Name: The Mirror and the Light (The Wolf Hall Trilogy, Book 3)
Rating: 4.486842105263158 (38 reviews)
ISBN: 9780007481095

Hilary Mantel

Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020 Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2020 The long-awaited sequel to Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, the stunning conclusion to Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall trilogy.

The Mirror and the Light (The Wolf Hall Trilogy, Book 3)

The brilliant #1 New York Times bestseller 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 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.

The Mirror & the Light

how the hell am i supposed to carry on after finishing this masterpiece of a trilogy. compared to its predecessors, the mirror and the light has some rare writing stumbles by mantel. some tighter editing would have been nice, perhaps, as well as a reconsideration of 1–2 somewhat hamfisted plots, that, from as far as i could tell, were mantel's original creations and not based in recorded history. but i can forgive all when mantel has so masterfully depictsd the downfall of thomas cromwell after the man himself has orchestrated the downfalls of so many before him. i have grown so fond of mantel's cromwell the whole book instilled as much dread in me as a horror movie would. i oscillated between admiration at mantel's prose and despair at what was coming with every page. it's incredible how mantel writes so well with voice and pov that by the last page, you, the reader, are cromwell. even so, mantel writes with such deftness that you can still see the cracks that cromwell misses. as a writer, i have learned. as a reader, i am moved.

alice

Andrew John Kinney

I was very disappointed in this book after loving the first two. I DNF'd it about halfway through because there are better ways to spend my time than on a book that cannot move faster than this one. I had put it aside, thinking to come back to it in 6-9 months and find I had a different response to it, but no, it's exactly as I remembered it.

Eva Bailey

What a journey. I LOVED these three books. They were definitely a challenge for me and not my usual genre but im so glad I picked them up, this book was a brilliant conclusion to an epic series.

Fraser Simons

As always, I love the prose but find it could almost be set in any genre because of the glaring lack of description. Feels like play in prose form, which I dig. But for me, these books are always a mix. I love the flow and absolutely adore the dialogue. But then I get pulled out of the text all of the time because I legitimately have no idea where they are, what they look like, or what they’re wearing in some scenes. 

Generally, scene setting is very small and I think there is a very large assumption as to what the reader can fill in automatically. Having no familiarity with the time period, I am basically always a spectator, rather than an active participant.

jiaqi kang

Kwan Ann Tan

Truly amazing that even though you know what's going to happen at the end, you can't help but hope and wish that Cromwell does not die, and that Henry will somehow, some way change his mind (no, this is not a spoiler, we all knew this). 

I only wish we had seen more of Jane's presence in the book and her rule- we are reminded so often that she is quiet, but given how much we saw of Anne Boleyn in the first two books, I can't help but wish there were more interactions between Jane and Cromwell! 

The rest- Henry's endless marriages, Cromwell's own rising higher and higher on the wheel of fate only to fall so abruptly (I didn't know that he was made an Earl literally months before his death!), the same affairs and court troubles. 

The very first pages of Cromwell's fixation with Anne Boleyn's beheading already sets the tone for the entire book, and brings the whole story full circle. There are endless echoes within echoes, repetitions of the previous books as we are reminded that we already know this story, but the consequences and stakes are so much higher.

Rose Stanley

You know those books you do and don't want to finish at the same time? This is one of those.

The perfect end to a superb trilogy. I look forward to reading all three volumes again one day.

Well, I did it! I finally finished the series. Good riddance, Booker Prizes!

Is this the best book I've ever read? No, not really. I think it was a good ending to the series. I also think that it is pretty bloated, and I wish Mantel had abbreviated some of the history to make it more Cromwell focused.

That said, I didn't want to stop listening to the audiobook at about halfway through. the last 3 hours when stuff got intense for Cromwell, I was actually on the edge of my seat, despite knowing the outcome from history. She pulled it off well. But, that's out of an almost 39 hour audiobook. Was the other 36 hours (or 18 hours at 2x speed) really worth the time? I don't know.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, this seems like a series geared towards the history buff who would like to feel like they're standing next to the historical figures. As an American with no real emotional ties either way, I just wanted to press fast forward. And at 2x speed, I wanted a more fast forwarding speed. But I appear to be in a minority, because this is making the rounds for literary prizes.

Lucy Hacker

One of the most incredible books I’ve ever read - an absolute masterpiece.

The Mirror and the Light

Andrea

Edward

Ben Miles

Robin Lee-Perrella

Ben S

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 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.

Richu A Kuttikattu

Sonia Grgas

Celina Gacias

Hannah Swithinbank

Kylie Frazer

Prashanth Srivatsa

‘If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?’ England, 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, Thomas 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, before Jane dies giving birth to the male heir he most craves. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he 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 breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him? With The Mirror and the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. 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 Mirror and the Light (The Wolf Hall Trilogy, Book 3)

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