Having read “Wolf Hall” for the first time recently, I wanted to keep up the momentum by jumping right into reading the second book in Mantel’s trilogy on Cromwell. Like I said with the first novel, it’s impressive how the author creates such a suspenseful narrative despite my being aware of what was going to happen because it’s based on history. Having dealt with the sprawling mechanics of the events leading to Henry’s marriage with Catherine of Aragon being invalidated and England’s break from the authority of the Pope in the first novel, “Bring Up the Bodies” does feel like a more concentrated story because it deals almost solely with the downfall of Anne Boleyn. It’s clear she’s fated from the beginning of the book as Henry is casting around for excuses to dispose of her. But, again, I felt gripped wanting to know how events would unfold through Cromwell’s political manoeuvring. It’s both compelling and horrific seeing how his schemes lead some people to become entrapped in a bloody fate or compromise those close to them to save their own skin. Mantel is brilliant at dramatizing how, as the proverbial saying goes, ‘power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely’.
Yet Cromwell also emerges as such a fascinatingly complex figure in her portrayal of him as a man of committed Christian faith who also feels such a strong loyalty to England and the King. Henry’s edicts mean these two convictions should be at odds with each other but Cromwell must act as if they are not. He must also rewrite history as they go in order to keep pace with Henry’s tyrannical desires: “Now our requirements have changed and the facts have changed behind us.” As seen in the hyperbolic pronouncements of world leaders in recent years, facts are something which people in positions of great power believe they can simply invent despite contrary evidence.
In a way Cromwell seems magnanimous in encouraging people to follow the path of least resistance in order to literally survive even if it means they must surrender their own ambitions, beliefs and freedom. Perhaps the key to his success is his willingness to cede all these things to the will and might of the monarchy and hope the benefits will follow. In this novel he does profit heavily from such loyalty, but it’s a dangerous game. It makes me even more curious to find out how he’ll inevitably fall out of favour in the third book. But Cromwell is also monstrous in selecting the most convenient people around to charge alongside Anne to bring about her downfall: “He needs guilty men so he has found men who are guilty though perhaps not guilty as charged.” In his position he's able to strategically orchestrate the removal and disposal of people in a way which best suits the King and his own interests.
Alongside a reinforcement of the Tudor line it feels as if in these acts there is a simultaneous self-conscious anxiety about the meaning of Englishness and national identity. The disruption of England breaking away from the Catholic church in Rome has caused unrest which will continue to be felt in multiple ways and this creates an atmosphere of unease: “The feeling is that something is wrong in England and must be set right. It’s not the laws that are wrong or the customs. It’s something deeper.” Already it feels like there is a myth-making occurring as if there is some essential Englishness which can be got at or returned to which will join the nation together as a whole. But Henry, in his selfish wielding of power for his own lineage and vanity, has violently divided the country rather than given it a sense of cohesion. These are historic tensions which I think are still felt and manifest in different forms today.
This feels like a more reflective novel than the first as both Cromwell and other characters recall formative moments of their lives. And perhaps even more than the first book there is a feeling of the dead's presence amongst the living. Mantel chillingly creates an atmosphere of gloomy tension populated by ghosts: “When the house is quiet, when all his houses are quiet then dead people walk about on the stairs.” Yet, at the same time, many characters who've been targeted and accused of conspiring with or having affairs with Queen Anne are practically dead men walking since they will soon be tried and executed. The title itself refers to prisoners being brought out from their cells as if they were already corpses.
Perhaps it's because of the more concentrated story-line or the fact this novel is only two-thirds the length of the first novel, but I found reading “Bring Up the Bodies” a more brisk and easier experience. Again, there was some momentary confusion about the meaning of certain events or who particular characters are on my part but this narrative has a momentum to it largely due to the inevitability of Anne's downfall. I enjoyed it immensely and found many scenes gripping as well as chilling. I now feel primed and ready for Mantel's conclusion to this monumental epic.
