Wolves (novel)

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Wolves , in the original English title Wolf Hall , is a 2009 historical novel by the British author Hilary Mantel . The central storyline of the novel is the rise of Thomas Cromwell at the court of Henry VIII. The novel, the first volume in a trilogy, ends with the execution of Thomas More .

The English title is derived from Wulfhall or Wolfhall, the family seat of the Seymours, to which the siblings Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and Jane Seymour belong. The title is also reminiscent of the Latin phrase Homo homini lupus (man is a wolf to man) and thus alludes to the conditions at the royal court in the period from 1500 to 1535.

The novel won the British Man Booker Prize for Fiction , the Walter Scott Prize and the US National Book Critics Circle Award . In 2012 the British newspaper The Observer named it one of the best historical novels ever published. In 2015, this novel was voted one of the most important works of the early 21st century by the BBC's selection of the 20 best novels from 2000 to 2014 . The second part of the trilogy entitled Falken ( Bring Up the Bodies in English ) was released in 2012 and was also awarded the Man Booker Prize. After Peter Carey and JM Coetzee , Mantel was the third person to be awarded the Man Booker Prize a second time.

Historical background

Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, by Hans Holbein

Cromwell came from a humble background, his father, depicted as brutal in the novel, was a blacksmith and brewer. As a young man, Cromwell left England and traveled extensively through Italy , first as a mercenary and later as a cloth merchant. After returning to England, he studied law. Thomas Cromwell joined Cardinal Wolsey as a lawyer before 1520 . He lost his office as Lord Chancellor in 1529 because he had not managed to bring about the annulment of the king's marriage to Catherine of Aragon , for which Heinrich had requested. Cromwell not only survived this fall, but even won the favor of Henry VIII in 1529, while Thomas More rose to become Henry's new Lord Chancellor.

On April 12, 1533, Cromwell was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, on April 15, 1534, Royal Secretary and on October 8, 1534, Master of the Rolls . Under his leadership, Parliament adopted the Supreme Act in 1534 , which made the King head of the Church of England instead of the Pope . This made the divorce of Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragón and his marriage to Anne Boleyn possible.

More had already resigned the office of chancellor in May 1532 and was initially able to evade the attempt to bring him into connection with treasonable machinations. But in 1534 parliament also passed the Act of Succession . It included the oath confirming the legitimacy of all children born to Heinrich and Anne Boleyn; in addition, he rejected any foreign authority (that is, also of the Pope). Like the Supreme Oath before, this oath was not to be taken by the entire population, but only by those who were summoned to do so, i.e. by holders of public offices and those who were suspected of not supporting Heinrich. More was supposed to take this oath in April 1534. Because he refused, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London - together with Bishop John Fisher of Rochester - and executed on July 6, 1535.

Characterization of Cromwell's and writing process

Traditionally, Cromwell is portrayed in historiography as well as in literature as a scheming and unprincipled person, and Thomas More is compared to him as an honorable person who acts according to moral standards. Hilary Mantel's historical novel portrays Cromwell differently: the balanced portrayal of private and state affairs creates a portrait of Cromwell that shows him as a talented and pragmatic person who tried to serve both Henry VIII and his country at the intrigued royal court.

It took Hilary Mantel five years to research the historical processes and to write the novel. In an interview, she called it the most challenging part to reconcile the historically documented course of events with her biography of Cromwell. In the end, it recorded in a file card system arranged alphabetically according to the historical person, which historical person was where at the decisive moments of the action.

Reviews

Thomas More as Lord Chancellor, stylized by posterity as a philanthropist and martyr.
Painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1527

In his review for the British newspaper The Guardian, Christopher Tayler described wolves as proof of Mantel's extraordinary literary talent. It is comparable to little of the literature currently being published in the UK. Despite the considerable length of the English-language edition of 650 pages, the reader ends the novel with the wish for more. Susan Bassnett did not agree with this view in her review for Times Higher Education . She feels the novel is badly written and Mantel write, write, write ... Bassnett claims that she has not yet been able to find anyone outside of the Booker Prize Committee to finish reading this novel. The thought that Hilary Mantel would soon publish the second part of the trilogy makes Bassnett shudder.

Vanora Bennett comes to a judgment on the novel that shares much with Christopher Taylor's. She was immediately gripped by the novel and only came to its end with sadness. It is an intelligent and wonderful rendition of a very well-known story and the attraction lies in the perspective taken. It makes this story seem new and shocking again.

In her review for Der Spiegel, Sophia Ebert also emphasizes how carefully Mantel moves along historical facts. It comes very close to the figure of Thomas Cromwell, crawling into him, as it were, until the “he” becomes a “you” and sometimes an “I”. She gives her protagonist a human face behind the mask of the cool, calculating statesman, shows his doubts and his compulsions, and she shows his hardened political opponents: above all Thomas More, the author of Utopia , whom posterity has stylized as a philanthropist and martyr . All of them are actors in this world who are busy making a fitting face and all of them are wolves watching each other. Olivia Laing points out in her review for The Observer that Hilary Mantel had previously shown her aptitude for historical novels. She does not shy away from the uglier sides of life and even when describing misery she finds a form of sober and not comforting humor. It is precisely this ability that makes the novel a deeply human and enchanting work.

In his review for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Michael Schmitt not only emphasizes the clear language of the German translation by Christiane Trabant , but also emphasizes how Hilary Mantel wrote without any historicizing adornment. It does not develop extensive historical tableaus, but rather the novel consists of a series of innumerable small chamber play scenes that take place in private, semi-private and highly official contexts and in the course of which the political and the power strategies are often only perceptible as side notes, as irritation, as instinctive tactics , as inconspicuous impulses for new orientations. All of this condenses into a portrait of man and time, which Hilary Mantel - with the exception of the intervening memories - tells consistently in the present tense, as an intensely felt and oppressive present that demands attention at every moment, for mistrust, and not least for far-sighted ones Objectives beyond the darkness of the moment experienced.

Markus Gasser is almost enthusiastic in his review for the FAZ : Hilary Mantel has written a novel against which every line that one writes about the Tudors should be measured from now on. It is a moral drama with the force of a Shakespeare drama. With its inner monologues, duel dialogues and script-tight scenarios, it is the first successful break-in of high modernism Virginia Woolf and TS Eliot into the popular historical novel. It reads as if Stanley Kubrick , Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese had worked on it in peaceful unity.

Awards

  • 2009: Man Booker Prize
  • 2009: National Book Critics Circle Award
  • 2010: Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction
  • 2010: The Morning News Tournament of Books
  • 2010: Finalist for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction

expenditure

filming

Wolf Hall and the sequel Bring Up the Bodies were filmed by the BBC as a six-part series under the title Wölfe (Original: Wolf Hall ) and broadcast in January / February 2015. The main character, Thomas Cromwell, is played by Mark Rylance , Henry VIII by Damian Lewis . The miniseries received high praise from the critics . The films are also available on DVD. From January 21, 2016, they were broadcast on Arte , again on August 17 and 24, 2017.

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Wolf Hall wins the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction: Man Booker Prize news . Themanbookerprize.com. October 6, 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  2. ^ National Book Critics Circle: awards . Bookcritics.org. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  3. ^ William Skidelsky: The 10 best historical novels . In: The Observer , Guardian Media Group, May 13, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2015. 
  4. ^ William Georgiades: Hilary Mantel's Heart of Stone . In: The Slate Book Review . Slate.com . May 4, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  5. ↑ Alexandra Alter: How to Write a Great Novel , Wall Street Journal. November 13, 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2015. 
  6. ↑ Christopher Tayler: Henry's fighting dog . In: The Guardian , May 2, 2009. Retrieved June 11, 2010. 
  7. ↑ Susan Bassnett: Pseuds' Corner: What Makes a Book 'Unpickupable?' . In: Times Higher Education , February 9, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2015. 
  8. ↑ Vanora Bennett:Wolf Hall by Hilary coat . In: The Times , April 25, 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2015. 
  9. ↑ Review on Spiegel Online , January 1, 2010, accessed May 25, 2015
  10. ↑ Olivia Laing: Review: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel . In: The Observer , April 26, 2009. Retrieved May 25, 2015. 
  11. ↑ NZZ: Hilary Mantel's novel Wölfe: A bruise on the state body , accessed on May 25, 2015
  12. ↑ FAZ of August 20, 2010: Hilary Mantel: Wölfe - The Hidden Hero , accessed on May 25, 2015
  13. Jump up ↑ Wolf Hall: Critics Hail TV debut . BBC.com. January 22, 2015. Retrieved August 4, 2015.