Hilary Mantel
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Hilary Mantel (Britain, 1952)
"Every Day is Mother's Day" (1985) + "Vacant Possession" (1986) "Eight Months on Ghazzah St" (1988) "Fludd" (1989) + is a novel with a thin plot that wouldn't stand on its own without the writer's verbal virtuosity. The plot flirts with the supernatural but never crosses the line into horror. In fact, it remains a comedy throughout the end. Mantel enjoys tearing apart the conservative society of a small town that pivots around the church. Mantel doesn't do much with the ruins: she just leaves them there for us to wonder what will come next. One rainy night the new curate, Fludd, shows up. Father Angwin befriends him to the point of confessing to him that he actually lost his faith: one morning he stopped believing in God. He does believe in the devil, though, because he has seen it many times: it's a tobacconist in a nearby town. Agnes is disturbed by the fact that she can't remember how Fludd looks like when he's not in front of her. Angwin believes Fludd to be a spy of the bishop. Fludd visits the convent and chats with mother Perpetua, who gossips about a young nun, Philomena, who claimed to have Jesus' stigmata, and about Angwin, who uses his sermons to disparage the Pope calling him a nazi and the head of the mafia. Fludd befriends Philomena, who reveals the story behind the stigmata. Her mother wanted both her daughters to become nuns, but her sister Kathleen was kicked out of the convent when she accepted a ride from a truck driver, and then turned to drinking and dancing. When strange signs appeared on Philomena's hand, her mother saw an opportunity to redeem the name of the family and immediately hailed a miracle. The bishop, however, thought otherwise and dispatched Philomena to another convent, this one in Angwin's town. Later the two meet a man named Judd McEvoy who seems to be nice and helpful, but Philomena tells Fludd that this is the man whom Angwin believes to be the devil. Fludd doesn't take it seriously and Philomena wonders aloud whether Fludd himself could be the devil, at which Fludd simply toys with her imagination. Philomena reaches the convent in tears. Philomena disrespects the mother superior, Perpetua: the nuns gossip that Perpetua was flirting with Angwin but he rejected her and she never forgot him. She would be jealous of her, Philomena, if she knew of Fludd's interest in her. Philomena keeps thinking of Fludd and convinces himself that Fludd is no priest. Furthermore, she realizes that she cannot remember Fludd's face. Angwin notices another odd feature of Fludd: he seems to absorb food rather than eat it, as food disappears into his body with little or no chewing. Then we suddenly enter Fludd's thoughts and we hear him think of Philomena with feelings and be surprised of having human feelings; basically a confession that he is indeed the devil. At night Fludd grabs a shovel and starts digging in the graveyard where the townfolks buried the statues. Angwin hears him and joins. Agnes and Philomena hear and join them. Judd McEvoy stumbles on them. They end their work that it is still dark. Fludd walks Philomena back to the convent, tells her that she has to get out of the convent, and kisses her. When the sun rises, Judd shows up with a wheelbarrow and rope to finish the job and haul the statues back where they were. Agnes notices that her wart has disappeares. The wart reappears on Perpetua's face. Gossip spreads fast. The whole convent knows that Philomena decided to flee. Agnes sends her a ring. The old nun Anthony (who hates Perpetua) helps her change into lay clothes. Then Philomena, whose real name is Roisin, walks out after dusk towards the train station: Fludd instructed her to take the train and promised to join her. Unbeknownst to her, Perpetua too knows, and rushes out to stop her, but somebody stops her on the way to the station. Angwin talks to the bishop who signals his intention to visit soon, and Angwin would like to warn Fludd, but Fludd is nowhere to be found. Angwin drinks his whiskey, but realizes that it is water, and thinks that it's a miracle on reverse devised by Fludd. As Philomena waits nervously for the train, any train, she realizes that another man is waiting for it: Judd McEvoy. Philomena and Fludd take a hotel room and Philomena begins a new life. Fludd seems to have plenty of money. Philomena truly had the stigmata but didn't like to be special. Then one morning Fludd disappears, leaving her a one-line note that simply says where he left money for her. Philomena packs her belongings and heads to the train station, where she picks a destination at random. Meanwhile, the bishop is visiting Angwin. The police is investigating the mysterious disappearance of Philomena, but also a miracle of sorts: Perpetua has burst into flames. She is alive but only mutters something about the flames attacking her. The bishop hears Angwin mention the name of Fludd and asks who he is: obviously Fludd was not a curate sent by the bishop, as the town believed. Angwin is not too surprised. The novel closes with a short chapter that is simply the description of a painting of Mary the mother of Jesus with a strange expression on her face. "A Place Of Greater Safety" (1992) "An Experiment in Love" (1995) "Wolf Hall" (2008) is a sprawling historical novel set during the reign of Henry VIII. It paints an endless labyrinthine web of intrigue and scheming around the king. The erudition is impressive, but the style is rather cold, notably the sterile dialogue that feels like theater, but also in general the short sentences that follow each other with little or no emotion. The massive cast of aristocrats results in all of them being quite flat. In the end the protagonist sounds dull, most of the characters are little more than zombies who appear every now and then to deliver a few lifeless sentences, and the only ones who stand out end up being the king and More, i.e. the evil ones. To further compound the problem, it is not always easy to understand who is speaking: too many "he" and "his". All characters speak in the same style and tone except the French ambassador. In any case the novel is little more than a soap opera with a large cast of characters that meet and part endless times. This was probably the most overrated novel of the 2010s. Thomas is afraid because he knows that the cardinal is going down and his own loyalty to the cardinal may ruin him. He sends Rafe to Parliament to negotiate for him. Thomas then meets with Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, uncle to both Henry VIII's wife Katherine and the king's lover Anne Boleyn, trying to save the cardinal. The Duke knows that the cardinal has a hidden treasure. In return for a guilty plea, the king may spare the cardinal's life and leave him some money. As 1529 ends, Thomas' household increases with two orphans, Richard and Walter, the children of Kat and her husband, after both parents are killed by the epidemic. They are raised with his own son Gregory. Richard has royal blood being a distant bastard relative of king Henry. Johane and her daughter Jo are still living with them. Meanwhile, the cardinal is writing to the rulers of Europe asking for support and vindication, which amounts to treason. Thomas More has become lord chancellor. He signs the accusations against the cardinal. Thomas is received by king Henry. Henry has not forgotten that Thomas had criticizes his war in parliament. Charles Brandon married Mary, the queen of France until king Louis XII died, against the king's will, who wanted her for himself, and the cardinal saved Brandon's life. Thomas now negotiates daily with the king on behalf of the cardinal. In 1530 the Italian merchant Antonio Bonvisi invites Thomas to dinner, where Thomas meets Thomas More as well as Chapuys, the ambassador of the emperor. More accuses the cardinal of corruption and Thomas of helping him. Bonvisi gossips about an affair between Anne Boleyn and Thomas Wyatt. Bonvisi warns Thomas that the cardinal is finished. Thomas visits Anne, the king's concubine, who now resides at the cardinal's former palace, and asks her to intercede with the king about the cardinal, implying that the cardinal in turn could interced with the Pope about annulling the king's marriage. The cardinal Wolsey decides to move to the archbishop's palace in Southwell, and Thomas helps organize and fund the relocation of 160 servants. Chapuys tells Thomas that the queen has not forgiven the cardinal. Thomas' son Gregory is not 13 and not particularly gifted. Charles Brandon's wife Mary, the former queen of France, is loyal to Katherine. Thomas and Gardiner attends a dinner at More's place and meet Thomas Wriothesley, known as "Risley", as well as More's wife Alice and Mores adopted daughter Margaret Giggs. Gardiner tells Thomas that More's son John raped More's daughter-in-law Anne Cressacre (an orphan) when she was 13. Thomas visits again the concubine Anne knowing that her family is profiting from the cardinal's downfall. Risley is dispatched to get the cardinal's signature on a petition to the Pope for the annulment of Henry's marriage. The cardinal is popular: wherever he travels, he is welcomed by cheering crowds. The king finally pardons the cardinal. But the cardinal, even in exile, begins planning a magnificent enthronement ceremony for himself. Anne's uncle Norfolk tells Thomas that Anne hates the cardinal. Thomas visits Anne and Mary and finally meets a mysterious girl who turns out to be Jane, the daughter of John Seymour. Thomas receives news from George Cavendish that the cardinal was arrested by Harry Percy for treason, clearly a plot by Anne, and died on the way to London, possibly a suicide by poison by a man who didn't want to suffer the humiliation of a trial and execution. Harry Percy is the man who had married in secret Anne and the cardinal is the man who had dissolved that secret marriage. Thomas suspects that this is Annes revenge against the cardinal. Thomas opens the last package that the cardinal left him and finds a turquoise ring. An escort comes to pick up Thomas at home. The family fears he is being arrested but instead he is taken to the king. His adopted son Rafe, his nephew Richard and his son Gregory accompany him. Henry VIII is upset because he dreamed of his dead brother Arthur, who had married Katherine when she was 16 (Henry married Katherine in 1509, when she was 24 years old, and that's when she became queen of England). 1530 comes to an end. More's father dies. Thomas is sworn by More into King Henry VIII's Privy Council, and becomes a trusted advisor of the king, just like Thomas Cranmer, a theologian who is working on convincing the Pope to annul Henry's marriage to Katherine. When Katherine receives Thomas, Thomas has become a powerful man with a strong influence on which laws are enacted. Thomas chats with Katherine and her daughter Mary. Katherine sarcastilly tells her daughter that her father has become the king of the church. Thomas tells Katherine that the king wants her to move out, therefore starting an official separation. They gossip that John Seymour has an affair with Catherine Fillol, the wife of John's son Edward Seymour (the elder brother of Jane Seymour). Meanwhile, the zealous and fanatic Thomas More is gladly torturing heretics and the king is paranoid about being poisoned. Thomas visits Anne, Mary Shelton and her brother George's wife Jane. They discuss that, after dinner guests of a bishop died, his cook Richard Roose is accused of poisoning them and the king condemned him to be boiled alive. King Henry VIII and Thomas More consider the fugitive William Tyndale as a Lutheran heretic and his books are banned. The emperor's ambassador Chapuys dines with Thomas and we learn that Gardiner has been sent to France as the ambassador replacing Thomas Boleyn. Chapuys heard the rumor that both Gardiner and Thomas' nephew Richard are bastard cousins of the king. Chapuys, always on the side of queen Katherine of Aragon and princess Mary, asks Thomas to break the spell that Anne cast on the king. Henry Wyatt, who had been Henry VII's treasurer, tells Thomas' household of his imprisonment by Richard III Plantagenet and the children love the story of the cat that fed him pigeons in the dungeon. Henry Wyatt's son Tom is the former lover of Anne, and the aging Henry has come to ask Thomas to be the executor of his will and to behave like a father to Tom. Thomas' Kat recalls how people hoped that their hated father Walter Cromwell would be killed during the the battle of Blackheath against the Cornish rebels (when the king was still Henry VII), but he survived. At the end of 1531 More burns some more heretics. When Tom Wyatt is arrested, Thomas has to rush to save him. In 1532 Henry wants parliament to ratify the laws that will make him the king of the English church. Gardiner is opposed and Thomas saves his life. Cranmer leaves the court because he becomes English ambassador to the Holy Roman Empire in Nurnberg, and this makes Thomas an even more powerful adviser to the king. Tom Wyatt tells Thomas that Anne slept with countless men. Henry VIII still believes she's a virgin. The fanatical More threatens Thomas, who is known to have sympathyzed with "heretics". More remembers when, still a child, he witnessed the burning of a heretic (a "loller"), an 80-year-old woman. Thomas is promoted to master of the King's Jewel House, as Henry Wyatt had suggested. Thomas now sees the king every day. Thomas' friend Hans Holbein, a painter, wants to paint Anne. Then a scandal breaks out. The wife of Harry Percy (the man who arrested the cardinal) asks for a divorce because Harry has confessed to her that he's married to Anne. The king demands an inquiry. Anne denies Harry's story and pretends she is still a virgin. Thomas threatens Harry with complete financial destruction unless he recants. Harry swears in front of the archbishop of Canterbury that he lied about being married to Anne. The aging archbishop tells Henry VIII that this is the last thing he will do for him. A humble maid, Elizabeth Barton, has been having visions of the Virgin Mary and has the reputation of being able to foretell the future. The rich merchant John Petyt, imprisoned by More on suspicion of heresy, dies, and Thomas guesses that his widow Lucy is read to marry another rich merchant, John Parnell. The king makes Anne a marquess, blessed by Gardiner. The archbishop dies and Anne already knows that Cranmer will be the new archbishop because Thomas has suggested so. Henry is to meet French king Francois (whom he calls "brother") hoping that king Francois will plead Henry's case in front of the Pope. Anne insults Charles Brandon (duke of Suffolk) implying that his wife Mary, Henry's younger sister and the former queen of France (until Louis XII died), should wait on her. Brandon is outraged at the thought that his wife Mary should become Anne's maid, and later tells Thomas that Anne is a whore who was trained by her sister Mary, another whore. In reality, Charles Brandon lives of the French pension of his wife. Henry and Anne attend the archbishop's funeral and run into Elizabeth Barton, who bluntly asks the king to burn Anne as a heretic and foretells that the king will be struck by lightning in seven months if he doesn't do it. Henry, Thomas, Anne and Mary sail to France. The presence of Anne would create a lot of complications for Henry so she is left behind when Henry while he meets the French king. When they reach France, Thomas secretly slips away. He meets with assistants of Giulio Camillo, a philosopher who is working on a Theater of Memory for king Francois of France and offers money to get the invention for Henry VIII. Thomas is then summoned by king Francois who makes fun of Henry VIII's belief that Anne is still a virgin and tells Thomas the details of her sister Mary's body, to prove that he slept with Mary. Mary tells Thomas that Anne, after refusing for a year, finally accepted to have sex with Henry VIII after Henry swore on the Bible to marry her back in England. Thomas is also introduced to William Stafford, a lower-class friend of Mary who has followed her to France, presumably a secret lover. A young, attractive woman with two small children, Helen Barre, comes to Thomas asking for help because her abusive husband Matthew has disappeared. Thomas takes her and the children into his household. Another addition to the household is Christophe, a young street-smart French boy whom Thomas encountered in an alchemist shop and who becomes his servant. Thomas learns that Anne is already pregnant. When he visits her, she tells him that she can't stand her sister Mary anymore and implores Thomas to find her a husband. She suggests Thomas' own nephew Richard, who is 23 and has royal blood. Thomas visits the heretic John Frith in jail in the Tower. Frith is guilty of having translated Luther's works into English and denied Catholic dogmas such as purgatory. Thomas, who admires the scholar, offers to arrange a royal audience if Frith promises to moderate his radical views, but Frith refuses. Frith proudly stands by his beliefs, indifferent that More may burn him at the stakes. Henry tells Chapuys that his marriage to Anne is an attempt to get a male heir, but of course nothing would prevent Katherine from having a second child. At Easter Mass, Anne is introduced as the queen. The king promotes Thomas, who is carefully choreographing Anne's ascent, to Chancellor of the Exchequer. Thomas meets Katherine who has been demoted to Dowager Princess. She calls Cranmer a heretic and Henry a schismatic. Thomas admires Katherine's strong character even if he's plotting against her. Thomas encourages Katherine to accept her situation and not make it worse. They discuss that Brandon's wife is dying and Brandon will soon be poor again. She has guessed that Thomas is planning to confiscate the lands of the Church and give them to Henry. Thomas asks Gardiner to save Frith. Thomas then visits More who, as much as he disapproves of the king's desire to divorce Katherine, thinks that the prophetess Elizabeth Barton is an impostor. More refuses to attend Anne's coronation. Thomas asks More too to save Frith. Thomas tells Helen that her husband is officially dead and she is free to marry again. Thomas organizes and runs Anne's coronation, officiated by archbishop Cranmer. Later, Cranmer confesses to Thomas his sin: he, a priest, is secretly married to a German woman, Margarete, who doesn't even speak English, and she's pregnant. This would be a big scandal. Thomas asks Helen to become Margarete's maid while Margarete is hidden away to give birth to Cranmer's child. Helen has become Rafe's lover. Cranmer tells Thomas that he tried to change Frith's mind and recant but Frith is stubborn. More does not spare Frith's life and he is burned at the stake for refusing to recant his heretic views. The Pope voids Henry's marriage to Anne and threatens to excommunicate him if he doesn't return to Katherine. Cranmer summons Elizabeth Barton who keeps making prophecies against Henry VIII. Everybody is getting ready for the birth of Anne's son, who would be prince of England. Astrologists predict that it will be a boy. Anybody who makes adverse predictions ends up in jail. Meanwhile, Hans Holbein has been working on a portrait of Thomas. Anne gives birth to a girl, Elizabeth, disappointing everybody except Henry's bastard son FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond. The prophetess Elizabeth initially refuses to recant but then, threatened, she accepts to do public penance. Thomas asks the king to pardon her followers. Charles Brandon, the 49-year-old Duke of Suffolk, now a widower after the death of his wife Mary (Henry VIIIs younger sister), marries a 14-year-old girl, Katherine Willoughby. George Boleyn's wife Jane Rochford (Anne's sister-in-law), lady-in-waiting first to queen Katherine and now to Anne, is still childless after seven years of marriage. She is afraid that Anne will poison her, and suspects that Anne would gladly also poison Henry's daughter Mary and Anne's own sister Mary. Jane Rochford knows that Thomas is secretly in love with Jane Seymour. She also tells him that the boy Mark (who already served the dead cardinal and whom Thomas already disliked) is the go-between carrying messages between George and Anne and others. Tom Wyatt is still in love with Anne. Thomas sees Henry VIII dance with Jane Seymour's younger sister Lizzie Seymour and Anne is jealous. The following day Thomas approves a loan to Lizzie's and Jane's elder brother Edward Seymour. Henry's 15-year-old bastard son FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond, is married to Norfolk's 14-year-old daughter Mary Howard, which prevents him from becoming a rival of Anne's son should she ever have one. This Mary is Anne's cousin because Anne's mother Elizabeth Howard (Thomas Boleyn's wife) was the sister of this Mary's father Thomas Howard, duke of Norfolk. Anne is pregnant again. Meanwhile, Thomas has gathered evidence of a global conspiracy against Henry VIII. His Rafe and his Richard have infiltrated the social network of Henry Pole, aka Lord Montague. Thomas knows that Montague, Exeter (aka Henry Courtenay) and Geoffrey Pole (brother of an exiled cardinal) are conspiring with the German emperor Karl V and with the Pope against Henry VIII. Thomas warns Montague's mother Margaret Pole. Henry VIII forces Katherine's daughter Mary, a princess, to become an attendant to Anne's newborn princess Elizabeth, but Mary refuses. Thomas secretly admires how both Katherine and her daughter Mary keep defying the king and resisting the humiliations that Anne concocts against them. It is now 1534. Anne manages to have an Act of Succession written that will make her children the rules of England after Henry dies. Anne also wants to frighten More and wants him listen as a supporter of the prophetess even though he never was. Thomas and Gregory visit Henry's 18-year-old daughter Mary. Thomas tries to convince her to accept Anne, but Mary is still rebellious. She is not even allowed to see her mother Katherine. Mary knows that Anne fears that she (Mary) will marry and have children who will become claimants to the throne. Thomas tells Gregory that, should the king die immediately, it is not clear who would rule, as the Act of Succession has not been confirmed yet by parliament. The Pope issues his decisiion and sides with Katherine: Henry is married to Katherine and annulment is not granted. Thomas Audley has succeeded More as Lord Chancellor. Audley, Thomas and Cranmer meet with the now disgraced More and try to convince him to support the Act of Succession, but he refuses to take the oath, loyal to the Pope. More is imprisoned in the Tower of London. However, he encourages his own family to take the oath in order to avoid disaster. The king promotes Cromwell to Master Secretary. Back home, Thomas learns that his adopted son Rafe has secretly married Helen, a poor young woman with two small children, and she is now pregnant. He is disappointed but accepts the fait accompli. The prophetess Elizabeth Barton is hanged. Anne has a miscarriage. Henry blames it on a curse cast on him by Katherine. The Pope dies. Henry is paranoid about being killed and fears Katherine's revenge. Henry prepares to sever ties with the Pope when the English Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy which declares the king of England to be the head of the Church of England. More refuses to accept it, worsening his already precarious situation in prison. Richard marries Frances, who brings a good dowry. Alice and Jo are getting married too. A scandal erupts when Anne's sister Mary confesses having secretly married William Stafford and being pregnant. Anne banishes Mary from court. Jane Seymour is the only one sympathetic to Mary. Mary later writes to Thomas that she is broke. Jane tells thomas that Anne is jealous of Mary Shelton. In 1535 Thomas falls ill and Henry breaks with etiquette and visits him. He then tries one last time to talk More into recanting. More doesn't and is executed. The new Pope appoints bishop John Fisher as cardinal. Fisher, like More, has refused to swear the Oath of Succession and is imprisoned in the Tower of London. This enrages Henry who has Fisher beheaded. Thomas has noticed that Henry likes Jane Seymour. The novel ends with Thomas planning a visit by the king to Wolf Hall, where Jane lives with her parents. This novel is the first of a trilogy. "Bring Up the Bodies" (2012): Thomas plots against Anne whom Henry now despises so that Henry can marry Jane Seymour; Katherine dies on the same day that Anne suffers another miscarriage; Anne is beheaded and Henry marries Jane. "The Mirror & the Light" (2020): Jane gives birth to a son, Edward, but dies twelve days later; Thomas begins the search for Henry's fourth wife and eventually arranges the marriage with Anne of Cleves; Gregory Cromwell marries Jane's sister Lizzie Seymour; Montague and Exeter are executed; Norfolk and Gardiner plot against Thomas; Thomas is arrested and beheaded on the same day that Henry marries Katherine Howard. "Bring Up the Bodies" (2012) |
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