Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊
A truly spectacular work of literary historical fiction. The work is, at bottom, a counternarrative to Pool's A Man for All Seasons covering exactly the same historical period but telling the story primarily from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell rather than Sir Thomas More. If you, like me, are sick to death of cultural products ruminating about Henry the VIII, that may sound like a non-recommendation, but I assure you the book succeeded for me entirely on its immense stylistic merits.
First, the characterization is deep, layered, and charming. Her characters come alive, but are also alive to each other. The author manages the trick of making us aware of the space the characters take up in each others' minds, showing them in relation with each other even when they're not present. The characters gossip, mock, and scheme, constantly engaging with one another in shifting configurations. Mid-book two members of Cromwell's household do impressions of the Duke of Norfolk (not present) as though he were making the rounds in place of the family doctor (Dr. Butts, also not present). And the joke lands because, by then, the author has so well characterized the Duke of Norfolk that we can immediately see the humor in their impression of him.
Managing genuine interior humor in a historical novel (as opposed to humor that relies on the distance between us and them) is a hard thing, and making it actually funny is a kind of magic. And the book is consistently and genuinely funny throughout. I don't know to what extent the humorous remarks are found in the sources or how much is the author's invention, but even if she invented none of it, her treatment makes it immediate and relatable, which is still a feat.
And lastly, the actual style of the book is another source of joy. The book emulates an older style in English fiction, but given the vagaries of early modern English, the author sensibly doesn't reach quite all the back to Tudor English. She compromises on something recognizably modern but with the rhythms and Latinisms of early Modern English. The effect lands somewhere in the middle giving it a vaguely Restoration feel. The most obvious point of comparison in terms of style as well as prosopographical preoccupation is John Dryden's translations of Plutarch's Lives which is very dear to my heart. The pointed phrases, and polished "periods" greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the book and made it very hard to put down.
Recommended to lovers of literature or of history generally.