Mirror and the Light (Mantel) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
It is impossible not to admit that this final volume… becomes woefully labored. Thomas Cromwell is a marvelous prism and a phenomenally round character, but by the time we’ve had 1,700 pages of him, he is drastically overdetermined.… The Wolf Hall trilogy is probably the greatest historical fiction accomplishment of the past decade; the first two volumes both won Man Booker Prizes. But after Bring Up the Bodies the enterprise, like Henry, has put on weight and self-importance. The final book feels heavier with food and custom and ceremony; catalogs of saints' relics, clothing and wedding presents.… After the vast and painstaking narrative that has preceded them, the book’s final 75 pages may actually feel rushed, but the speed is artistically appropriate to the abruptness of the matter.
Thomas Mallon - New York Times Book Review


Wolf Hall, a decade ago, was a sensational character study that electrified an often-visited slice of history. The Mirror & the Light marks a triumphant end to a spellbinding story.
NPR


Breathtaking…. The plot here is shaped as meticulously as any thriller…. With this trilogy, Mantel has redefined what the historical novel is capable of…. Taken together, her Cromwell novels are, for my money, the greatest English novels of this century. Someone give the Booker Prize judges the rest of the year off. Stephanie Merritt - Guardian (UK)


Majestic and often breathtakingly poetic…. What The Mirror & the Light offers―even more than the two previous volumes―is engulfing, total sensory immersion in a world…. As with the most powerful and enduring historical fictions, the book grips the reader most tightly when, as is often the case, the writing comes as close to poetry as prose ever may.
Simon Schama - Financial Times (UK)


A masterpiece…. A novel of epic proportions [that is] every bit as thrilling, propulsive, darkly comic and stupendously intelligent as its predecessors…. The trilogy is complete and it is magnificent.
Alexandra Harris - Guardian (UK)


This is rich, full-bodied fiction. Indeed, it might well be the best of the trilogy simply because there is more of it, a treasure on every page…. The brisk, present-tense narration makes you feel as though you are watching these long-settled events live, via a shaky camera phone…. Mantel has… elevated historical fiction as an art form…. At a time when the general movement of literature has been towards the margins, she has taken us to the dark heart of history
London Times (UK)


Hilary Mantel has written an epic of English history that does what the Aeneid did for the Romans and War and Peace for the Russians…. As Cromwell approaches his end, cast off by an ungrateful master, Mantel pulls together the strands of his life into a sublime tapestry.
Telegraph (UK)


Cromwell is a character for the ages…. The stunning success of the novels is in large part the result of Ms. Mantel’s skill in fashioning a voice and persona that, while never anachronistic, make Cromwell seem eerily contemporary…. Mantel’s genius is to make his 16th-century instincts, such as a willingness to decapitate anyone standing in his path, seem as plausible as his more familiar qualities.
Economist (UK)


Another masterpiece of historical fiction…. The Mirror & the Light is superb, right to the last crimson drop…. A complex, insightful exploration of power, sex, loyalty, friendship, religion, class and statecraft…. A stunning conclusion to one of the great trilogies of our times.
Independent (UK)