Bring Up the Bodies
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4.5 • 31 Ratings
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
The sequel to Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller, Bring Up the Bodies delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn.
The basis for the TV show on BBC and PBS Masterpiece starring Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell.
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?
Named a top 10 Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The Washington Post
Customer Reviews
A Masterpiece That Breathes Life Into Tudor England
From the moment I opened "Wolf Hall," I was no longer in my living room but walking the torch-lit corridors of Hampton Court alongside Thomas Cromwell. For the entire week I spent with Mantel's trilogy, I lived and breathed Tudor England with an immediacy that felt almost supernatural.
Mantel's prose doesn't merely describe history—it resurrects it. The political machinations of Henry VIII's court, the dangerous religious reforms, and the high-stakes personal dramas unfold with such visceral detail that you can practically smell the herb-strewn floors and feel the weight of velvet robes. Her Thomas Cromwell—brilliant, pragmatic, wounded—becomes a lens through which we view this treacherous world with surprising intimacy.
What sets this trilogy apart is how thoroughly it dismantles our cardboard cutout understanding of historical figures. Anne Boleyn emerges not as a simple temptress but as a complex strategist. Thomas More sheds his saintly image to reveal a man of stubborn conviction and cruelty. Even Henry himself transcends caricature, revealing layers of insecurity beneath his bombast.
The trilogy builds with devastating momentum toward its inevitable conclusion, yet even knowing the history couldn't prepare me for the emotional impact of Cromwell's fall. Throughout my reading, I felt privileged to inhabit Mantel's meticulously crafted world—a world that continues to haunt me long after turning the final page.
Simply put, this is historical fiction at its absolute finest—a once-in-a-generation achievement that forever raises the bar for the genre.