9.4 /10 1 Votes
5/5 The Telegraph Language English Media type Print (hardback) Followed by The Mirror and the Light Awards Booker Prize | 4.3/5 Goodreads Country United Kingdom Publication date 8 May 2012 Originally published 8 May 2012 Preceded by Wolf Hall Genre Historical drama | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Series Thomas Cromwell trilogy (in course) Publisher Fourth Estate (UK)/ Henry Holt and Co. (US) Similar Hilary Mantel books, Booker Prize winners, Literary fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hilary mantel on bring up the bodies
Bring Up the Bodies is a historical novel by Hilary Mantel and sequel to her award-winning Wolf Hall. It is the second part of a planned trilogy charting the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, the powerful minister in the court of King Henry VIII. Bring Up the Bodies won the 2012 Man Booker Prize and the 2012 Costa Book of the Year. It is to be followed by The Mirror and the Light.
Contents
Michael johnston reviews hilary mantel s wolf hall bring up the bodies novels and rsc plays
Plot
Bring Up the Bodies begins not long after the conclusion of Wolf Hall. The King and Thomas Cromwell, who is now Master Secretary to the King's Privy Council, are the guests of the Seymour family at their manor house, Wolf Hall. The King shares private moments with Jane Seymour, and begins to fall in love with her. His present queen, Anne Boleyn, has failed to give him a male heir. Their relationship is a stormy one, sometimes loving and sometimes characterized by angry quarrels. At length, the King tells Cromwell privately, "I cannot live as I have." Cromwell understands this to mean that the King has tired of a wife who gives him neither peace nor a son and wants his marriage to her ended. Cromwell promises the King he will find a legal way to make this happen.
Ever the dealmaker, Cromwell attempts to negotiate a voluntary dissolution of the marriage with Anne through her father, the Earl of Wiltshire, and her brother, Lord Rochford. Wiltshire is willing to negotiate, but Rochford is intransigent, telling Cromwell that if Anne and the King are reconciled, "I will make short work of you."
Cromwell makes inquiries among the ladies and gentlemen who are close to Anne and hears more and more rumors that she has been adulterous. The musician Mark Smeaton and Anne's sister-in-law, Lady Rochford, are particularly helpful in passing on rumors. He determines to build a case against Anne and succeeds in doing so, ultimately securing enough damaging testimony to have her arrested and tried on capital charges. The King seems quite willing to see Anne destroyed if it will serve his purposes. Always mindful that some of the people closest to Anne connived at the ruin of his old mentor Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell relishes the opportunity to bring them down as well. In the end, Anne and several of her confidantes, including her brother, are tried and executed. Cromwell is aware that not all of the evidence against them is true, but he is willing to do what is necessary to serve the King (and to avenge Wolsey), and having started the process he must see it through if he himself is to survive. As the King focuses on a new marriage with Jane Seymour, Cromwell is rewarded for his efforts with a barony and his position as the King's chief adviser seems assured.
Publication
Bring Up the Bodies was published in May 2012, by Harper Collins in the United Kingdom and by Henry Holt and Co. in the United States, to critical acclaim.
Reception
Janet Maslin reviewed the novel positively in The New York Times:
[The book's] ironic ending will be no cliffhanger for anyone even remotely familiar with Henry VIII's trail of carnage. But in Bring Up the Bodies it works as one. The wonder of Ms. Mantel's retelling is that she makes these events fresh and terrifying all over again."
Adaptations
In January 2013, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) announced that it would stage adaptations by Mike Poulton of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies in its Winter season.
A six-part BBC television series Wolf Hall, an adaptation of the books Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis and Jonathan Pryce was broadcast in the UK in January 2015 and in the United States in April 2015.