Book #7 for 2024: The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel
This is the third and concluding part of the Wolf Hall trilogy, with its fictionalised account of Thomas Cromwell's life. It is also the only one of the three not to win the Man Booker Prize, although it was longlisted.
So, having some knowledge of the history of this period, I had some idea of what the book would involve, although my understanding was mostly limited to Henry VIII's love life. This book involves his marriages to Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves. Jane is said to have been his favourite wife, who died giving birth to Henry's only surviving son. By contrast, Henry was talked into marriage with Anne, who he apparently called "ugly".
Towards the end, Henry starts becoming more tyrannical, with his constant obsession with weeding out "traitors" and having them tried and executed. I should have probably have guessed how things would end, even with my lack of much knowledge of the real-life events behind this story, just what I remembered from school.
One of the other main plot threads involved Henry's oldest daughter Mary, later Mary I. In reality she liked to burn protestants at the stake, seeing them as heretics, which is probably worthy of a fictionalised account in itself. In this book, she is mostly portrayed as watching events involving Henry's marriage to Jane, and believing that she will lose her claim to the throne.
As with the previous books, it was challenging to read, mostly because the plot moved so slowly, with a dense narrative. The book once again did a good job of painting a vivid image of what life was like in the days it is set in, with its detailed descriptions of what is going on. I noticed that it spent a lot of time in the heads of its characters, with a lot of explanation as to what they were most likely thinking.
The biggest challenge was at times the book wouldn't spell out that some of the events were revolving around Thomas Cromwell, although I should have guessed because so much is told from his perspective. So, several chapters referred to "he" instead of using Cromwell's name, forcing me to flick back several pages to make sure it was him I was reading about.
I would probably have benefitted from using a readers' guide as I read this, but thought it was still a worthy successor to "Bring Up the Bodies", and a fitting end to the trilogy.
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