'Bring Up The Bodies' --A Review
The sequel to Wolf Hall, Bring Up The Bodies resumes the tale of Thomas Cromwell and the machinations of Henry VIII's court without missing so much as a beat. Things are changing rapidly in England: having fought for so long to marry Anne Boleyn, he begins to sour on his marriage, spending more and more time with Jane Seymour and beginning to fall in love with her.
Anne is very aware of all of this and the strains of their marriage, coupled with Anne's inability to produce a male heir (Elizabeth and Mary are both on the scene at this point, though we don't actually see much of them in the story.) eventually leads Henry to a breaking point and finally, in private, he tells Cromwell: "I cannot live as I have lived." That message is clear enough to Cromwell: the King wants a new wife, so he gets to work.
Cromwell tries to be reasonable at first and approaches the family about a separation-- her father, Wiltshire is willing to negotiate, but her brother is not and tells Cromwell that if the marriage survives, Cromwell will be first on their enemies list and that they'd be coming for him.
That proves to be somewhat freeing for Cromwell and he puts his ears to the ground and starts talking to people the more he talks the more rumors he hears, and the more people tell him that Anne has been unfaithful to the king. The musician, Mark Smeaton, Anne's sister-in-law Lady Rochford, and others tell Cromwell more and more and he begins to build his case.
Eventually, he gathers proof enough to bring Anne down and the King is willing to do it. Cromwell takes the opportunity to target those closest to Anne who helped take down his mentor, Cardinal Wolsey. (In Wolf Hall, he watches and he takes names and now he is ready to extract justice.) Cromwell harbors some doubts though, not fully convinced that they're innocent of what they've been accused of but unable to turn back without compromising his own survival.
Speaking of survival: Anne and several of the accused- including her brother are put to death. Cromwell, who gets a barony for his reward, even as King Henry moves to wed Jane Seymour has tied himself to some new allies in the Queen's new family and his position as Henry's Chief advisor seems assured. And yet...
Mantel is brilliant. There's really no other way to describe this. Even if you're only casually aware of the history of King Henry VIII's court- and believe me, before these books outside of Thomas More and Cranmer I was only vaguely aware of Thomas Cromwell but beyond that, even if you've just heard Herman's Hermits song everyone knows what's going to happen here. He's got more wives to get to and Anne is in the way- so, off with her head!
But what Mantel does that is brilliant is that she ratchets up the tension as Cromwell begins to assemble the evidence against Anne. You feel the trap being constructed around her, piece by piece and the pace quickens, and then just like that, it's done. Off with her head. Game, set, match- victory to Cromwell, and yet... that note of unease that permeates the ending of this book practically demands that the reader pick up the final volume in the trilogy as soon as possible, and believe me, it just shot up my 'to be read' list. But it's also something new: it shows that Cromwell, while an effective operator can make mistakes. He's willing to enjoy his victory but keenly aware that it could come back to bite him
The writing remains top-notch. I wish I could find a good way to describe it-- she keeps the use of an Indirect 3rd Person POV (again, I don't know how else to describe it). I don't know if I'd call her prose poetic, but it's... subtle. It's smooth. It fits the characters and the narrative absolutely perfectly. My Grade: **** out of ****. Read these books! (Also: watch the Masterpiece Theater adaptation of these books. The cast is insanely good and the adaptation is even better.)