Bring Up the Bodies
by Hilary Mantel
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
88%
Critic Reviews: 43
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
83%
Reader Ratings: 669
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Synopsis
The sequel to Hilary Mantel's 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller, Wolf Hall delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne... more
About Hilary Mantel
- All Critics: 43
- Positive: 41
- Negative: 2
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The New York Times | 25 May 2012
...it’s astringent and purifying, stripping away the cobwebs and varnish of history... so that the English past comes to seem like something vivid, strange and brand new.
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The Telegraph | 28 May 2012
Bring Up the Bodies might be a fiction, but it is more transparent than those high-narrative histories which cherry-pick their evidence and then fill in factual gaps with educated imaginative leaps.
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The Washington Post | 7 May 2012
She animates history with a political and psychological acuity equal to Tolstoy’s in “War and Peace”...
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Los Angeles Times | 20 May 2012
The good news is that it is more than the equal of its predecessor when it comes to intensity and drama...
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The New Yorker | 7 May 2012
Mantel knows what to select, how to make her scenes vivid, how to kindle her characters.
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The Independent | 20 May 2012
Bring up the Bodies has a gripping story of tumbling fury and terror, and for the most part does it with honour and energy.
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Boston.com | 27 May 2012
The achievement of Hilary Mantel’s rich and piercing chronicle of Cromwell and the feral English court is to portray him at times as a nail amid a world of hammers.
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The Guardian | 12 May 2012
While lacking, necessarily, the shocking freshness of the first book, it is narrower, tighter, at times a more brilliant and terrifying novel.
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New Statesman | 16 May 2012
Bring Up the Bodies should net its author another Booker Prize – deservedly, this time.
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Slate | 5 May 2012
That is the worst that can be said about Mantel—her latest book makes you angry, because you want more.
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USA Today | 26 May 2012
Mantel's secret is her ability to make the reader identify heart and soul with Cromwell.
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San Francisco Chronicle | 18 May 2012
...swiftly moving and entertaining, erudite and educational new work of historical fiction by Mantel.
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The Telegraph | 17 May 2012
...breathes new life into biographies we thought we knew by heart, enlarged and contemporised to mirror our own gains and losses.
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The New Republic | 1 May 2012
...this technique, a kind of literary 3-D, combines with reported conversation to create an instant realism that projects emotions—fear in particular—with extraordinary vividness.
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Bookslut | 1 May 2012
As each page is rapidly turned, Mantel manages to consistently tighten the screws and ratchet up the tension...
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National Post | 18 May 2012
But Mantel’s goal is to enrich... At that she once again succeeds to an admirable, even breathtaking, extent.
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Huffington Post | 9 May 2012
...Mantel weaves a richly textured world that is at once deeply foreign and entirely relevant...
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Historical-Fiction.com | 28 May 2012
Exquisitely detailed and full of endearing character quirks and references from the original, even die-hard Anne Boleyn advocates will appreciate this novel for its honest representation.
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Good E-Reader | 11 Jun 2012
Ultimately, the information was semi-intriguing but the writing style forced me to decipher the text rather than read it.
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The New York Times | 1 May 2012
“Bring Up the Bodies” is beautifully constructed, even though there will be moments when it seems confusing.
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Readings | 28 May 2012
Like Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies is patently enlivened by the author’s passion for Cromwell.
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History News Network | 11 Jun 2012
I'm glad I read it, and endorse this novel... But this book, too, is a bit slow, though the narrative picks up steam in as it proceeds.
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Rivers I Have Known | 23 Jul 2012
Hilarly Mantel has my vote for the most awesome writer of our generation.
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Seattle Times | 6 May 2012
This wonderful, terrible novel does an awful story full justice... You won't be able to tear your eyes away.
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New Zealand Listener | 30 Jun 2012
It’s clear from the first line we’re in the hands of an expert stylist and storyteller who’s made an audacious imaginative leap.
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Salon | 6 May 2012
Mantel makes bold not with form... but with the very material that brings most readers to novels in the first place: our imaginative identification with fictional characters and the experiences we feel we’re sharing with them.
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Devourer of Books | 13 Jul 2012
...much more accessible than Wolf Hall while still being incredibly well-written.
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Kirkus Reviews | 15 May 2012
The inventiveness of Mantel’s language is the chief draw here; the plot, as such, will engage only the most determined of Tudor enthusiasts.
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Entertainment Weekly | 10 May 2012
In Mantel's hands, Cromwell's cunning, morally complicated orchestration of that historic slice through the royal neck is as exciting as any thriller.
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The Nature of Things | 18 Jun 2012
This is a tour de force, a writer on top of her game.
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Newsday | 17 May 2012
Mantel's characters are so palpable, their dialogue so natural, that the narrative seems more transcribed than imagined.
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The Independent | 12 May 2012
Anyone bored with the lean, mean style imposed by creative-writing schools will revel in her lush metaphors.
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The Globe and Mail | 11 May 2012
Excellence is rare, it is a reason why we value it so much... the telling of her tale is masterful.
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Star Tribune | 21 May 2012
...Hilary Mantel continues the spectacular story of Thomas Cromwell... A perfect character for the interior world of fiction...
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NY Daily News | 20 May 2012
...a book every bit as good as “Wolf Hall” and certainly accessible as a stand-alone novel...
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A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore... | 14 May 2012
There are probably hundreds of novels out there about the downfall of Anne Boleyn, but this one stands head and shoulders (no pun intended) above the rest.
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Book Group of One | 18 May 2012
Writing isn’t just about words, though, it’s also about imaginations and this may be where Mantel really excels.
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NPR | 23 May 2012
Bring Up the Bodies isn't just her boldest book; it's also her best — and it reaffirms Mantel's reputation as one of England's greatest living novelists.
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The New York Times | 25 May 2012
...it’s astringent and purifying, stripping away the cobwebs and varnish of history, the antique formulations and brocaded sentimentality of costume-drama novels, so that the English past comes to seem like something vivid, strange and brand new.
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The New York Times | 1 May 2012
The wonder of Ms. Mantel’s retelling is that she makes these events fresh and terrifying all over again.
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The Star | 6 Jun 2012
Just because Cromwell is a bad man doesn't make him any less complex or interesting a figure. He is not a caricature of bureaucratic evil but a well-rounded, psychologically convincing antihero.
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The Wall Street Journal | 4 May 2012
Ms. Mantel everywhere displays an easy ability to show us characters' depths in quick flashes...
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