Bring Up the Bodies

A Novel

By: Hilary Mantel

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2012

The sequel to Hilary Mantel's 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times best seller, Wolf Hall delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn. Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice. At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over three terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies follows the dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally with his natural enemies, the papist aristocracy. What price will he pay for Anne's head?

©2012 Hilary Mantel (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Exciting, absorbing historical fiction

If you could sum up Bring Up the Bodies in three words, what would they be?

exciting historical fiction

Have you listened to any of Simon Vance’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I like this narrator very much. He is effective, but understated. He does not get in the way of the book. He is an excellent reader, and his is far better than the performance of the reader of Wolf Hall.

Any additional comments?

You ought to read or listen to Wolf Hall first.

Remarkable story of how to kill off a queen...

If you do not find intrigue breathtaking, don't read this well written and well researched book. Hilary Mantel is my new favorite author, and what a remarkable writer and teller -of-tales she is! Her writing is dense, insightful, and rich in nuance. She takes the story of Anne Boleyn and makes it come to life (and death), as witnessed through the actions of Thomas Cromwell, one of King Henry VIII's chief counselors. It appears no accusations can be too bold, and no recriminations too slanderous if you are king and want to be rid of a wife you just spent ten years courting into marriage. The dicotomy of a king's whim and a queen's rights could not be more opposite, and if you can rid yourself of a few extra people along the way, why not...

A Great Character Study

As with the first in the series, Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel spins the Tudor story through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell and makes him realistic and relatable at the same time. This part of the story will take you through to the end of Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn. The politics and intrigue of this time are intricate to say the least, and Mantel glides through it all like a born navigator, adding that extra depth to what you read in the history books. I even learned a couple of little things that I had to look up to verify.

Simon Vance, as always, is superior. Usually it's jarring when a new narrator steps in, but I'm convinced Vance should read pretty much anything dealing with historical England... and a great many other things besides. Just as Mantel adds depth to Cromwell, so too does Vance add that little something extra that's needed to bring the writer's ideas to life.

For my part, I'm left wanting more and hope there's another volume on the horizon.

Good story; good reading

Would you consider the audio edition of Bring Up the Bodies to be better than the print version?

Not sure

What did you like best about this story?

Well-written

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

Very good acting and reading skills

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No

Any additional comments?

Unrealistic details in some place--a small example is that king Henry's bed would have been enclosed by brocade hangings but he is described as staring at the ceiling while in bed. We need to often willingly suspend disbelief at some of the very modern reactions and thoughts of the characters.

Engrossing World

Any additional comments?

This is a bridge twix the magnetizing first book and the third yet to drop. Historical accuracy painted with rare choices make for an engrossing world in which one continues to live. Have listened to both twice.

Mesmerizing look at life in 6th century England

Where does Bring Up the Bodies rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This book and it's audio-performance were richly textured and nuanced making this one of the best audiobooks I have sunk into. It takes a little bit of time to adjust to the meter of the writing and the language of the times ( 16th century). But it is worth the small amount of effort required. This was a wonderful sequel to Ms. Mantel's Wolf Hall.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Thomas Cromwell was a brilliant strategist and administrator for Henry VIII - both in this novel and in history. His role in history might imply that he had a relatively easy life, but through Ms. Mantel's writing it was wonderful to view the challenges and dangers of being so close to the King. Definitely brought this otherwise somewhat boring historical figure to life - and through his eyes and experiences saw many delightful snapshots of life for the everyday working class and the noble class in 16th century England

If you could rename Bring Up the Bodies, what would you call it?

I love the name. When I got to the part of the book in which the title was evoked, I exclaimed "Ah! That is perfect!"

Any additional comments?

The format for iphone is great. Now we need a format for ipad......

Riveting

Great performance. The author transports you to the time. She gives dimension to the people. This book makes me want to know more about the time, the place and the players.

A View of the Tudors for Today in a Striking Style

Great historical fiction is great because it refracts a history we already know for the age in which we read it. This is, as so many acknowledge, great historical fiction, but it is so in intriguing and original ways.

To start with, this chronicle of the late-middle years of Henry VIII, when his chief advisor Thomas Cromwell negotiates his desires and long-term interests, has clear hints of our own historical moment.

Above all, we get a Henry VIII who is weirdly reminiscent of Donald Trump. Both men are tyrannical in the sense that they expect their whims to stand as law. They see self-interest and the interest of the state as identical, unable to recognize that their desires – desires in which sex and self-aggrandizement are indistinguishable – send after-shocks across everyone in their orbit. As Cromwell puts it at one point, “To succeed with him, one must know his mind. When he changes it, one is exposed for having put oneself forward.”

There are even strangely coincidental qualities between Henry and ‘Donald.’ Both try to hide their morbid obesity, carrying themselves as if it is a sign of great retained vigor. Both are, as this novel plays out, dealing with third wives. In each case, the first was a European with a claim to comparable social standing, and the marriage lasted long enough to see children into near adulthood. (And, in the ending of each of those first marriages, the surviving children found themselves having to favor their deposed mother while waiting their opportunity to take advantage of their father’s position and power.) In each the second was to a woman accused of using powerful sexual wiles upon him, a woman who was – at a distance – desirable but whose unceasing attentions as a wife proved too much (or proved to lessen her charms). And in each the third was desirable in large part for her meekness, for her seeming attachment to silence.

But the real historical relevance here centers on Cromwell, who, as we come to see him, effectively invents what Trump supporters have come to call “the deep state.” Cromwell is neither “well-born” nor overwhelmingly wealthy. He is, instead, the most astute student of his era in the ways that power moves across the country. He stands in contrast to the powerful families that would marry into the monarchy or benefit from an ally’s doing so: the Seymours, Boleyns, Poles, Howards, and Carews.

As Cromwell works his legislative wonders, one wealthy house or another rises. The peers of the nation see themselves as above him, routinely reminding him they are higher than he is, but they can’t see what the next half-millennium will reveal: that the modern state endures no matter who temporarily commands it. (SPOILER: And his revenge is total and sweet.)

In the midst of that, the central drama is Henry himself, a man who lacks the wisdom to see how dramatically he is shaping his nation and, as a partial consequence, loses sight of his own mortality. He desperately wants a son, an heir to carry forward what he’s begun. The nation demands one as well, but not for his narcissistic reasons. Instead, it wants an heir for the collective survival of England itself.

Only Cromwell can see to serving both those motives for the same end. In doing so, he brings into being the modern state apparatus that we see so tested today.

I need a quick word on Mantel’s method as well, though. Most historical fiction functions by bringing past characters to life, by making them seem somehow human or, for lack of a better word, modern. Instead, Mantel gives us each character as the product of deep calculation. We never really get to know Cromwell; instead, we see him in moment after moment (and that’s a lot of moments when you add up this one, its equally excellent prequel, Wolf Hall, and the to-be-published finale, The Mirror and the Light), always answering the needs of history before he answers the needs of Mantel’s story.

The metaphor that comes to mind, and sorry if it’s obscure, is pre-calculus. Rather than depending upon a calculus that produces a formula for determining the curve of a line at every point, Mantel seems to recalculate the arc of Cromwell’s career at every different point. She’ll sketch a scene in deep detail, bring it to a conclusion, and then begin a new one with an abrupt transition marked sometimes by a date and sometimes by a sharp scene break.

You can almost see the penciled figures in the margin as she notes an external change in power relations. For instance, when Anne Boleyn becomes pregnant a second time it elevates her, and when she loses the child it sets in motion changes to the entire power dynamic of the government.

Cromwell never feels as if he is someone we could talk to. Rather he feels like a succession of still photos, each carefully realized from what we know of the larger historical moment. There’s a discomfort in that; we never, for instance, get the easy gift of a Tudor world made to feel like today’s. Instead. Mantel pushes us to come as close as the facts permit. She takes cold artifacts and makes them relevant, but she stops short of giving them a pulse. It falls to us to perform the alchemy that makes them come to life, and the fact that Mantel can pull that off says all I need to know about why she’s won two Booker prizes for this remarkable work.

If all that weren’t enough, Mantel is a real master of prose. I end with a gem I couldn’t find another place for, a sentence so subtle and clever that it reflects the subtle mind and clever stratagems of Cromwell himself: “The Italians say the road from England to hell is well paved and runs downhill.”

A truly flawed but brilliant man. I couldn't put it down.

Being a fan of England's history. I was captivated by Cromwell. I loved learning about how he processed decisions. He was so loyal to his staff and king and loved for family and friends. He had all the great qualities of a great human.
He was highly intelligent and had a great sense of humour. But was sad to learn about how evil he was too. Fascinating I will read it again:

One of the best in Tudor fiction

I read and/or listen to a lot of Tudor fiction. Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies are surprisingly inventive, and bring new life to well-worn characters and plot lines--even for someone very familiar with them. Her Cromwell is the most complete and complex representation I've seen. The dark psychology of her works are beautiful and disturbing. It feels like an exploration of human nature and ambition, and the Tudor setting is almost incidental (though faithfully and intricately constructed).