Wolf Hall
Hilary mantel
For almost a month, an hour
everyday, I visited damp, cold fourteenth century England where church’s
order was slowly crumbling, blacksmiths and butchers were infiltrating Dukes’
and Lords’ higher circles; Bible printed in English was blasphemous, sinners
were burned alive after being tied to metallic poles, plague claimed lives
every year, Oxford was trying to stand up, Cornish and Irish were brutes, teens
were playing flutes, the Thames was far from beauty, London was gruesome with
all its palaces and river side gardens, few English gentlemen were incestuous
while others associated themselves with foggy Puritanism; living haunted the
dead, dead haunted the piled memories, diplomats grinned and conspired, poison
worked in the kitchens, cooks were boiled and beheaded, ladies played their
charm with sheepish glances and unlaced gowns, towns were obscure, villages non
existing. In the novel Almost all of it was bore, contrived and manifested
through one character: Thomas Cromwell.
Hilary Mantel created this character with more than fifty shades of
grey. A dogged Blacksmith, he seems to be born out of the copulation of the
Satan and the Angel. With impregnable mind and unwavering cold spirit he keeps
walking and no one ever sees him coming, not even the reader. He is loyal to
Cardinal Wolsey, to Henry the eighth, to his kinship and friends, to former
Queen Katherine, to now Queen Anne Boleyn, to his ambitions and even to his adversaries.
One by one his enemies fall and we never know if it is his designing or mere
circumstances. He starts at the beginning and does not stop at the ending. Such
plain narrative, still the novel clinches the Booker Prize. That explains the
literary merit of Hilary Mantel’s work. There are so many characters that one
can not count on fingers. Yet, each one is so apart that they come with their
own baggage and history to influence us. They trigger our imagination for their
settings to come alive. The prisoners’ Tower is as dreadful as other literary
works and history have portrayed it. Dampness mixed with condemnation
seeps through its dark walls to the dread of the captives.
Henry the eighth loves Anne Boleyn, his new wife, for what? It remains obscure as it happens in every
love tale. Anne is jealous, insecure, slender and yellow with small teeth. It all helps her getting whatever she desires.
Other 'Boleyns' are not shy of seeing their daughters sleeping with men if they
are powerful and rich. They try their fortune this way and succeed. Then, there
are men like Thomas More, who start from the top to end up in the tower because of the Puritan ideas which are nothing but fancies to a pragmatic man like Thomas Cromwell. Rome, as the seat of Catholic Church is mentioned again and again which is struggling
with gospels and going through its own political turmoil. Amid such chaos, it is
wonderful how the people residing in Thomas Cromwell's household 'Austin Friars' especially, the ladies are so innocent in their own world. Men, off
course have a path to follow which is already carved out by Thomas Cromwell.
Name
of the novel is derived from Wolf Hall, the seat of one Seymour Family. Although, the seat does
not play any role in the novel. Having stated this, the book is not an
easy read as the new characters keep entering with out much introduction.
Conversations too keep flipping very fast and every time you catch different
characters, they are doing something else than where you had left them before.
It takes first thirty pages to be fully gripped by the story then it takes us
ahead if the patience stays. Thomas Cromwell is ‘He’ most of the times which
confuses in between. But, it is after all a literary fiction and they don’t come
in light doses. It is the first part of the Trilogy, second has been released
in 2012. I impart with 8 out of ten. Read it if you liked Midnight’s Children. It
will give you the same juice.
