Posted by Lale on 13/6/2012, 15:44:05, in reply to "Re: Wolf Hall"
99.240.131.249
I was in Vancouver for a week, that's why I couldn't write until today. I still have about 80 pages to go. I enjoy it a lot. The book does have a bit of an "element of surprise" because I still don't know how Mantel's Cromwell will behave with respect to Anne Boleyn's downfall.
The author does give us some unsavory character traits of Cromwell. Since the opening chapter we know that he may have killed at least one person and there is the recurring theme of him looking like a murderer. (Based on what I will read in the last 80 pages, the only person he actually murders may be Anne Boleyn but I am not there yet.)
"He" was a problem at the beginning but later on I got used to it.
I would like to read the sequel.
Lale
--Previous Message--
: I've just realized why I find it so hard to stay
: interested in Wolf Hall . Mantel has been quite
: scrupulous in adhering to history in terms of
: incident. This is a period of English history with
: which I am quite familiar. Consequently, I know
: everything that's going to happen. For me, losing the
: element of surprise with a total lack of suspense
: kills any narrative momentum.
:
: Burgess had to make up most of Nothing Like the Sun ,
: and while I knew the outcome, I did not know the
: details of Marlowe's life. The court of Henry VIII,
: though, is like reading a novel about, say, the Bush
: administration. I know the main players, what
: unfolded, and the eventual outcome. It might be
: diverting, for a while, if the author made Dick Cheney
: the hero (and Colin Powell a villain) but the literary
: device would eventually grow thin.
:
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