The tour de Mantel continues with Wolf Hall, about the rise of Thomas Cromwell (no spoilers here, but the fall of Thomas Cromwell comes in another book).
We learn a bit about Cromwell through flashbacks – the abuse at the hands of his father, running off to France to become a mercenary, learning about culture and banking in Antwerp, and generally becoming a Renaissance man. He returns to England, becomes a merchant, and eventually ended up working for Cardinal Wolsey, advisor to Henry VIII. Cromwell proves himself invaluable to not only Wolsey, but the king – he is clever, diplomatic, and (to paraphrase) doesn’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.
I was raised Catholic, and I’m a lawyer (I blame my dad for both of those things), so St. Thomas More was kind of my guy for a long time, I even wore his saint medal. I never had a very good opinion of Cromwell, since he was the one who did what Wolsey and More would not – give Henry what he wanted. I never understood how an entire church could be created just because some dude wanted a new wife, but then again, there’s really no sense to any church as far as I can see.
The best thing Hilary Mantel has done for me as a reader is to humanize a man that I was raised to see as almost evil. I found myself rooting for him against More (who, as I’ve learned, was kind of a jerk – but my guess is that most “saints” are). Like other Mantel books, this takes some work to get through, but considering the work that goes in to her books, it stands to reason that her readers should expend some effort as well.
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