It would be impossible for Wolf Hall to be to have too many pages. Anyone familiar with Tudor history knows that the life stories of Thomas Cromwell, Anne Boleyn, and Thomas More end, and Hilary Mantel makes readers want those life stories to continue. The fictionalized history shines through the perceptions of Thomas Cromwell, and he sees England through daring eyes.

Thomas Cromwell's Point of ViewSeeing with Cromwell's expansive, omniscient perspectives is compelling and inviting. Cromwell laughs at Charles Brandon, and readers laugh with him. Cromwell notices Anne Boleyn's beauty increasing with her power, and through his eyes, readers notice new details of her neckline. When the Duke of Norfolk offends Thomas Cromwell, the reader bristles, too.

Lending new characterizations to lesser known figures, such as Rafe Sadler, enhances the reading experience of Wolf Hall. Mantel's details to characters who are already fictionalized with multiple views, such as Henry Viii, seem so authentic and authoritarian that readers feel a sense of relief, as if Wolf Hall has finally unravelled the true identity of the faces in the museum paintings. The one area where Cromwell's perspective feels wobbly is his hybrid resentment-admiration of Thomas More. Through Thomas Cromwell's eyes, the beloved Thomas More is less than his reputation suggests.

Thomas Cromwell's MirrorAs pointed out on The Thomas More Book Club site, Mantel uses Cromwell's ability to uncover the hidden flaws in More's new rug to demonstrate how only the talented eyes of Cromwell can see the hidden flaws in More. When More is imprisoned on charges violating Cromwell-authored laws, Cromwell struggles to accept that More will not sign the oath. Cromwell bitterly complains that he is not getting work done and that even from the Tower, More has too much control over events. Frustrated, Cromwell confronts the placid More, saying, "You call history your aid, but what is history to you? It is a mirror that flatters Thomas More. But I have another mirror, and when I hold it up, it shows a vain and dangerous man, and when I turn it about it shows a killer..." (p. 463)

The beauty of this scene hints at the Mantel's wide talents. Her uses of metaphor and dialogue share a rare accuracy; twin arrows flying to the same mark. What is more remarkable is what the reader discovers upon reflection. If Thomas More looks through Cromwell's mirror and sees a vain and dangerous man, More will not be the reflection shown when Cromwell turns the mirror. Then Cromwell will be seeing his own reflection, the reflection of a killer.

Thomas Cromwell, KillerThroughout the novel, Cromwell avoids memories of a person he killed during his shadowy days in Italy. He is disturbed to hear a musician say he looks like a murderer, and Cromwell is equally disturbed when Gregory confirms that assessment. Cromwell equally avoids recognizing that his laws and his rigged juries actually lead to death.

Instead of focusing on the deaths of the Carthusian monks, Cromwell wonders how More and his daughter can watch the so calmly. Instead of answering Norfolk's accusation that the privy council is setting up John Fisher and Thomas More to be murdered, Cromwell retreats and watches quietly. When More is waiting for execution, Cromwell can not resist visiting him in the Tower, but he separates himself from knowing More, dropping his name and looking at him as "the prisoner".
Hilary Mantel's Use of the Third PersonThere are an abundance of Thomases in Wolf Hall, an unfortunate circumstance created by historical fact. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey holds the puppet strings in Henry's reign. Wosley mentors Thomas Cromwell, who must navigate through a sea of Thomases: clever Thomas More, powerful Thomas Howard, sly Thomas Boleyn. Rather than call Cromwell by his Christian name, Mantel settles on the pronoun "he", which is the only confusing part of the book. Even in the audiobook edition of Wolf Hall, reader Simon Slater confuses which "he" is speaking, and confuses Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell as a result.

In the upcoming sequel, Cromwell will face the beheading of Anne Boleyn and her alleged lovers, which are historically thought to have been set-up by Cromwell, and already in the first book, he is shown retreating from the Boleyn family and planning to vacation with the King when he visits the Seymores at their home, Wolf Hall. This may be when Cromwell moves from "he" to "I" in his narration, as he begins to plan his own power grabs so that he can manipulate a prince, just as his mentor Wolsey manipulated Henry.

History suggests that any problems between Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell came from different ethical standards. Historians traditionally present More as having many of ethical standards, and Cromwell as having few, if any. Hilary Mantel is not a historian, although Wolf Hall reflects exceptional research. Just as Wicked managed to humanize the Wicked Witch of the West at the expense of Glenda the Good Witch,Wolf Hall humanizes Thomas Cromwell at the expense of Thomas More.
Publication InformationWolf Hall was published by Henry Hold in October 2009. It is available as a Kindle book, and there is an enhanced UK Wolf Hall app. The ISBN is 0805080686.

The Wolf Hall audio book was released by Macmillan Audio in November, 2009. It is read by Simon Slater. The ISBN is 1427210160.

This article was originally published in November 2009. Links may go to the Wayback Machine.

Imagine Thomas Cromwell maneuvering through region restrictions to access the enhanced edition app for Wolf Hall. UK residents can download the app, but when a US or Canadian customer searches Itunes Apps for Wolf Hall, Apple helpfully responds, "Did you mean golf ball?"

The star of Wolf Hall wouldn't put up with limited availability. The book is long and complex, and if Thomas Cromwell thought the audiobook should accompanied by the ebook, he'd make his own enhanced edition. "I'll make or mar," he promises in a voice of restrained urgency, and that thudding motto is the heartbeat of Hilary Mantel's brilliant Wolf Hall.

Making an Enhanced Edition ExperienceListening to the audiobook while reading the ebook gives the sense of an enhanced edition, especially when coupled with Slate's Audio Book Club Wolf Hall discussion podcast. Listening to and reading Wolf Hall is easily done by using:

• a Kindle with the ebook and mp3 file (Audible files work well on the Kindle's mp3 player, as both are Amazon.com products)
• a Nook with with ebook and mp3 file (be careful of the file sizes available - Nook advertises that it holds 26 hours of mp3 files, and Wolf Hall is slightly over 24 hours.)
• with the Kindle or Nook app and the audiobook file on an iTouch or iPhone.
• with the UK Enhanced Edition app for iTouch, iPhone, and iPad.

To listen and read simultaneously, downloading the ebook and audiobook files. The next step is lining up the sections is made easier by knowing key areas. It is unlikely that anyone will listen to Wolf Hall for a solid 24 hours, so alignment will be necessary.

Aligning the Wolf Hall Audiobook to the Printed and Kindle Ebook Editions
The ebook and printed book has 6 sections divided into 3 parts each. The audiobook has 3 parts divided into 7 chapters. The audiobook is structured for listeners, so to read along with it, use the keyword search for locations. Here are the main guiders:

• Audiobook Part 1, Chapter 1 is page 3 in the hardback, about page 43 in the Nook, and mark 349 on the Kindle.
• Audiobook Part 2, Chapter 1 is page 152 of the hardback and mark 3900 on the Kindle.
• Audiobook Part 3, Chapter 1 is the middle of page 352 of the hardback and mark 8889 on the Kindle.

The Nook's page locations are harder to determine, because Nook pages repaginate based on font choices. When using a Nook, keyword search by phrases during will help realign listening and reading if necessary.

When it comes to audiobooks, Audible vs. iTunes is a microcosm of Amazon vs. Apple. Audible has more choices, and iTunes is easier to use for purchases.Simon Slater's Performance StyleSlater's Cromwell speaks with a direct, commanding tone. Even when he is persuading and manipulating, Cromwell's voice is controlled and clear. Slater elevates his tone Cromwell elevates in status, and Cromwell sounds almost stately when he talks to Mary Tudor. Thomas More has a cartoonishly arrogant voice, and More's lines drip and hiss. It is not until More is condemned to die when Slater momentarily simplifies More's voice. Anne Boleyn is winsome and haughty, Mary Boleyn is charmingly sly, and Slater's performance of the Spanish ambassador Eustace Chapuys is energetic.

Much of Slater's narration sounds like a sports cast. Wosley frets, Cromwell counsels. Henry muses, Anne wheedles. More opines, Norfolk roars. Even the omniscient narration is done with Cromwell's tone, as the book is written with Mantel's unusual 3rd person case used in a 1st person structure. This occasionally leads to reading errors, since it is hard to determine which "he" is being spoken of – Wosley, Cromwell, More, or Henry. Even Slater makes errors in who is speaking to whom, which is why a homemade enhanced edition of reading while listening makes valuable untangling the characters.

The magnificence of Wolf Hall is attested to by its awards - The 2009 Booker Prize, Time's Top 10 Book of 2009, The National Book Circle Fiction Award, but it is a book that requires a lot of focus. An ebook/audiobook combination is for sale through the Wolf Hall Enhanced Experience app, but clever readers can be a bit Cromwellian and "make or mar" with available technologies.
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Wolf Hall Publication Information
Wolf Hall was written by Hilary Mantel and published by Henry Hold in October 2009. It is available as a Kindle and Nook book through MacMillian books, and there is an enhanced UK Wolf Hall app. The ISBN is 0805080686.
The Wolf Hall unabridged audiobook was released by Macmillan Audio in November, 2009. It is performed by Simon Slater. The ISBN is 1427210160. It is available on Audible.com and iTunes.

This review was originally published in 2009 and updated in 2010.  Some links may go to the Wayback Machine as I try to restore old article from the now-defunct Suite101.

Reading the reviews of Wolf Hall, I thought Thomas More would be presented as a villain, but I don't think that was the case. Mantel presents More as her Thomas Cromwell would have seen him. She said in an interview that,
"I gradually realized that the confrontation with Thomas More wasn’t just a political crisis for Cromwell, it must have been an emotional crisis as well."

Mantel has two More motifs running through the book:

• She shows the Mores as foxes, with Margaret having a "fox-like" head, More closely associated with the fox he claims to have tamed but keeps caged, just as Cromwell wants to keep More from interfering with Tyndale and Friends, but even in the Tower, More continues to have spies that Cromwell can't find and get information Cromwell can't trace. 
• The scene with the carpet is a lovely view of how More's story has been patched together by historians. The carpet under inspection is not quite what it appears to be; Cromwell thinks it might be two carpets, stitched together, or an inferior carpet that only discriminating eyes can see. 

​This is, surely, how history has patched More together. His story is too often patched from the reverential stories from his family with exaggerated evils created to quiet the shock of his execution. Cromwell would surely have felt he could see flaws in More that others could not see. Mantel says it nicely, "In real life, there is something fraying about their host, a suspicion of unraveling weave."

More is characterized nicely in some parts. He is, "a star in another firmament" and Cromwell "can hardly bear it, to think of More sitting in the dark."  Even Cromwell admits:
One thing about More, he's never idled for an hour, he's passed his life reading, writing, talking toward what he believes is the good of the Christian commonwealth.

I first read Wolf Hall on my Kindle in November, 2009, and I have read it multiple times since then.

This morning I got an email for discounted Wolf Hall on Broadway tickets, because the last day to see parts one and two is July 5, 2015. My first thought was that I wish I could see it again, for any price and in any seat, because it was just that good.
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Ben Miles is the Thomas Cromwell that Hans Holbein painted and Hilary Mantel wrote into being. He is a cross between the history and the fiction, and every moment of the six hour plays stayed true to the books. Even when the play veers from the book, it is true to the sense of the story.

Some of the visuals of the play, such as Cromwell's hats steadily increasing in elegance (because someday, he'll want a crown) and the nice scene of handing a scroll to Mary Shelton, are in the books but I didn't really notice them until I saw them on stage.

It is no secret that I was disappointed with the BBC/PBS adaptation of Wolf Hall, because that Thomas Cromwell isn't my Thomas Cromwell. James Frain was my Thomas Cromwell, until Ben Miles.
The Cromwell Ben Miles gives us is funny and warm, threatening and and menacing, the center of attention and the outsider who is watching Anne and Henry with us.
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In the Youtube clips of the Wolf Hall, the dialouge is there, but not the audience. The laughter of people who have been sipping the Wolf Hall themed drinkings - The Cromwell and the Tudor Rose - makes these scenes seem different in person.

The stark staging becomes Tudor England, and the commitment to the book, right down to Mary Tudor and her skirts, makes me feel like the book love was being acted in front of me.'

If you are able to see the show at the Winter Garden Theater, go. The Wolf Hall on Broadway coupon code is WHBNL615 for "Single tickets as low as $59.50". The six hours went quickly, and of course the intermission at dinner helped. If you can't see the play, you can read the Wolf Hall script, but the play changed things for me. Claire Foy is my Anne (from the BBC "Wolf Hall"), Jeremy Northam is my Thomas More (from The Tudors"), and Nathaniel Parker is my Henry and Ben Miles is my Cromwell, both from Wolf Hall on Broadway.

Open letter to Hilary Mantel: Please pause your occasional Guardian articles. We want to read everything you write about Kate Middleton and Margaret Thatcher, but first: get the Mirror and the Light finished.

That isn't much of a letter, it is more of an open postcard, but as Wolf Hall points out: don't ask, don't get.

The Kindle edition of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies: The Stage Adaptation is good reading for die-hard fans or for anyone wondering if they can not sit through the six hours Wolf Hall on Broadway play. The
book starts off with in-depth character notes for the actors, and Oh Those Notes!

The character notes give a different perspective on the way Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies develop. Mantel notes that Cromwell's "particular distinction is this: you are a big-picture man who also sees and takes care of every detail." Mantel's Cromwell reminds one of Vladimir Putin, another statesman of humble beginnings who rose to great heights, getting rich along the way. His attention to detail is legendary, and he is aware of the daily struggles of Russians as well as the goals of ambitious conglomerates.

On April 29, 2007, Carl M. Kutter, Jr. described Vladimir Putin in "Putin and Me" for the Tampa Bay Times. "I learned he had an amazing intellect and memory...He is quiet and perceptive, listens and doesn't
talk a lot. He is precise and detail-oriented. If he tells you he will meet you at 8:02, he will be there at 8:01 and a half." Doesn't this sound like Cromwell?

At any rate, the character notes are a joy to read, and embedded in them are Mirror and the Light notes. Just a taste:

Thomas Cromwell: "You are the man with the slow resting heartbeat, the
calmest person in any room" (That phrase explains the slow heartbeat of the BBC/PBS Wolf Hall television mini-series, which — yawn — is a boring bit of breadcrumbs while waiting for the third book in the Wolf
Hall trilogy).

Thomas Wolsey: [Y]our route is paved with gold...even dead, you spook your opponents.

Thomas More: [Y]ou want the warmth of family life. (There is so much Hilary Mantel gets wrong about Thomas More, but his dedication to his family and his "whimsicality" are spot-on.) [Cromwell] doesn't
explain himself. Neither do you.

Henry VIII: [A]n understudy who will play the part much better than the original cast member. (And she writes this in the play adaptation notes! Hilary Mantel is a master.] But you need Cromwell as a
stabilizing force.

Anne Boleyn's character notes include a compelling argument for hyperthyroidism, Katherine is further affirmed in her destiny to (let's all say it together) be the true queen of England.
Christophe is confirmed as a work of fiction with a historical base. Interestingly, the play notes suggest Cromwell chose Norris and the other gentlemen conspirators not for the thin vengeance of Wolsey, but because they are marcher lords on important borders who interfere with his plans.

Note: the little Mirror and the Light spoilers begin here.

Stephen Gardiner, who Mark Gatiss turns into one of the highlights of the Wolf Hall tv show, is given a suggestion of what will happen in The Mirror and the Light, "When you finally make common cause with the Duke of Norfolk, his other great enemy, you will be able to destroy him." Aha. An alliance, as Dwight Shrute would say. Norfolk and Gardiner form an alliance in book three. Thomas Howard will be "triumphant" when Cromwell falls, which surprises me. I thought Cromwell was growing on Uncle Norfolk.

Rafe and Richard will split the Master Secretary position in 1539, when Cromwell is "staggering under the burden of work". 
And: Mirror and the Light SPOILER ALERT: "At Cromwell's fall, you cannot save him...you carry his last letter to Henry. Read it, Henry." (I am not saying more. Just get this book!)

Thomas Wyatt will be the last person Cromwell speaks to. "He takes your hand and begs you to stop crying." Mantel overdoes her praise for Wyatt's poetry. Seriously? The man who memorized the New
Testament and reads in multiple languages is going to be impressed by Thomas Wyatt's verses? Whatever.

Here is the most specific hint from the character notes, and it relates to Gregory, who in the book is even stupider than Charles Brandon, but in reality was supposedly well-educated and charming.
"In the third Cromwell novel, you will say to your father, 'You know everything. You do everything. You are everything. What's left for me?"

There are more character notes I am leaving out, because really you need to read this. I will review the play script soon, but know that the words are witty and the first scene has more dialogue than the entire Wolf Hall mini-series.

Ok, just a little bit.

Wyatt: [Cromwell] won't beat me, will he?
Cromwell: [I] might.
Wyatt: I am in your debt.
Wolsey: And that's another thing. You're always in debt.

After reading the character notes and the play, I have to wonder if
there will be a fourth book. It seems like Hilary Mantel an unrequited crush on Rafe Sadler that is stretching across history. I hope it ends up stretching into another book. But first, we need The
Mirror and the Light, which should come out in 2015, since it was due in 2011, but will likely appear in 2016.
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Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies Adaptation for the Broadway Play is written by Hilary Mantel and Mike Poulton. It is published by Picador. (February 24, 2015). ASIN: B00JI13J46. ISBN: 1250064171.