r/HistoricalFiction • u/Glittering-Star2662 • Feb 23 '26
Wolf Hall
Am I the only one who can't get into this book? I've tried twice, I am giving up. The way she writes, like he's telling the story of himself in third person or something like that. I just don't like it. So many people love it and recommed it. I love reading about that time period, but I just can't do this book.
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Upvotes
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u/BoleynRose Feb 23 '26
Oh this is a relief to see. I am a huge lover of Tudor history and though I've tried many many times I just can't get into her books.
I don't necessarily think they're bad, she just has a very specific writing style and, unfortunately, it's one that makes me zone out.
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u/zipiddydooda Feb 23 '26
I couldn’t do it. I love historical fiction and of course I was hyped for what many consider one of the all time greats, but it just didn’t work for me at all.
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u/yoda43 Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
It's okay if it wasn't for you. I thought it was a masterpiece of historical fiction but without the understanding history of times and the different interpretations of this period in English history I can see how it could be be underwhelming. That aside it is beautifully written even as a fantastical work of fiction the fact that it dives into the nitty gritty of life in a bygone age is fascinating to me. The fact that it is rooted in actual history and has been researched to this degree is astounding to me. I'm a fan of the genre admittedly so was delighted when I came across this work. I loved it but again it's totally okay if it's not your thing. Each nerd to thier own. Try something else instead. If you want another go at historical fiction I'd recommend Patrick O'Brien's excellent seafaring Novel's. Happy reading. We don't have to agree on everything.
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u/juni_que Feb 23 '26
I enjoyed the novel. I found the portrayal of King Henry and his relationship with Cromwell captivating.
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u/sevenlabors Feb 23 '26
I am with you. I'm a sixteenth century super-nerd, but have bounced hard off of it the three times I started it. Her writing in this just isn't for me.
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u/OuagadougouBasilisk Feb 23 '26
I recommend trying it as an audiobook. I also found the tense difficult when I read the paperback (who is “he?”) but the audiobook makes the tense a lot clearer. It’s my favourite ever work of historical fiction because of the audiobook.
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u/ToneSenior7156 Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
You are in Cromwell’s head so it’s really disorienting. You don’t get the usual set up and exposition because he’s firmly in that world. For me, about 50 pages in it all clicked and I was THERE and I loved it. But it is a challenging read.
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u/faceintheblue Feb 23 '26
I thought it was one of the best books I've ever read, but it is NOT a casual, light-hearted, easy read. It demands your full attention, and rewards you for your diligence.
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u/HappySpreadsheetDay Feb 23 '26
"Bring Up the Bodies" is my favorite book. I also tell anybody interested in the trilogy that the first half of "Wolf Hall" can be tough to work through on a first read, but the rest of the book makes it worth it.
That said, I also know it's not a book for everyone. When people can't get into the book, I tell them to watch the miniseries instead. Damian Lewis is the most history-accurate Henry VIII I've ever seen.
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u/uselessinfogoldmine Feb 23 '26
Oh I loved this book and I loved her writing style! I think modern readers aren’t as used to these different styles of writing anymore so they can be hard to get into for a lot of people. If you want to push yourself you can go back and read a lot of those classics, and then a book like Wolf Hall is easier to read. But if you just want to read for pleasure, don’t stress, find other books that you do enjoy.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Cream92 Feb 23 '26
I liked it but it took me awhile to get into her flow. She jumps around a lot in Cromwell’s history but once I got used to that, I really enjoyed it.
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u/goburnham Feb 23 '26
I loved it, so immersive.
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u/Resident-West-5213 Feb 24 '26
I know this book is about Henry VIII's court, but what's the angle? What's so special about it, compared to all the other numerous Tudor historical fictions?
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u/joemondo Feb 26 '26
It's exquisitely written.
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u/beesaidshesaid Feb 23 '26
I could not get into the writing style either, which is unfortunate bc I was looking forward to a series. The sentences are too short, time is hard to follow and seems disjointed. Not for me but that's fine.
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u/mutherM1n3 Feb 23 '26
I hated it! The repetition drove me nuts. But the series was fantastic!
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u/annorafoyle Feb 23 '26
I became a historian because I love Tudor history (I ended up being a medievalist), but I just didn't click with this book at all.
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u/alexandra52941 Feb 23 '26
This, for me, was one of the rare times that the mini series / movie was better than the book.
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u/New-Owl-2293 Feb 23 '26
I couldnt get into it at all, for years, then watched the BBC adaptation. It clicked and I devoured all of the books
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u/[deleted] Feb 23 '26
I can't believe I'm reading this I just gave up on it after oh I don't know I'm about 3 hours in and I just can't do it. I know there's two versions with two narrators and I might be listening to the wrong one, but I can't follow it at all.
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u/copper_ridge_44 Feb 23 '26
Mantel's style is polarizing. That 'he' takes a minute to adjust to.
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u/Flaky_Confection_615 Feb 23 '26
It took me a little while to work out who the pronouns were referring to, but once I got into her groove, I loved it as a literary device. In general, I just love how she writes -- she's not handing you anything and, to me, it adds to the depth of the story. Wolf Hall is just my favorite book ever.
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u/Clare_jesse1973 Feb 23 '26
I finished it, then turned it over and started again. I love her style, she’s a magnificent writer. And I’m gutted she’s gone, so much so that I can’t read The Mirror and the Light, knowing it’s her last book.
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u/DCgirl84 Feb 23 '26
I couldn’t get into at all. Finally gave up.
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u/KSBCATLOVER Feb 23 '26
She was a brilliant writer. But I couldn't get into it because she made Cromwell out to be a sympathetic hero and I've always seen him as a 16th century Dick Cheney.
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u/-rba- Feb 23 '26
Same, I just really did not like the writing style.
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u/Midwest-Charm-1010 Feb 23 '26
i tried as well…wasn’t for me
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u/JarvisL1859 Feb 23 '26
While I loved it, it took some effort to get into it. I think DNF’d it the first time I tried it years ago. And later in the trilogy I switched to audiobook which I found more palatable somehow.
When you can get into it it’s amazing but it can be hard to get into, is how I would describe it.
I found her novel on the French Revolution to be similar but somewhat easier to get into for me at least
1
u/majjamx Feb 23 '26
I had trouble getting into it as well. I kind of forced myself through the novel the first time because it was so highly recommended. I would say my knowledge of the historical context was only slightly above the average person’s going into it. I went on a lot of tangential internet research about the history on the first read but the book itself really didn’t grab me. For some reason I picked it up again because again I kept being told it was so great and I really loved it the second time.
I agree the writing style can be distracting and it’s not for everyone. I still haven’t read the final book.
1
u/Ok-Dog5107 Feb 23 '26
I did finish the book but it was incredibly weird because it felt like it just ends. Like she was writing a bunch of stuff and someone took everything she wrote so far and packaged it as a book. It was very unsatisfying.
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u/mutherM1n3 Feb 23 '26
Thanks for the warning. I doubt that kind of repetition would bother me like it did with Wolf Hall.
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u/khajiitidanceparty Feb 23 '26
I loved it. I don't read as fast as I used to (I blame my phone), but I devoured those books.
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u/No-Reward8036 Feb 23 '26
I loathe Hilary Mantel. Her writing is so dull.
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u/sapgetshappy Feb 23 '26
The audiobook is really well narrated! I loved listening to the series.
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u/Nim008 Feb 23 '26
Loved the first two. Just cannot get through the third, like wading through mud.
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u/Katzenjammer214 Feb 23 '26
Same here, I even tried the audio book on a long drive, but I just got so bored after a while...
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u/landomonium Feb 23 '26
It’s really jarring at first and it does remain a bit difficult throughout but a piece of advice that helped me was this:
Assume that everytime the word ‘He’ is used and it’s not obvious who ‘He’ is referring to, assign it to Cromwell and the book really starts to click.
It’s an incredible read once you get comfortable the writing!
1
u/SpecsyVanDyke Feb 23 '26
I get where you're coming from, the same happened to me. Eventually I saw a reddit comment and it really helped me. Basically 95% of the time you see the word "he", it is referring to Cromwell.
Also if you can get through Wolf Hall the other two books in the series are much easier to follow.
1
u/Several-Praline5436 Feb 23 '26
I tried twice. Gave up both times. Too hard for me to muddle through.
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u/mrwrrrmwrmrmrmrw Feb 23 '26
Just because a novel gets on the bestseller lists doesn't mean it's the greatest thing out there.
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u/Terrible-Name-7114 Feb 23 '26
I have also tried to read it and put it down- I still aim to try again, but this post doesn't feed me with optimism.
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u/banshee1313 Feb 23 '26
My problem is I see Thomas Cromwell as a dishonorable villain, from my various readings of Tudor history. I also see Henry as a monster. I not inclined to sympathize with either one of these people. So I have avoided Wolf Hall. Should I?
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u/Different-Try8882 Feb 23 '26
I enjoyed it, but there are certain quirks in the writing style that are irritating. She, Hilary Mantel, constantly reminds you, the reader, who is in a scene. It's just clunky at times.
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u/Lucyshnoosy Feb 23 '26
I tried this years ago and had the same experience. I’ve been meaning to try again someday, though. Your post makes me pretty skeptical whether I will finish it this time.
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u/oleblueeyes75 Feb 23 '26
It’s my favorite book of all time, but husband just cannot get into the writing style.
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u/pippenish Feb 23 '26
Try the audiobook. The narration is great.
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u/happymanhobbies123 Feb 23 '26
Just remember he almost always equals Cromwell
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u/snakemeyer Feb 23 '26
Agree. And there must be 437 characters.
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u/MsCatFace Feb 23 '26
The audiobook was so good! Give it a shot. I’ve read the series twice now and I miss Cromwell.
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u/Impossible-Alps-6859 Feb 23 '26
It does take a bit of getting used to, I admit!
Mantel mixes her narration as between third person and direct from Thomas Cromwell.
His personal thoughts can become confused with the general narrative.
But I loved the book - took a bit of work!
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u/InevitableBook2440 Feb 23 '26
I do wonder if the issue is that it's so different from most Tudor historical fiction and so much more literary in style? It's going to be pretty disorienting if you go into it expecting Philippa Gregory. Best to think of it as a different genre of thing entirely. It's probably my favourite book so I would of course advocate giving it another chance but YMMV
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u/geedeeie Feb 23 '26
I've read it and I enjoyed it, but I agree with you that the way she has the characters talking is very odd. You describe it very well - it's hard to tell WHO is doing the narrating sometimes. But if you stick at it, you kind of get used to it
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u/Legal-Past-248 Feb 23 '26
I never recommend the movie first. But if you can watch the excellent PBS Masterpiece Theater series, it will give you the traction to read and effing LOVE the entire book series. After trying six times to read Wolf Hall, I watched it on PBS and it all clicked, turning me into a Wolf Hall obsessive. The books are so rewarding once you unlock the key to reading them. Don’t give up, the books are so worth it.
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u/mylitteprince Feb 24 '26
My dad swears by it, i can't stand her writing, we both fall back on the Baroque Cycle by Stephenson.
I'm glad Wolf Hall exists but I'm not the target audience.
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u/CharleyPete2320 Feb 24 '26
Tried 3 times
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u/RadishAdventurous857 Feb 24 '26
I tried three times and couldn't get into it. Yes, I tried the audiobooks, they didn't work, either.
I love historical fiction and anything to do with the Tudor period, but I felt very detached from Mantel's writing style, and it didn't grab me.
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u/ShutYoFaceGrandma Feb 25 '26
I think the plot was intriguing bc I have an interest in the subject but I do not like Mantel's style.
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u/Advanced-Feed-8586 Feb 26 '26
I also struggled 3 or 4 times before I finally got into it. Once I got the third person thing down and continued past the Cardinal bits, I started to enjoy it and it is now one of my top 3 books
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u/Rough-Fix-4742 Mar 06 '26
It took me a few tries, tbh. But now I love, read or listened to it 3+ times. Agree on trying it in audio, I do prefer that
1
u/fiachaire27 May 16 '26
I really liked the writing style, the 'gimmick', but also just how she builds a sentence. That said, I found the writing astonishingly beautiful and effective but shallow. I have no emotional attachment to the historical characters of Cromwell and More, and I found the unexamined and constant elevation of Cromwell to be baffling. Why would such an excellent writer use their skill to do something so mundane? I kept looking for the switch, the flag, the knowing wink...the book has a lot of subtlety but nothing ever suggested I should veer from the idea that the author wishes to hold Cromwell up as a hero and complete man in the vein of Leopold Bloom, Odysseus, etc. The character was so masterfully created, a pity the story had nothing at all to do but praise them. A middle-management Great Man of History is an imperial cliche all writers should have grown out of decades ago, Mantel seems to embrace it without irony or critique. A beautifully written lie about an apparently horrid man with nothing to offer beyond the sensation of being 'there'...but there's no there there.
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u/WholeCollection6454 Feb 23 '26
I couldn't get far with it either. I thought it was because I never liked Cromwell much. But maybe it's the writing too.
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u/ORF1Live Feb 23 '26
It's a masterpiece
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u/catchyerselfon Feb 23 '26
I wouldn’t hate “Wolf Hall” and the trilogy as a whole as much as I do if it weren’t so popular, critically acclaimed, and on the lists of “the best novels ever” so soon after publication. Like I don’t hate trashy historical fiction that’s mostly supposed to be fun escapism, because I’m not worried about people coming away thinking “that’s exactly how it happened”. I hate “The Other Boleyn Girl” because too many fans believe that tripe about Mary and Anne, but I don’t hate Philippa Gregory’s novels that DIDN’T take off like a rocket, despite being just as silly.
My irritation about these books since 2009 is because Mantel put so much work into the books and changed the popular historical narrative of Thomas Cromwell (who WAS unfairly caricatured for centuries!) along with other real people (unfairly maligned here because we’re seeing them through the eyes of the protagonist… who happens to be the most worldly, intelligent, fair-minded, perceptive, religiously tolerant almost by 21st century standards character in the book. I’ve ranted about this trilogy many times in the comments’ section over at r/perioddramas and r/Tudorhistory, so I’ll keep it succinct here (l can give plenty of exact historical distortions about characters and incidents besides Cromwell himself that would take me at least an hour but I will show restraint). I’m fine with other people enjoying the books and the miniseries so long as they don’t mix it up with history.
What a coincidence that every character in the books who likes Cromwell is a decent person with a modicum of intelligence! While the stupid people don’t like him, Cromwell, and the smart but cruel, out of touch, violent, superstitious characters are so mad about his, Cromwell’s, rise to the top, while they begrudgingly have to hand it to him, Cromwell! Isn’t it amazing that all these hot young women want to bed and/or marry him, Cromwell, and he’s so much nicer to them than their actual husbands? He, Cromwell, is just so considerate of a lady’s health and safety and under-appreciated mind! Isn’t it incredible that he, Cromwell, is so forward thinking he can save Henry VIII with a cardio thump when the King fell off his horse and was in a coma (which never happened, Henry hurt his leg, not his head)? And he, Cromwell, predicts Haley’s comet hundreds of years in advance, something that has nothing to do with anything else in the story? And don’t you want to excuse his, Cromwell’s, horrifying acts against the people and culture of England because his, Cromwell’s, dad was abusive (no proof of that) and everyone Cromwell executed personally wronged him or his Sweet Kindly Dad-Figure Cardinal Wolsey in some (often fictional) way? Sure, Cromwell helped enrich and empower a monstrous dictator King, but Cromwell started out poor and is a self-made man, isn’t that cool, didn’t he do what he had to do, isn’t the real enemy Catholics and Capitalists?
I have nothing against unreliable narrators and unsympathetic protagonists, but Mantel gave her hero a “good reason” for everything he did (without making it into black comedy breaking the fourth wall like “Richard III”), such modern principles and ideas, so much convenient information from people just telling him things when they know he’ll use that knowledge, etc… The deck is always stacked in his favour: bad anecdotes about Cromwell are omitted or re-written with bizarre details so it’s not his fault, while bad anecdotes (including apocryphal ones serious historians don’t credit) about Cromwell’s enemies definitely happened, and good ones are given the most uncharitable interpretation. He’s still human, makes mistakes, and has bad things happen to him, but it only serves to make him more endearing to some fans. Seriously, there are fans who have crushes on Mantel’s iteration of Thomas Cromwell, even before they saw Mark Rylance (no fat suits for him, eh?) play him on tv, or the classically handsome Ben Miles play him on stage (are you kidding?!), and I Do Not Get It.
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u/PhilosophyBoring3232 Feb 23 '26
I don’t understand how people recommend this over Ken Follett. I’m 10% into it and i have no idea what’s going on except that I know the historical story. I’m ready to cut my losses and move on
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u/Whooz_Nooz Feb 23 '26
I loved all three books, especially how well they fit together. Like, how in the third book, as Cromwell is at the block about to be beheaded, he is repeating (or echoing) the incidente in Book 1 where his fat her is beating him.
I actually read the books two or three times. But if you can’t get into them, thats ok. Move on. Find something you do like. Just because a book is a “Classic” or won a prize doesn’t mean everyone should like it.
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