Posted by Steven on 24/6/2012, 9:07:46
76.186.47.15
I finished the sequel to Wolf Hall yesterday, reading half of it in one day which should tell you how engrossing it becomes. The subject is the fall of Anne Boleyn, with a much narrower focus in place, time, and cast than Wolf Hall.
This novel starts out as Wolf Hall ended, perhaps overly sympathetic to Thomas Cromwell, showing him as the perfect head of the perfect household and the wise and loyal servant to an unwise king. But midway through the book a darker side of Cromwell begins to emerge, and he is shown as a more complex individual, someone capable of putting his personal motives ahead of truth and justice.
If the theme of Wolf Hall was that history is made behind the scenes, the theme of Bring Up the Bodies is found in this quote (page 159): "What is the nature of the border between truth and lies? It is permeable and blurred because it is planted thick with rumour, confabulations, misunderstandings, and twisted tales."
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