for Christmas a year ago. Trouble is it's such a big book, and I only have time to read a few pages at night before I get sleepy and then i forget who all the main characters are next time I pick it up.

Still not even halfway through. Shall I persevere?

Got all the Stieg Larsson's on the bedside table waiting to go!

I finished it but was v frustrated by it. I'm not sure I'd bother tbh.

Then again I gave up on Stieg L after about 15 pages, so I'm not much help to you!

I loved it. Was well worth the time it took to read it.

I started it once - and gave up a third of the way through. I restarted it a few months later and loved it. You need to be able to read biggish chunks of it at a time IMO, and keep going with so you don't lose the thread. But once you get into it, its fascinating.

Usually I'd say anything that's that much of an effort isn't worth it, but I think Wolf Hall is

You definitely need to read it in big chunks - I started when it first came out and like you, was reading a few pages a night and then falling asleep, got utterly confused and irritated by HM's use of the present tense.

However, I tried again when we were on holiday a couple of months ago and was completely enthralled. In terms of literary merit it's worth at least 100 Stieg Larssons

Ok - thanks for lots of great advice - will save it up for a long journey/holiday then.

Literary merit don't come into it. WH isa literary novel/hist. - Larsson is just briliant page turner with an intruging heroine.
Pile on with the Salander Girl!

I wasn't as gripped by it as I thought I would be until about 2/3 of the way through - I really loved Cromwell by then and was intrigued by all the machinations of court. Really longing for the sequel now - and never thought I would say that .

I thought it was dazzling, I read fiction of that calibre and wish I could come close to it in my own scribbling. I agree it's something you need some time to get into, I think you need to adjust to the rhythm of the speech etc.

Just read it. All holidays. Loved it. (slightly helped by watching bits of Other Boleyn Girl to visualize versions of reality)

Longed to know what really happened as well, back story on characters, how much author changed etc.

Loved character of TC. Knew nothing about him, although vaguely heard of Henry Katherine Anne and Thomas More...

Sometimes it was a bit rich like Christmas pudding, you had to stop and digest.

And at the end the approach to W Hall..A shiver went up my spine, like some horror thriller as you realised where the story was heading..he's going to meet J Se, and that's the end of Anne...