After some hesitant literary beginnings between genres as disparate as historical fiction and the current romantic genre (that kind of pink narratives), Hilary Tablecloth ended up being a consolidated author of the historical.
Under the umbrella of this genre, he was able to win two Booker prizes on two separate occasions, an award that bases his well-earned prestige, for the most widely spoken language in the world, on his ability to surprise and not succumb to the claims of the commercial ( not always at least).
And something similar happened with Hilary herself. although his orientation towards historical plots It already seemed like a clear trend, its ability to change centuries, always with a profuse documentation with which to satin each scenario in a timely manner, supposes that gratifying exercise of surprise and reading enjoyment for lovers of any past moment of our civilization.
With a romantic point that at times shows us who may be one of its references, andl great Walter Scott, Hilary was always aware of the informative aspect that any approach to the past needs to win in an aspect of setting that readers of historical novels appreciate in its preciousness, in the surprising detail, in the new nuance revealed by an author who knows the temporal sphere. who tries and is able to introduce all that wealth in each of his new novels.
Top 3 best Hilary Mantel books
In the court of the wolf
This is what always happens with good timeless books, that reissues multiply. And this novel originally published in 2009 has already had time to re-launch to the public a few years after seeing the light for the first time.
The figure of Henry VIII enjoys a popularity similar to that of the Catholic Monarchs in Spain. Around this English monarch loomed some of the most convulsive circumstances in a history of the British Isles always subject to links, unions between states, separations and others.
In this novel we find the unfortunate Catalina de Aragón, led into oblivion by an unfaithful monarch (perhaps due to her unsuccessful search for the male heir).
But beyond this dynastic relationship fallen into decline, the story dated 1520 focuses on the figure of Cromwell, the most influential character in the king's clique who will become the most prominent political figure, above the monarch himself, and under the protection of its decisions, the history of England will take a course never before imagined.
a Queen on stage
If in the novel "In the court of the wolf" the author approaches the role of Cromwell in the first instance with those brilliant nuances on the particularities of the character. This time we go a few years later, to the emergence of the figure of the mysterious and transcendental Ana Bolena. This queen consort intervened in a definitive way in the transformation towards Protestant England.
Of course, facing the Church and those who defended it as it was established in England, led to some easy charges that ended with her being executed. As always, Hilary Mantel becomes a chronicler intense in detail and rich in nuances with an always vivid impression of characters, settings, motivations and hidden aspects of the commonly reported story.
The shadow of the guillotine
Each country has its own black history in the history of past centuries. As for cruelty practiced as law or by blood shed.
In the case of France, the image of the guillotine is quickly associated with the French Revolution much more even than with its creator, the doctor Guillotine. And it is that in the final decade of the eighteenth century, France pulled head cuts as if it were onion crops (the macabre joke is worth for something so remote).
In this threatening environment in the face of any act considered criminal or for any offense to authority, we discover a Jaques Georges Danton, a fundamental character of the French Revolution and ultimately a martyr for the same cause.
Opposite him is Robespierre, with whom he shared an ideal but in whose energetic defense that could turn towards greater violence, Danton found a focus of discussion. The final solution was to remove both Danton and another extraordinary protagonist of the History of France and this novel: Desmoulins. Everything that happened in the meantime becomes a fascinating narrative for this novel.
