Okay. So this is the THIRD time I've tried to read Wolf Hall ....

[FleetwoodRaincoat]

I can't believe anyone has actually got all the way through it.

I'm equally bored, confused and fed up with too many men called Thomas.

Please tell me I'm not the only one .....

I couldn't finish it either

I think I got halfway through

I think life is extremely long and dull. There is no need to make it feel longer.

The TV adaptation was excellent, though how they extracted that from her book, I will never know.

It's interesting these people saying persevere
I am nothing if not determined 🤣
I read it all and I can honestly say it did not get better! 🤣

@LunaHeather

I couldn't finish it either

I think I got halfway through

I think life is extremely long and dull. There is no need to make it feel longer.

The TV adaptation was excellent, though how they extracted that from her book, I will never know.

I love the way Claire Foy says “Cremwuell”

@Threeleaper

Please, anyone, say what you struggled with or were bored by!

I found it very slow, the characters unappealing, and the style of writing plodding. Just not for me. I like a long book but not these. I am not a big reader of historical fiction, which probably didn’t help.

I agree. I love novels from that period, but I hated Wolf Hall. It’s really unlike me to put a book down, but I did this one. I found the tv series dark and dull too.

@IdblowJonSnow

I gave up too. I could see it was well written but I was also confused and every time I picked it up again I'd need to backtrack a bit. Would have taken months to get through it. I did read Beyond Black though, also by HM which I loved.

I read this year's ago too! I only realised after I'd read Wolf Hall that I'd read another of hers I liked Beyond Black Hated Wolf Hall I wouldn't have even known it was the same person

I fucking love it. I think it's a masterpiece of a psychological portrait of an extraordinary man. But, you know, there isn't a test so if you aren't enjoying it, don't read it.

I usually love historical fiction but I struggled with Wolf Hall.
Loved the TV version.

I adored this trilogy! Stunning writing and use of language is so creative and evocative.

Never got past the first couple of chapters, I really don't understand the hype.

As bad as The GoldFinch, and bloody Eleanor Oliphant!

Glad I'm not the only one, am currently about 25% through it and not loving it and also confused. But trying to persevere because my history is crap and I want it to be a bit better. I read it about twice a week, mixed up with whatever else I have on the go. I will finish it, just may take a while.

It took me a long time to get into, as all the he’s and various Characters were confusing and i often found that I was working so hard to figure out who was talking and whose side they were on that I couldn’t visualise anything or get into the flow of the scenes.. however, something clicked about halfway through and I began to really enjoy it. I adored Bring up the Bodies: the Anne Boleyn execution scene is breathtaking and I found it a real page-Turner. However, I got a bit lost again in The Mirror and The Light. I will never forget them though and will forever be a bit in love with her version of Thomas Cromwell.

I gave up because I can't stand first person present tense. I hate it with a fiery passion. I was so disappointed, because I'd been looking forward to reading it for ages.

I am currently plowing through Mirror and Light . It does force me to concentrate . I love this period of history , so I do know the characters .

Maybe it would be too much hard work , but maybe scribble down characters on a bookmark to refer too ? I did this with a French book that had multiple people called Jacques!

BBC Sounds have dramasisations of CJ Samson and Merdoc that are good listening too.

I don’t understand people saying it’s slow, though. The first page is him as a boy being eaten up by his violent drunk father after he killed another boy in a fight, the he’s off on his continental adventures with only a keepsake from his older sister and his wits, and then we leap ahead years till he’s back in London as a rising man, married with children, and already Cardinal Wolsey’s right hand man as he’s engaged on trying to get Henry VIII a divorce, and, then, after Wolsey’s downfall, as an increasingly powerful royal advisor on the project of getting rid of Katherine of Aragon in favour of Anne Boleyn.

There’s enough plot there for about ten novels!

So glad I'm not alone in this! For those that have asked, I think it's a combination of things that bore me. I don't like the style, and there's far too much focus on small episodes, rather than the bigger picture. I didn't mind the first bit when Cromwell is a boy, but as soon as it got to all the Wolsey stuff it became tedious. I think I'm not really into history in terms of kings and queens, more the social history of the lower classes.

I found the same with Milkman, by Anna Burns. Bored me stupid, but I stuck with it. Don't know why because I still dislike having read the whole thing. But at least I'm in a position to comment on it I suppose!

I'm trying to read more things that are outside my usual genres, and this is the first one this year to really bug me. Am going to attempt Lord of the Rings for the third time too, but not holding out much hope.

I read a lot and I couldn't stand it. I tried so hard to like it but I just could not for the life of me get into it. Life is too short to read books you're not enjoying!

I find most Hardy novels the same, and they’re great literary classics too. (I’ve tried three of them!)

I love all three of those books, but it would be a boring old world if we all liked the same things

OP "Am going to attempt Lord of the Rings for the third time too, but not holding out much hope."

Third time? Why bother?

But, you know, there isn't a test so if you aren't enjoying it, don't read it.

This is very true. If you are not enjoying it, well then stop. I am not a fan of Dickens, have read several and found them confusing and frustrating (invest heavily in a character only for them to disappear and never come back!). An English teacher mate told me I had read the wrong ones and should try Bleak House and Martin Ch but I'm all right actually.

Interesting about people liking Beyond Black - I read that a while ago and didn't like it. Agree very very different.

@LunaHeather Because I want to have read one of the "greatest books of all time". But haven't been able to stick with it before. I suspect that, compared to Wolf Hall, it will be a breeze now

I absolutely love Wolf Hall. It's one of my favourite books. At the risk of sounding twattish, you can lose yourself in the half-light, shadows, fire smoke etc. It's a view of Tudor life through one shrewd, wily, competent man's eyes. It's also about class, political (male) power, probity, rationalism, loss, death. But it's narrated in the present tense through a prism of smells, sounds,feelings (some remembered, some current) , fleeting thoughts, conversations, observations and impressions. Isn't that how we all experience life? I think I found it fairly easy to go with the flow of it because I lve in my head most of the time, whereas my very lovely but quite literal friend couldn't get on with it at all. I think it helps to know some basic Tudor history before you read it, but equally remember there is no pure historical "truth" as such but a collection of differing movitations, opinions. and memories or "ghosts" as Hilary Mantel would call them.

[quote FleetwoodRaincoat]@LunaHeather Because I want to have read one of the "greatest books of all time". But haven't been able to stick with it before. I suspect that, compared to Wolf Hall, it will be a breeze now [/quote]
There must be a different one that you would enjoy?

I didn't get confused, but I certainly got bored. I plugged away for two thirds of it before wondering why on earth I was bothering and gave up.