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

English Exceptionalism, the birth of a nation,

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

Among my very best audio experiences. Prose at it's most powerful. As with all historical fiction, we read to inhabit the characters as the events unfold. Mantel brings us inside Cromwell's consciousness and lets us see his life as he may have experienced it. Not just credible, but delicious with the woven texture of detail and dreams. She has created a world of lethal royal politics I love to visit from the safety of my pillows and comforter. I stop listening and awaken to the safety of my contemporary reality, but anticipate pressing the play button and returning to the all too believable world of terror awaiting Mantel's characters.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Bring Up the Bodies?

The King is knocked immobile on the tournament grounds and assumed dead, revealing the fragility of the entire kingdom potentially on the cusp of another civil war. We inhabit Cromwell as he watches the lords drop their courtly masks and betray their true treacherous ambitions. The kingdom is in such a delicate balance we can sympathize with him as he struggles to hold the entire country together and ultimately kill a queen.

Which scene was your favorite?

Mark, the queen's musician, is invited to Cromwell's table and in a flash of provoked vanity brings down himself, the queen and the lords. The scene amimates how an innocent moment can turn into the deepest of inescapable nightmares made real.

Who was the most memorable character of Bring Up the Bodies and why?

Mantel masterfully brings Cromwell to life for us as she helps us answer the question:"How could an abused blacksmith's son rise above all lords to the pinnacle of power as Henry's most trusted agent?" Runaway child, soldier, merchant, banker, linguist, diplomat, theologian, legislator, facilitator, tactician, confidant, husband, kind father and lethal adversary. No other character moves through so many worlds with confidence and stealth. Aren't we all intrigued by gentleness and deadliness in the same vessel?

Any additional comments?

As I first started to listen I thought Mantel was venturing into language between prose and poetry. But as I immersed myself deeper into the story I experienced it as a more elevated prose, a form made more powerful by a masterful author.Although Cromwell is the central character, Mantel animates all the characters with distinctive dialogue, revealing details and layers of personality.Henry is drawn as a powerful king as capable of dominating on the tournament field as creating verse for his lovers. Both queens are made human as they stake out their territory and battle for control of Henry and the kingdom. But it is the dialogue of the minor characters and expertly painted detail that fleshes out the entire story as a most memorable experience.

The sequel is as good as the first book.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys history, biography, and of course, Wolf Hall. This second book in the series is very well written and superbly performed. The period of history starting with Henry VIII and through Elizabeth I is always interesting, and this series is the first I've read which focuses on Thomas Cromwell.

Any additional comments?

I can't wait for the third book, even though I already know how it ends.

Brilliantly Written - Thrillingly Recounted.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have already recommend this audiobook to all my reader friends. I use my iPod on the treadmill and cannot wait each morning to get on my machine and listen to Simon Vance recount the machiavellian machinations of Thomas Cromwell.
The book is a brilliant account of Henry VIII's relationships with Cromwell, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. I will be sorry when I have finished the book.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Bring Up the Bodies?

I have not yet finished the book. Ask me again in two weeks.

What does Simon Vance bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Simon Vance brings voices, accents, drama to the experience.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Brilliant, thrilling, dramatic, gripping.

Any additional comments?

It is a long time since i have read anything of this quality.

The reason I became a member of Audible

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

This was the type of experience that I had expected or hoped would be among the best audible could provide. The reading allowed me to passively become part of another world. It was a brilliant read that made me feel as though the people were all real, and that I could know their thoughts, motivations and hopes. A brilliant creation of a lost world.

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

Was hooked as soon as I heard his voice, with all its cunning and caution. He captured the presumed weary character of Cromwell. A pragmatic, devious, yet mindfully pious and thoughtful man, that was wise enough to know he was playing a deadly game in a jungle where all the animals were predators yet foolish enough to think that he alone would not be devoured in the end.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

At the end of the book, when Cromwell becomes introspective and thinks about the effect that a death had on himself, and knowing that even though he was wiser, more intelligent and thoughtful than his adversaries, he never the less would succumb to the awful fruition of historical forces, forces which he himself would unleash. Some of it was intentioned by the protagonist but other forces unpredictable and unknowable until revealed, until the bitter end, thereby like the others Cromwell outsmarted, becoming his own executioner.

Any additional comments?

Took a lot of purchases at audible to get to the one that made all the other duds worth it.

Henry VIII horror viillian !

A well known historical subject but includes the insanity of Henry VIII quest for a male heir. Discusses Ann Boelyn in particular. Too bad they didn't know more about genetics . I enjoyed the book, but I always relate to his scheming wives. Very well written and of course Simon Vance is a wonderful narrator.

Worth reading but not as good as Wolf Hall

Anything by Hilary Mantel is worth reading or listening to, but Wolf Hall remains her masterpiece and Bring Up the Bodies is not quite up to the standard set by that novel. What I really miss here is the sound of Simon Slater's voice (who read Wolf Hall for audio). Vance's performance, while above average, lacks Slater's pitch-perfect delivery.

My favorite audiobook of all time!

I love the series and this is my favorite of the 3. Narrator is awesome!

A good read

I read Wolf Hall and Bringing Up the Bodies when the books were first published. Could not put either down until I finished them. Also enjoyed the tv series on PBS of Wolf Hall. But this was 10plus years ago. Good books always deserve to be read again. This time I decided on Audible to hear them told in voice that might capture more of the characters for me. I very much enjoyed Ben Miles narration of Wolf Hall. And am in disagreement with other reviewers about Simon Vance's narration of Bringing up the Bodies. Cromwell was not aristocracy - he was a self-made man. Simon Vance's voice was just too high brow. This was not Shakespeare. Also it frequently was hard for me to distinguish the voices of the characters from one another as Vance seemed to have difficulty changing voices. The story is wonderful, I thoroughly enjoyed it again. I wish however the narration had been by Ben Miles. I think Vance did not do the story justice.

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.