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What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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Original poster

Wolf Hall

20 replies

CarmelitaMiggs · 15/10/2009 16:43

Anyone reading it? What do you think?

OP posts:

TheFoosa · 15/10/2009 16:48

I am waiting for a copy at the library - looks a bit foreboding and I've already ploughed my way through the Glass Room and Little Stranger

will watch with interest though

Original poster

CarmelitaMiggs · 15/10/2009 17:13

Mine is library copy too. Thank god did not shell out. I am halfway through and am, um, experiencing difficulties with HM's style. It's a bit too present for my liking.

Plus endless semi-colons.

And she loves Cromwell. Total crush. So the view of him seems rather limited.

But worst thing is, I have to keep re-reading chunks to work out who the hell she's talking about. She never refers to Cromwell as 'Cromwell', but as 'he', so when he's in a scene with another chap, you get sentences along lines of, 'He went into the room and found him already there' -- it's driving me nuts.

Yet I can't quite bring myself to admit defeat and return it, I keep thinking, how can they all have got it so wrong?

I loved The Little Stranger but it was too enjoyable to be a Bookery book.

OP posts:

TheFoosa · 15/10/2009 17:17

oh dear, at least it was a loaner

I tried to read the Byatt one too but gave up after chapter 2

FlyingMonkey · 15/10/2009 22:09

I also have Wolf Hall on loan from the library. I've enjoyed what I've read so far but I'm only about 50 pages in. But I agree with Carmelita, it can be quite confusing and I have found myself re-reading passages to clarify who exactly Mantel is talking about. I will persevere.

By the way, I've just finished The Little Stranger and thought it was brilliant. Very spooky!

bramblebooks · 15/10/2009 22:26

I've just bought it from Amazon but am having trouble opening it!

girlafraid · 16/10/2009 08:10

I found it wilfully irritating in style - 750 pages written entirely in the present historical tense is just pretentious.

mimsum · 18/10/2009 19:25

It's driving me up the wall .. to the extent that I may throw the towel in soon

the present tense is soooo irritating - OK as a stylistic device for a short while but 750 pages of it ??????

is Hilary Mantel too grand for an editor

preciouslillywhite · 19/10/2009 20:58

I'm reading it- I was really looking forward to it as her "A Place of Greater Safety" is towards the top of my top ten. I find this one a lot easier to read...

...but I think her revision (?I know it's a revisionist history- so can you have a "revision" of a person?) of Thomas More is just spiteful because I quite fancy him

PrincessFiorimonde · 21/10/2009 23:07

Oh I'm really sorry to hear it's hard work/irritating, was looking forward to getting my hands on it as I loved A Place of Greater Safety...

preciouslillywhite · 22/10/2009 13:05

I'm moaning about it, PrincessFiorimonde- but I'm still reading it

Place of Greater Safety is fabulous, isn't it. Couldn't help thinking if a man had written it, it might have been more than a slight blip on the radar (and scooped more than the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award )

Madsometimes · 24/11/2009 11:52

I'm 170 pages in ... and counting.

I am really struggling with this one. My mum gave it as a gift, saying that she thought it was a brilliant book. Maybe I am going wrong by reading it at night when I am tired.

Oh dear, I think this might be me, not the book. I really want to like it, and I am not going to give up.

MrsJeff · 30/11/2009 15:48

I thought it was just me! I've just managed to get used to the fact that "he" means Cromwell - all the time, regardless of who the previously mentioned male character was - and I'm still struggling...not giving up though (just yet, anyway)...

MrsJeff · 30/11/2009 15:55

PS just seen your comment on the "he"/"he" thing, CarmelitaMiggs - it's driving me bonkers. I've read all the Sansom/ Shardlake books so maybe it's my fault for expecting this to be in the same vein as those...or maybe I'm just too lazy to have to think too much about waht I'm reading! Alternatively maybe it's jsut not very well written (my favourite explanation).

MrsJeff · 30/11/2009 15:57

But nevertheless better spelled than my last post (hangs head in shame)

RainRainGoAway · 30/11/2009 15:58

I am having the same problem too! On about chapter 3 when 'he goes in to see him there' or some such tomfoolery (hoho)...bit irritating. Also assumes you know quite abit about this era of history. Luckily I have read Phillippa Gregory back to back 1st!

Quite enjoying it all the same. Gave it to MIL as a get well soon present and concerned she may have hated it.

chocolaterabbit · 30/11/2009 16:00

I really enjoyed it - Cromwell usually comes across as a 2D thug so found the revisionist thing interesting and don't absolutely love Thpmas more. However, didn't finish it before DS arrived and have just got through it 7 weeks later so obviously not that compelling. The title annoyud me a bit too.Sorry for typing, feeding DS

fillybuster · 30/11/2009 17:07

Really loved it (and was quite surprised as historical 'novels' aren't usually my thing) but dh balked around chapter 2 and refused to continue.

I think you have to roll with the sudden changes of scene and accept that 'he' is always Cromwell, except when actually narrated by Cromwell, of course! Must admit that I'm not enough of a modern (relative, of course, but I'm a classicist) historian to care much about how revisionist or accurate it is, but I never cared much for Thomas More when we learnt about him in school, anyway

In short, I thought it was brilliant and it went by far too fast given how large the book is. Would love to still have it on my 'reading list' rather than my 'read list'...

grendel · 01/12/2009 11:44

Oh I really LOVED this! All the way through I was constantly impressed by the sheer craft of her writing. You'd read a paragraph and think 'Golly, that was so well written'. Or am I just a bit sad?

I actively enjoyed the fact that the constant use of 'he' made you slow down and really think about what you were reading. Besides, if she'd used more names it would still have been confusing since practically everyone seems to have been called 'Thomas' anyway.

I loved the characterisations of Cromwell and his family life. I thought it was great the way that all the nobility were scared of him because not only was he ferociously clever he always looked like he would be just as happy to take them into a dark corridor and knife them.

Utterly brilliant. I'd say even better than 'A Place of Greater Safety' which was my previous favourite historical novel.

(I'm also glad that the book ends before his fall from grace. It would have been too sad to read of his execution.)

kittykitty · 01/12/2009 15:33

Absolutely LOVED this book. For the first third I was wondering why on earth so much of a fuss had been made about it, and then it just clicked and I was away.

I too was utterly confused by the use of 'he' - but that was the only downside to one of the best books I've read in recent years.

Do stick with it - you'll be glad you did.

God - it took her 20 years to get round to writing this. Who knows when she'll finish the sequel?!

RainRainGoAway · 01/12/2009 20:05

Thank you for positive comments about this since yesterday. Am struggling a bit TBH at Chapter 5 and wondering if it will become a bit less, um, styalised.
Will persevere.

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