The Mirror & the Light (Thomas Cromwell #3) [J0323]

2020 HCDJ in nice clean condition. With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man's vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage. The story begins in May 1536: Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith's son from Putney emerges from the spring's bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour. Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry's regime to the breaking point, Cromwell's robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortune's wheel turns, Cromwell's enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry's cruel and capricious gaze? Eagerly awaited and eight years in the making, The Mirror & the Light completes Cromwell's journey from self-made man to one of the most feared, influential figures of his time. Portrayed by Mantel with pathos and terrific energy, Cromwell is as complex as he is unforgettable: a politician and a fixer, a husband and a father, a man who both defied and defined his age.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "Like the other novels, this is a witty book with plenty of detail and lively action. There is also poetry in the prose, which Mantel masters magnificently for the significant action."; "This final novel in Hilary Mantel's brilliant trilogy chronicling the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell is exceptional!! This concluding volume examines Cromwell's relationships with his boys, with Henry, with the late Cardinal Wolsey, and even with the memory of his father in a way that eclipses both previous volumes, all while building toward the heartbreaking fall of this larger-than-life statesman."; "This really is the perfect saga. Her narration is so fluid; it shifts in and out of Cromwell's mind so subtly you barely notice. His complexes and anxieties and fears are excavated not by virtue of his thoughts but by negation. We get glimpses only at the margins of his ruthlessness and cold calculation, in the same way that many of those who believe themselves Good may block out any recollection of their bad deeds."