The Mirror & the Light
Books | Fiction / Historical / Renaissance
4.6
(75)
Hilary Mantel
The brilliant #1 New York Times bestsellerNamed a best book of 2020 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, The Guardian, and many more With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage. The story begins in May 1536: Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour. Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to the breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortune’s wheel turns, Cromwell’s enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry’s cruel and capricious gaze?Eagerly awaited and eight years in the making, The Mirror & the Light completes Cromwell’s journey from self-made man to one of the most feared, influential figures of his time. Portrayed by Mantel with pathos and terrific energy, Cromwell is as complex as he is unforgettable: a politician and a fixer, a husband and a father, a man who both defied and defined his age.
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Author
Hilary Mantel
Pages
480
Publisher
Henry Holt and Company
Published Date
2020-03-10
ISBN
0805096612 9780805096613
Community ReviewsSee all
"The final book in The Wolf Hall trilogy, this traces Cromwell’s later career, his doings and undoings - my favorite of the series. A great series for lovers of historical fiction!"
Jackie Davidson
"Breathtaking."
Molly Hans
"This series may well be the greatest work of historical fiction ever written. Mantel never lets her copious knowledge of Tudor customs get in the way of her storytelling; the evocative details of 16th century English court life enhance the narrative rather than dragging it down, intimately connecting the reader to Cromwell's perspective: the flavors and ingredients of a meal, the sight of a woman stitching a needlepoint pattern, the hubbub of a village street or a town square during a festival. Each novel builds tortuously to an execution: Thomas More in Book 1, Anne Boleyn in Book 2, and Cromwell himself in Book 3; and Mantel's brilliance is that she reveals this inevitable pattern to her audience while hiding it from her protagonist. Master schemer that he is, he fails to notice the signs pointing to his imminent destruction, yet Mantel makes sure the reader does.<br/><br/>Cromwell remains a maddening and contradictory character: the terrifying spider who coolly allows his victims to twist in the wind, yet who expresses genuine tenderness for the vulnerable, often risking his neck to protect foolish people (Thomas Wyatt and Princess Mary come to mind) who likely didn't deserve or appreciate it. The warmth and loyalty of the Cromwell family circle: his lost wife and daughters; his "boys" Gregory, Rafe, and Richard; crusty chef Thurston, and indefatigable man servant Christophe comes across not in sentimental speeches but in scraps of Proustian memory: a pool of candle wax reminding him of the angel costume he stayed up late making for his little daughter; a flash of white recalling his dead wife's cap. In his final meeting with his beloved foster son, Rafe, the now elegant and sophisticated courtier breaks down; and Cromwell remembers the frightened, tearful little boy he adopted years earlier. <br/><br/>Many, many historical films and novels have portrayed Cromwell merely as a devious villain. Mantel insists on a fuller picture of a bold, brilliant self-made man; ruthless though not cruel, who remained true to his vision and his determination to re-create the world. Five highly enthusiastic stars."
Lesley Williams
