{"id":31396,"date":"2011-03-23T11:59:31","date_gmt":"2011-03-23T15:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=31396"},"modified":"2012-02-29T14:57:32","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T19:57:32","slug":"ambition-and-intrigue-in-the-court-of-henry-viii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/03\/ambition-and-intrigue-in-the-court-of-henry-viii\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambition and Intrigue in the Court of Henry VIII"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Jeremy<\/a>
Jeremy Teitelbaum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The dean of CLAS is captivated by the character of Cromwell in a Booker Prize-winning novel set in 16th-century England. He says the sequel can’t come too soon.<\/h3>\n

By Jeremy Teitelbaum, Dean<\/a>
\nCollege of Liberal Arts and Sciences<\/a><\/p>\n

I tend to classify my reading into separate categories of \u201cfun books\u201d and \u201cserious literature.\u201d I read a lot from the former category and just a little from the latter. I love historical fiction and always thought of it as \u201cfun,\u201d but at the same time I can\u2019t help but classify Booker Prize<\/a> winners as \u201cserious literature.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, even though I kept encountering Hilary Mantel\u2019s prize-winning historical novel Wolf Hall<\/em><\/a> in the bookstore and in my online recommendations, I resisted reading it. I\u2019m glad that the need to find reading matter for a flight to California resolved the conundrum in favor of reading the book sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

Wolf Hall<\/em> tells the story of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII\u2019s \u201cfixer,\u201d who rose from obscurity to become Chancellor of England. On one level, it is a first-class political thriller. The oft-told but inherently dramatic circumstances of Henry\u2019s quest to declare his marriage to Queen Katherine invalid so that he could marry Anne Boleyn offer plenty of scope for intrigue and double-crosses. The book tells how Cromwell moves gradually to the center of the shifting power web in Henry\u2019s court. Ultimately, he helps to engineer the separation of the Church of England from Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries, and he slowly works out a \u201clegal\u201d way to get Henry and Anne married.<\/p>\n

In the process, he faces some formidable opponents, of whom Thomas More is the most famous. Indeed, Cromwell is the unprincipled bad guy in the play A Man for All Seasons<\/a>, pushing More to compromise his principles and accept the Boleyn marriage and Henry\u2019s primacy of the Church. Mantel gives Cromwell his revenge by casting More as a self-righteous, hair-shirted inquisitor who sends his fellow Englishmen to the stake on matters of doctrine. More\u2019s execution is a political triumph for Cromwell and, given More\u2019s portrayal, a fair turnabout.<\/p>\n

\"<p>CLAS<\/a>What I find fascinating about Mantel\u2019s book is that, despite hearing the story from Cromwell\u2019s point of view, I still can\u2019t really figure him out. Cromwell has often been portrayed as a villain \u2013 a sort of Beria<\/a> of Henry\u2019s reign. In Mantel\u2019s book, Cromwell is driven by a complicated mix of personal loyalty to his family, to Cardinal Wolsey, and then Henry; sympathy with Tyndale and other reformers of the Church; ambition; desire; and personal grudges. Some reviewers have described Mantel\u2019s Cromwell as \u201chumane,\u201d but I have mixed feelings. Cromwell has sympathy for More, for example, but he steadily pushes him into a position where More must yield on principle or die.<\/p>\n

The interaction between Cromwell and Anne Boleyn further exemplifies the mysteries of Cromwell\u2019s character. Mantel\u2019s Boleyn is terrifying. Utterly sure of herself, willing to use her body to manipulate Henry in the most ruthless way, and making use of everyone close to her, including her sister, in pursuit of her goal of removing Queen Katherine and supplanting her. Any rational man \u2013 and Cromwell is nothing if not rational \u2013 would naturally flee from her.<\/p>\n

Instead, he plays a complicated double game, using the King\u2019s desire for Anne to advance his own political goals of reforming the church and, maybe, settling some old scores with enemies of his former patron Cardinal Wolsey. Among the many mysteries of the book, for me, is whether Cromwell himself finds Anne desirable.<\/p>\n

You can learn from Wikipedia what happens to Cromwell in the end, but the book finishes far short of the ultimate resolution of the story. I\u2019m desperate for the sequel, because even though I know how the story turns out, I still don\u2019t feel like I have a grip on the character of Cromwell. I also need to understand the book\u2019s title, which seems to be a very tricky pun.<\/p>\n

I started this blog entry by classifying historical fiction as \u201cfun.\u201d For purposes of stimulating conversation, here are a few of my favorite historical novels.<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Horatio Hornblower<\/a><\/ins> novels, by C.S. Forester<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Aubrey\/Maturin<\/a><\/ins> series by Patrick O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dorothy Dunnett\u2019s Niccolo novels<\/a><\/ins> and the Lymond Chronicles<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sharon Penman\u2019s The Sunne in Splendour<\/a><\/em> <\/ins><\/em>(the best, in my opinion, of her many historical novels)<\/p>\n

Any other suggestions? Send them to: dean@clas.uconn.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has 23 departments in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences, ranging from physics to philosophy, and more than 15,000 students, 600 faculty, and 83,000 alumni. Check out our three initiatives: Health and Human Behavior<\/a>, the Environment<\/a>, and <\/em>Culture and Society<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Other CLAS Blog posts:<\/h4>\n

On Not Buying an iPad<\/a><\/p>\n

A Step Closer to Science Fiction?<\/a><\/p>\n

Academic Freedom Meets Freedom of Information<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>A Civil Conversation on Contentious Issues<\/a><\/p>\n

Academically Anchored<\/a><\/p>\n

Meditations on A(nother) Snow Day<\/a><\/p>\n

Coming to Grips with Climate Change<\/a><\/p>\n

Ideas \u2013 The Psychological Currency of the University<\/a><\/p>\n

‘Just Hire the Best’?<\/a><\/p>\n

Will ‘Crowdsourcing’ Revolutionize Scholarship?<\/a><\/p>\n

Hidden Symmetries<\/a><\/p>\n

Spectacular Storrs<\/a><\/p>\n

Citizenship, Marriage, and Mosques: Problems in the Applied Humanities<\/a><\/p>\n

Of Deans and English Professors<\/a><\/p>\n

The Joys of Jamming<\/a><\/p>\n

Slick Calculations<\/a><\/p>\n

The Road to Agra<\/a><\/p>\n

UConn Over Yale and Other Tales from Jim Draper \u201941<\/a><\/p>\n

The Amazon, Avatar, and Smallpox<\/a><\/p>\n

The Value of Curiosity<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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