Bring Up the Bodies
First published 2012 · English · 411 pages
- Novels
- Historical fiction
- Biography and memoir
The second novel in the Cromwell trilogy continues the story of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn is now queen, but the king's attention is shifting and the question of an heir remains pressing. Cromwell, skilled and cautious, must serve his master's wishes while managing rivals who remember old grievances. The novel is shorter and tighter than its predecessor, full of tension, courtly manoeuvring and quiet menace. It explores power, loyalty and the dangers of being useful to a king. It won the Booker Prize, making Mantel the first woman to win it twice.
Quotes
It is better not to try people, not to force them to desperation. Make them prosper; out of superfluity, they will be generous. Full bellies breed gentle manners. The pinch of famine makes monsters.
Riding beneath dark trees at the close of that first day’s travel, they sing; it lifts the tired heart, and dispels spirits lurking in the verges; never underestimate the superstition of the average Englishman.
We could have put up at a monastery, one of his guard had complained; but no girls in a monastery, I suppose. He had turned in the saddle: “You really think that?” Knowing laughter from the men.
Once they were young men of esprit, young men of élan. A quarter of a century has passed and they are grey or balding, flabby or punchy, gone in the fetlock or missing some fingers, but still as arrogant as satraps and with the mental refinement of a gatepost.