“The Men Who Made
England: Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall”
A review of Mantel’s historical novel about the rein of Henry
VIII, Tomas More and Thomas Cromwell. Hitchens points out “that generations of
sentimental and clerical history will canonize More while making Cromwell’s
name a hissing and a byword.”
Hitchens seems to like Mantel’s re-positioning of More, “Now scrutinize the face of More and notice the frigid, snobbish fanaticism that holds his dignity in place,” and Hitchens calls A Man For All Season’s “saccharine propaganda.” About Cromwell, on the other hand, Hitchen’s says ‘…may be the visage of a ruthless bureaucrat, but it is the look of a man who has learned the hard way that books must be balanced, accounts settled, and zeal held firmly in check.”
Good quote from Cromwell’s character speaking to More about the Catholic Church, “ ‘a lie is no less a lie because it is a thousand years old.’ ”
Hitchens seems to like Mantel’s re-positioning of More, “Now scrutinize the face of More and notice the frigid, snobbish fanaticism that holds his dignity in place,” and Hitchens calls A Man For All Season’s “saccharine propaganda.” About Cromwell, on the other hand, Hitchen’s says ‘…may be the visage of a ruthless bureaucrat, but it is the look of a man who has learned the hard way that books must be balanced, accounts settled, and zeal held firmly in check.”
Good quote from Cromwell’s character speaking to More about the Catholic Church, “ ‘a lie is no less a lie because it is a thousand years old.’ ”
New learning: William Tyndale published the first English
version of the Bible translated directly from the original texts during this
time taking advantage of the new printing press. The translation was forbidden
as blasphemy and Tyndale was burned at the stake.
New phrase: Homo homini lupus = Man is wolf to man.
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