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Work InformationThe Mirror & the Light af Hilary Mantel (2020)
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Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. Excellent. I did not find this third book as challenging to read as the first one; perhaps because I was ready for the narrative style, perhaps because I've matured as a reader, likely a bit of both. The size is daunting: twice the length of typical novels at 875 pages (plus a few pages of what happened to them later? historical notes), but it just pulled me a long. Some books you push through, knowing you'll get used to it, or it will get better, or you will be better for having read it. This one compelled me to keep reading. It even crept into my sleep and I would dream I was reading it. I love how the overall keel of the book is so steady, so sure. You know how it will end (if you have any knowledge of Tudor history) but it never races towards the end, it never bogs down in historical explanations or descriptions. Never drags it feet. It just keeps moving forward at that steady, even pace. There is great witty dialogue interspersed -- or perhaps more accurately a line or two every so often. The characters of Cromwell's entourage are likable. Even and especially Cromwell is a likable character, which is excellent because most of the historical fiction for that time period casts him as the bad guy. Henry is characterized so well, just as the king should be in a way to admire and frustrate. I appreciated the days in the Tower, too, and Cromwell's reflections on his life. So much more to admire: the way the narrative sets the minor characters up for their future events, how Cromwell's past visits, follows, and speaks to him through memories, ghosts, and reflections. The plot steps and how it moves forward subtly but effectively to keep the story moving ahead. And the motifs of mirror and light, how th references flit in and out of the story without contrivance. Even if you've not read the first two in the series, you can enjoy this one. If you like Tudor history and literary historical fiction. Just be ready for sore hands from holding such a thick heavy book. And so, the tapestry is done. It moves and shines, almost coming alive. This is a brilliant conclusion to a trilogy that made me fall in love with historical fiction all over again (and probably made me more demanding). I love the writing. I loved the way the novel moved between past and present. The amount of research that Hilary Mantel must have put in is staggering. I loved how fact and fiction blended together, making the characters and 16th century England leap off the page, while you, the reader, find yourself thinking "now I know what REALLY happened". That illusion only begins to dispel once you are done with the book... and you long to go back in. I saved this on my shelf until I could absolutely dedicate a chunk of time to it. In doing so, I was also afraid that I was raising my expectations too high. But I shouldn't have been because this was exquisite. My favourite sections were any scene where the characters were in a room and just talked. These were not even pivotal scenes where perhaps history changed in one conversation, but almost daily chats of almost no import. There were heaps of these but I greedily still want more. It was also extremely funny at times, with so many moments where it reminded me incongruously but fittingly of Veep. At over 800 pages, I could have read 800 more. The inevitability of history is somehow made new and fresh without being sensationalist. I can't wait to reread this series in the future.
She [Mantel] is still exuberantly rethinking what novels can do. Not since Bleak House has the present tense performed such magic. The narrative voice rides at times like a spirit or angel on thermals of vitality, catching the turning seasons, the rhythms of work and dreams, cities and kitchens and heartbeats. Indeholdt iHæderspriserDistinctionsNotable Lists
""If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?" England, 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, Thomas 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 before Jane dies giving birth to the male heir he most craves. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he 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. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him? With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with 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"-- No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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Once again Mantel keeps us laser-focussed on Thomas Cromwell at home, at the office, taking confessions at the Tower, and keeping an eye on the King’s daughters.
The story also shows us — and pretty directly — how awful the monarchy could to be to its managers, the bureaucrats who were creating institutions on the fly as it were when Henry VIII made the fateful decision to reject the Pope as head of the church.
Henry thought he hadn’t deviated from Catholic religion even as the Lutherans changed the ground rules.
But for Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell who followed him trying to square the King’s libido with his obsession making a male heir, changing relationships between the states of Europe, the rapid changes owing to the discovery of the New World, the invention of moveable type, the growing force of German nationalism, managing the ship of state became a game of (mostly) snakes and (few) ladders.
Henry VIII declared the Divine Right of kings to rule at a time when controlling the message was growing more difficult by the day.
It was a stillborn concept. ( )