It is in the climactic conflict with More that Mantel’s achievement shines most brightly. Her Cromwell is at heart a pragmatist. As he tells a condemned heretic, “I would advise anyone to get a few more weeks of life, by any means they can.” His world is one of shifting loyalties and complication, uncertainty at its core. That uncertainty allows him to live with his compromises (many of which would turn the stomach of a modern reader), while making him extremely wary of the hints of zealotry and desire for martyrdom he detects in More.
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Power politics ...
... Levi Stahl on Hilary Mantel: Trust in Princes. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
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