Wide screen historical fiction

I loved Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies. Well written genre fiction is such a treat; good dialogue, believable characters and a great story brought together by someone who really knows what they're about. I read Iain M. Banks or Elmore Leonard and I want all science fiction or crime novels to be that good and unfortunately they're not. But Hilary Mantel writes so wonderfully that I was surprised that the reviews of this novel were a bit lukewarm and it put me off buying it for a while. In the end though a combination of "How bad can it be?" and a primitive sense that 34 hours was really good value prompted me to buy it and I'm very glad I did.

The "Cromwell" books achieve a standard for me that this couldn't quite reach; hence the possibly unfair 4 stars; but by any standard it's great writing. She has a lot of characters to pull together and the twists and turns of the French Revolution are incredibly complicated but she marshals a huge cast of characters in service of a great story. I found myself gripped by their fates and fascinated by the big picture stuff at the same time. One example of this is a touching moment where Marie Antoinette is about to get into the cart that will take her to her execution and she has a moment of dread about what's waiting for her at the other end of the journey. She needs to urinate and has to squat in the street. This story is apparently true and for a moment it made me genuinely pity her as a real person, which isn't all that easy when dealing with such strong historical archetypes.

In summary, this is a great listen. It doesn't benefit from the kind of sympathetic central character that the "Cromwell" books have but in fairness it's trying to tell the story of a much more chaotic period featuring many more historical characters who left behind a mountain of documentary evidence. Pretty much everyone comes off as callous or vindictively murderous at some point. So Mantel has a different, difficult job to do and she does it characteristically well.

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24 people found this helpful

A monumental historic novel - totally in awe.

This is a novel that improves each time I have read then listened to it. It more than deserves rereading. The first time for the drama and the story, the second for a closer relationship with the key characters in the story and a third time to pick up on its meaning for understanding politics in any age. I loved this book.

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1 person found this helpful

Slow book which ruins a great story

The French Revolution is such a fascinating period of history, but Hilary Mantel destroys it by drifting off into dialogues so infuriatingly long that the plot is forgotten! Perhaps better than other mantel books I've tried, but I won't try any more!

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Well written but too long.

Love the work but it just went on too long. A third shorter would have been stronger.

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Magnificent

A small caveat, this book starts slow. The time spent in the set up isn't wasted, but there is a lot of it. Having read the wolf hall trilogy I was willing to wait it out, but I imagine it might put off people that would otherwise love this book. Stick with it!

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Brilliant

Brilliant book and brilliantly narrated. The narrator has a wide range of accents/voices and narrates the book so well. I love Hilary Mantels books, they are so well written and make you feel like you're actually there. I look forward to listening to it again.

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Complex and gripping

Struggled to follow this when I read the book, found it fascinating in audio version.

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Very Good but Difficult to follow

This is obviously Hilary Mantel but not at her "Bring out the Bodies" best. It is about the French Revolution and there is lots of history but the story is disappointing. The main characters are hopelessly confusing, sometimes referred to by known surnames, Robespierre, Marat, Danton but often referred to by their first names with little or no context so the reader has no idea when the story swaps names about who is who? Most of the book is trivial gossip with some politics thrown in which is fine if you are a big student of the Revolution and know the gist but not too good for non aficionados like me who are just wanting a good story to follow. This book would seriously benefit from a glossary of the cast of characters so we know who is who and what they are on about, but the audiobook does not have that so you can only really make any sense of it with Wikipedia open and lots of reading wiki articles.

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Amazing story!

I read half the book but was struggling to finish, the audible version really helped!

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Vive la Revolution!

This is my first book by Mantel and it was stunning! Historically accurate (even though dramatised) the characters and relationships between the 3 men are fleshed out from youth, the Revolution and their downfall in the Terror. I've always been fascinated by Robespierre and this book gives him what I imagine to be an authentic version of his voice. Speaking of voices, Jonathan Keeble does his usual excellent work. I'm used to his Sci-fi narration but It was a very pleasant addition to his clear skill set to hear him undertake a historical drama. If the Revolution interests you, this is the go-to fiction to support and imagine historical figures. Heartily recommended!

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