The brilliant #1 New York Times bestseller Named a best book of 2020 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, TIME, The Guardian, and many more With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere … 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.
The story begins in 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, 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, Jane Seymour.
Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, 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. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortune’s wheel turns, Cromwell’s enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry’s cruel and capricious gaze?
Eagerly awaited and eight years in the making, The Mirror & the Light completes Cromwell’s journey from self-made man to one of the most feared, influential figures of his time. Portrayed by Mantel with pathos and terrific energy, Cromwell is as complex as he is unforgettable: a politician and a fixer, a husband and a father, a man who both defied and defined his age.
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This was most certainly a labor of love. I have now read all three books, this was my least favorite of all three, but that is not to say that I wasn’t completely stunned and impressed by it. It is definitely long, so it is not for the faint of heart…but the journey is worth it.
Ms. Mantel has a true talent. Every phrase, every thought had multiple layers, several meanings. Every back flash, thought, or word spoken had a purpose. It was nothing short of pure genius. Because of this, it is best read slowly and carefully…I dare say I will read all three again at some point and I know I will pick up so much that I didn’t even realize that I missed this time. One of the few books I actually own.
5/5 stars
This is the third of a trilogy about Oliver Cromwell and his influence on the King and Court. Of the three, I found this one the least interesting and the most confusing.
I loved the first two.
Every sentence is a jewel.
The end game! The final book in a wonderful trilogy, from first to last a great read!
How Hilary Mantel was able to hold in her head all of the information she needed to write this book, not to mention all of the characters, I have no idea. It is an absolute masterpiece and almost makes me want to stop writing as I will never, in all my life, be able to produce a work like this. Don’t let the size put you off; if you’ve read the first two in the series, you must read this one.
The third novel on Thomas Cromwell, much awaited, and perfectly executed. Hilary Mantel is a wonderful writer.
Add my voice to the clamour heaping praise on The Mirror & the Light, please.
Hilary Mantel, as others have enthused, is perhaps the craftiest writer in the English language of our time. Her prose is invigorating, sublime, dagger-sharp, and almost beyond description. It never goes where one might expect, and she uses that element of unpredictability to startle with imagery and shades of characterization that are fresh and bracing.
An absolute master at the top of her craft.
To say she stuck the landing on this magnificent trilogy would be to diminish the achievement: this last volume served not only to bring the trilogy to a remarkable conclusion, but threw light back on the prior two volumes. In doing so, it brought the story along with it – reflecting the theme that the past is never truly the past, that it continues to haunt us, to inform what we see as the present.
The greatest achievement: I could argue that Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell is the most fully realized character I’ve encountered in literature.
Her fluid use of point of view paints a portrait of Cromwell from all angles. Light, shade. Flesh, spirit. Top of the wheel, bottom of the wheel.
And the ending gutted me. Traumatized me. I read it just before leaving for a week in Vermont, and the pure taste of mortality in Mantel’s depiction of Cromwell’s end had me appreciating every breath, every meal, every moment with my family.
Makes my all-time favorites list.
A few random lines I folded the page for:
“It is a day of raw cold, a metal light. But great fires are blazing in the king’s chambers, and the scent of pine and amber floats towards him on a warm cloud.”
“Why does the future feel so much like the past, the uncanny clammy touch of it, the rustle of bridal sheet or shroud, the crackle of fire in a shuttered room? Like breath misting glass, like the nightingale’s trace on the air, like a wreath of incense, like vapour, like water, like scampering feet and laughter in the dark…”
“It is not written that great men shall be happy men. It is nowhere recorded that the rewards of public office include a quiet mind.”
“Early dark has fallen. He rises, lights a candle, closes the shutter against a night of steel-tipped stars.”
I’m about half way through this wonderful book. Recommend it to anyone that loves historical fiction.
I love this trilogy. I loved Wolf Hall years ago and Bring Up the Bodies some years after that, and now this one, too. Before reading these books, I was not well acquainted with the life and times of Henry VIII and didn’t have a burning desire to be so, although, sure, of course, history is always interesting. Because these books are fairly true to history, the plot is just a Google away. So it wasn’t the subject or the surprise twist and turns of who dies when and where…what I loved about these books is being inside the mind of a complicated human being—the central character, Thomas Cromwell—who is simultaneously decent and ambitious and self-serving, with all three qualities seemingly balanced, not one of the three dominating the others even though they could contradict each other. The ambition sometimes was so dangerous as to counter self-preservation, and the decency often did not further either ambition or self-interest (although sometimes it did). This constant balancing, these contradictions—they felt so real. Thomas Cromwell felt real. A dissolution of gender and time and power and status. Simultaneously, Thomas Cromwell also felt very literary since Hilary Mantel is such a good writer and her control and authority was always evident. Real and literary. That’s a pretty good read.
764 pages
5 stars
This is both a remarkable and entertaining book.
The third book in a trilogy about the life and times of Thomas Cromwell. Raised up from his blacksmith/brewer’s son beginnings, through his travels in Italy and elsewhere on the continent to the very heights of King Henry VIII’s court. Protege of and successor to Cardinal Wolsey. Lord Privy Seal. Second only to the king – Vicegerent. Member of the prestigious Order of the Garter open to only twenty-five men in the realm. Earl of Essex, made so shortly before his death.
The book begins with the aftermath of Queen Anne’s death and flashes back to previous time to fill in Cromwell’s life and quarrels with Anne, his friends and his awful home life as a child. The book talks about Walter, Cromwell’s father and the terrible temper he had and how he was very mean to his children. It discusses his now deceased wife and daughters, his nephew Richard and his adoption of Rafe and his relationship with his son Gregory. His relationships with women – great and common.
The Pilgrimage of Grace is covered. Next is the marriage of the king to Jane Seymour, the subsequent birth of a son and the tragic death of Queen Jane. The book continues to cover the disastrous liaison with Anna of Cleves which was instigated by Thomas.
Thomas must walk a fine line between those who would destroy him (for they are mostly jealous), and the all powerful mercurial temperament of the king.
Thomas had a vision of the future that was far beyond the understanding of those around him.
Ms. Mantel paints a very real, colorful and comprehensive picture of the 16th Century court of Henry VIII. The reader is stalking the palaces and the streets along with the characters in the book. While he certainly looked out for himself, he was also compassionate. He “saved” people from the king’s displeasure or even certain death. These actions turned out to be to his detriment later in his life when those who were jealous and the king being tired of him took against him.
It still surprises and confounds me (although it shouldn’t, having read as much about Henry VIII as I have), how quickly the king would turn against a person. Was it his knock on the head during his jousting accident, or his bad leg that tormented him so much that he acted so unpredictably? We’ll never know.
“I should only ever tell the king what he ought to do, not what he could do. For if a lion knows his own strength, no man could control him.” – Thomas More
Beautifully written.
As a work who’s main topic is Thomas Cromwell – the times, both cruel & alien to our own (within the Uk that is), it’s a fascinating read of the Life & Times of a Tudor ‘Mover & Shaker’. The atmosphere of Henry V111’s court is vividly portrayed. I very much enjoyed the ‘after thoughts’ at the conclusion of this great read, by a great Author/Authoress. Today’s views on Catherine Howard’s Life would be, am sure, of a little girl groomed and abused – as indeed was Henry V11’s mother, Margaret Beaufort who, married at 13, was forced into a pregnancy that nearly killed her (no other children followed) – she adored her only son, kept him safe from harm until such time as she thought him ready to take the political stage, with his Welsh uncle and protector, Owen Tudor.
Although the reader knows (or should know) that Cromwell is doomed, Mantel never leads us down the paths of despair. Cromwell, and Mantel, are masterful throughout.
For fans of the phenomenal WOLF HALL series, the conclusion, THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT, is nothing short of dazzling, devastating, fascinating, and gut-wrenching. Like poetry, every word counts, so 750 pages of every word counting stretches the mind and gives the reader much to ponder.
I cannot comprehend the machinations of Mantel’s mind. It must look something like Escher’s “Relativity.” The first four pages of the book–the character list–alone are daunting, and the reader will need to refer to these pages often. It goes from the recently deceased to those who will inevitably be executed, and all are important.
Historically, Thomas Cromwell is widely hated, notorious, and controversial, yet Mantel makes him human, and for this reason, I cried for him. He is everything from unsavory to downright evil, yet he is the protagonist, the reader understands him entirely, and so his inevitable end is tragic.
Don’t be scared away from THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT. Dig in to this series. Let it dig in to you. I’m glad of every bit of work I put into reading this novel and it will haunt me forever.
Absolutely wonderful—a tour de force worthy of its place as part three of the fantastic Wolf Hall trilogy. This book delves deeply into the life and heart of Thomas Cromwell, providing such an intimate and nuanced portrait that his death, although expected, is utterly heartbreaking. A long read and worth every word.
Mantel’ s Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall, Bring Up The Bodies, and now The Mirror and The Light, is the best drawn character in all historical fiction. This is very enjoyable finale to a great trilogy. Somehow she gets inside Cromwell’s skin and brings him perfectly to light.
All that is visible and earthy corrupts and in doing so destroys all.