The Mirror & the Light by Hilary MantelMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
After achieving the ending of one marriage to allow another and doing it again, Thomas Cromwell seemed to be at the height of his power in the court of Henry VIII so of course it wouldn’t last. The Mirror & The Light is the final installment of Hilary Mantel’s historical fiction trilogy on the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell detailing the last four years of his life from Henry’s marriage to Jane Seymour to Cromwell’s own execution.
Beginning immediately after Anne Boleyn’s execution, Mantel follows Cromwell’s rise in power and wealth while dealing with Henry VIII and the old noble families that look down their nose towards him. While Mantel is detailed is going in-depth over the course of Cromwell’s last four years from politics to legal issues and finally his personal life, however this was also a detriment as well due the book being 754 pages which almost doubled the previous installment and was the longest book of the trilogy. While the length did get to me a few times, I did appreciate Mantel weaving Cromwell’s complex relationships with Henry VIII, the old nobility, the rising families, and other lowborn men on the make that had inhabited the trilogy especially when it came to his sudden downfall. Overall, this was a fitting conclusion to a historical fiction trilogy about statesman who was a proponent of the English Reformation whose political power has been either dismissed or debated by historians over the course of history.
The Mirror & The Light while lengthy, brings Hilary Mantel’s historical fiction trilogy of Thomas Cromwell to a satisfying conclusion and was worth the time reading.
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