Wolf Crawl #39: No way forward

'He will not keep promises to low men,' Truth says. 'He will not be bound. No more will the king be bound to you, Cromwell. The harder you try to bind him by your deeds, the more he will detest you. I pity you, for there is no way forward for you. He will hate you for your successes as much as your failures.'

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further resources: Hilary Mantel | Wolf Hall

Welcome to Week 39 of Wolf Crawl. I am your guide, Simon Haisell, and this is a year-long slow read of Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy: Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror & the Light.

Each week, I dive into the details with summaries, background, footnotes and tangents to enrich your reading. I am joined on this journey by Bea Stitches, who delves into the archive on our behalf, and Matt Brown, who makes maps to help us find our way through Cromwell’s world.

You can find the reading schedule and plot summaries for the full cast of characters on my website, Footnotes and Tangents. There, you can join other slow reads, including Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, and The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald.

I start each post with a summary of the week’s story, illustrated by a map by Matt Brown. This week, we are reading the second half of Part Two. Chapter III. Vile Blood. London, Autumn–Winter 1536.

In the UK Fourth Estate edition, this section runs from pages 356 to 395. In the US Picador edition, it runs from pages 303 to 337. It begins, “Bess Darrell is a flitting presence by candlelight, a wraith.” It ends, “Try and keep cheerful.”

This summary is followed by a few footnotes of interest. This week, we wonder what manner of man is Henry Tudor, and how best to serve him. We make haste slowly in the land of giants, and stay cheerful in melancholy England. In the archive with Bea Stitches, we light the beacons, read some rebel poetry and send out our Xmas invites.

And then it is over to you. In the comments, let us know what caught your eye and ask the group any questions you may have. And if you’ve tumbled down a rabbit hole or taken your reading off on a tangent, please share where you have been and what you have found.

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