Cromwell on audio

I've written a great many blog posts on Hilary Mantel's Thomas Cromwell trilogy throughout the years. I've praised her Wolsey, been generally positive about Wolf Hall - though I thought it a little long-winded - and loved the more concentrated Bring Up The Bodies, though I was shocked by Cromwell's lack of an excuse to do for Anne Boleyn and her supposed lovers. Also, I quite liked the TV adaptation, though despite the great performances I found it a little heavy going. And now it's time for the final volume and piece of the puzzle, The Mirror and the Light, which ends with Cromwell's execution. So, I've read it then? Well, kinda.

As the novel is still in hardback and very hefty, I've actually cheated and listened to the audiobook. Not that this was such a mean feat as all that - the whole thing was 38 hours long, that is almost as long as a whole working week. I was lucky, though, as Ben Miles - who played Cromwell in the stage adaptation of Mantel's two first books - read, or rather performed, the book perfectly. In a story with as many characters as this, it's not only enjoyable but also very useful to have an actor/reader who does all the voices. Miles's gruff, no-nonsense voice for Cromwell himself brings me somewhat closer to the main character than reading about him in Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies did. A funny thing with Mantel's trilogy is that though it reads like a setting-the-record-straight defence of Cromwell, Cromwell the man still remains a bit elusive. Miles's Cromwell voice reminds the listener at all times that he was a pragmatic man of the people, trying to survive (and thrive) in a court full of disdainful though often ineffectual noblemen. I also loved Miles's Duke of Norfolk voice (aged warrior meets Ebenezer Scrooge) so much that I cheered inwardly every time Norfolk entered the scene, even when he didn't do a great deal.

The audiobook format made me more indulgent towards long, descriptive passages than I feel I would have been had I read them on the page. As is my habit, I listened to the audiobook while doing my household chores, and then even lengthy anecdotes about Cromwell's early, pre-court days were welcome. That said, I was also sufficiently gripped to substitute my usual reading hours for listening to The Mirror and the Light. When it comes out in paperback, I believe I will buy it and read it "for real" eventually. A worthwhile project would be to read the whole trilogy back to back. Let's see if I manage that.

How does The Mirror and the Light compare, then, to Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies? Well, it reminded me more of the first book than the second, which is my favourite. Wolf Hall and The Mirror and the Light are both a bit too wide-ranging for my taste, going off on a tangent ever so often. I did feel that there was more of this even in The Mirror and the Light than in Wolf Hall. Cromwell would suddenly fall into a reverie about some ball game he played in Italy or some old story about a giant - all things with metaphorical significance, mind you, but still a little frustrating to have to dwell on when, like me, what interests you most is court intrigue. There was also a fair bit of rehashing what had already happened in the past novels. All in all, I felt that the novel could very well have been trimmed and be made to focus more on Cromwell's present and less on his past.

It may seem a bit contradictory that I complain on one hand of not properly getting under Cromwell's skin, and on the other get impatient when the novel delves into potentially character-building passages of his past life. But there it is. Mantel's trilogy does a good job of writing up Cromwell's various achievements - and it's fun to see the rebellion under Robert Aske, who is held up as a shining hero in various costume dramas, get such short shrift here - but I'm still not quite sure what makes Cromwell tick, besides his devotion to Wolsey (which can no longer explain his actions now Wolsey is both dead and avenged). Why does he serve Henry VIII? Religious reform-wise, precious little comes of it. Is it naked ambition, then? Nothing wrong with that, but you don't really feel it from the Mantel's calm, collected Cromwell.

The portrait of Henry VIII remains interestingly different. I recently rewatched the ITV costume drama Henry VIII from 2003 where the raging monarch shouted at Danny Webb's shifty Cromwell (whom I unashamedly fancy), boxed his ears and at the end deliberately had him clumsily dispatched by a novice executioner. Mantel's Henry doesn't fly off the handle that easily. He is more passive-aggressive than aggressive-aggressive and pretty good at not facing up to the consequences of his own decisions. Rather than confronting his victims, he avoids them and keeps himself away from unpleasantness. I found the suggestion that he had Cromwell executed, not because he was angry with him but because he was afraid of him, intiguing. When the BBC dramatise this last part of the drama, I look forward to seeing how they handle the Henry-Cromwell relationship, not least because I'm still not sure what Mantel's Cromwell actually thinks of Henry.

I didn't fancy Mantel's version of Cromwell, but I do find it satisfying that in spite of his lack of looks, he's quite popular among the womenfolk, though half of the time he doesn't cotton on to it himself. It's nice to see Mantel realise that brains can be a source of attraction for females, because she didn't really seem aware of it in A Place of Greater Safety, now did she? The scenes where Cromwell talks at cross-purposes with Edward Seymour and his sister Bess, wanting to secure Bess as a bride for his boy while the Seymours are convinced he wants Bess for himself, are a bit contrived, but Bess's miffed reaction when she realises she's not getting Cromwell senior and Cromwell's obliviousness to the possibility that any woman could prefer him to his young, handsome son are nicely done. As for Lady Mary, later Mary I, she does precious little to scotch the hilarious rumour that Cromwell wants to marry her in order to gain the throne for himself. Ultra-Catholic Mary and gospel-loving Thomas Cromwell? I ship it.