Wolf Hall is a 2009 historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family's seat of Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, in Wiltshire.
[5] In 1500, the teenage Thomas Cromwell ran away from home to flee his abusive father and sought his fortune as a soldier in France.
By 1527, the well-travelled Cromwell had returned to England and was now a lawyer, a married father of three, and highly respected as the right-hand man of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, with a reputation for successful deal-making.
His life takes a tragic turn when his wife and two daughters abruptly die of the sweating sickness, leaving him a widower.
Continuing to gain favour with both the King and Anne, Cromwell is disturbed by Wolsey's activities in York but is shocked when he learns that the Cardinal has been recalled to London to face treason charges and has died on the way.
Born to a working-class family of no position or name, Cromwell became the right-hand man of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, adviser to the King.
In that role, he observed turning points in English history, as Henry asserted his authority to declare his marriage annulled from Catherine of Aragon, married Anne Boleyn, broke from Rome, established the independence of the Church of England, and called for the dissolution of the monasteries.
The novel is a re-envisioning of historical and literary records; in Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons Cromwell is portrayed as the calculating, unprincipled opposite of Thomas More's honour and decency.
Mantel's novel offers an alternative to that portrayal, an intimate portrait of Cromwell as a tolerant, pragmatic, and talented man attempting to serve King, country, and family amid the political machinations of Henry's court and the religious upheavals of the Reformation, in contrast to More's viciously punitive adherence to the old Roman Catholic order that Henry is sweeping away.
In addition to those already mentioned, prominent characters include: The title comes from the name of the Seymour family seat at Wolfhall or Wulfhall in Wiltshire; the title's allusion to the old Latin saying Homo homini lupus ("Man is wolf to man") serves as a constant reminder of the dangerously opportunistic nature of the world through which Cromwell navigates.
[19] In The Guardian, Christopher Tayler wrote "Wolf Hall succeeds on its own terms and then some, both as a non-frothy historical novel and as a display of Mantel's extraordinary talent.
Lyrically yet cleanly and tightly written, solidly imagined yet filled with spooky resonances, and very funny at times, it's not like much else in contemporary British fiction.
That supple movement between laughter and horror makes this rich pageant of Tudor life her most humane and bewitching novel.
This is a wonderful and intelligently imagined retelling of a familiar tale from an unfamiliar angle – one that makes the drama unfolding nearly five centuries ago look new again and shocking again, too.
[35] In January 2013, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) announced it would stage adaptations by Mike Poulton of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies in its Winter season.
[42] Producers Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel brought the London productions of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, starring Ben Miles as Thomas Cromwell; Lydia Leonard as Anne Boleyn; Lucy Briers as Catherine of Aragon; and Nathaniel Parker as Henry VIII, to Broadway's Winter Garden Theatre[43] in March 2015 for a 15-week run.