'Wolf Hall: A Novel' by Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall

A Novel

Hilary Mantel

John Macrae Book/Henry Holt: 538 pp., $27

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These days, Thomas Cromwell is probably best known through James Frain's portrayal of him in the popular Showtime series "The Tudors": a brooding, black-clad figure in a popped collar who engineers Henry VIII's marriages and dissolves the monasteries before his career ends in one of the series' most horrifically unforgettable scenes.

This shrewd political fixer is the protagonist -- though in a completely different guise -- in Hilary Mantel's ambitious new novel, "Wolf Hall," which was awarded the 2009 Man Booker Prize for fiction earlier this week. At its core, her story is familiar enough. Henry VIII breaks with Rome so he can annul his first marriage to Katherine of Aragon, who has failed to produce a male heir, and marry Anne Boleyn, whom he hopes will. Sir Thomas More refuses to swear an oath recognizing Henry as head of the Church of England and Anne as his queen. His reward -- that of all those who thwart Henry -- is a date with the executioner.

Mantel's version of these events is far more subtle and intricate than anything imagined by the writers of "The Tudors." She is at her best when turning her penetrating novelistic gaze to history, as she's done previously in "A Place of Greater Safety" (1993) and "The Giant, O'Brien" (1998). The former novel filtered the disorder of the French Revolution through the complex motives and desires of its group of protagonists. In "Wolf Hall," likewise, the English Reformation is the chaotic and convoluted outcome of multiple and competing interests. There is little idealism or heroism here -- just self-serving diplomatic games, verbal jousts, petty quarrels and endless jockeying for position.

Mantel's abilities to channel the life and lexicon of the past are nothing short of astonishing. She burrows down through the historical record to uncover the tiniest, most telling details, evoking the minutiae of history as vividly as its grand sweep. The dialogue is so convincing that she seems to have been, in another life, a stenographer taking notes in the taverns and palaces of Tudor England.

There are double takes aplenty, however, for those who get their history through films such as "A Man for All Seasons" or "Anne of a Thousand Days," never mind "The Tudors." Prepare for some seismic historical revisions. Mantel's Henry VIII is neither the bloated monster of popular legend nor the svelte sex machine played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Instead, he's a balding, middle-aged hypochondriac who is prone to bursting into tears. He is also -- prepare yourself -- no good in bed.