"The Mirror & the Light" by Hilary Mantel

The following review is also published in Deccan Herald, on 19 April 2020 [edited].

'History' - Wooed with Verses and Undressed with Wit!

"It is the historian who has decided for his own reasons that Caesar's crossing of that petty stream, the Rubicon, is a fact of history, whereas the crossing of the Rubicon by millions of other people before or since interests nobody at all." - The twentieth century English historian, E.H. Carr makes his remark with great caution. However, when we speak of 'historical fiction', the work is partly subjected to being speculative; yet, one must remember to acknowledge the fact that there exists a conscious interrogation of the relationship between history and fiction which tries to provide an insight into those stories that have been displaced in time and space. In Hilary Mantel's works, we get a glimpse of how tides of history break inside the narration and the possibility of their current furnishing an engaged experience.

The Mirror & the Light (2020) is Mantel's third installment to the Cromwell trilogy, and the first two being Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring up the Bodies (2012), which made Mantel a Booker Prize awardee as well. The trilogy chronicles the rise and fall of one of the most significant members of King Henry VIII's court, Thomas Cromwell. As prominent a figure that Cromwell surfaces in the dog-eared pages of history, there is still a wide gap in accounting his early years and his experiences as an individual. There are voluminous works, both historical and literary, written on King Henry VIII and his reign in the 16th century England, however, there has been no substantial accounts of one of the most important proponents of the English Reformation - Thomas Cromwell, who was indeed an important cogwheel in altering England's political structure. Mantel's trilogy supplies biographical details of Lord Cromwell through fiction with the usage of literary tropes.

The narration begins with the news of the execution of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, and the first queen to have been beheaded. The writer has ensured her consistency in narrating the story in a manner where the third book begins from the point where the sequel ended, without much delay. Cromwell's introduction in the new book can be read in parallel to the making of a new England. While the first two books talk of Cromwell's beginnings and rise to power, the third narrates a grand story of a man who has had a huge appetite for work and life. It is here that we see a different Cromwell, unlike the usual caricature villain as he has appeared in other historical works. We begin to comprehend the situations that arose and decisions made from Cromwell's perspective.

As a historical novelist, Mantel presents before her readers an archetypal story spread over three books, where a brewer's son leaves home, is unable to return and yet has to find means to survive. This historical character, Thomas Cromwell, a lawyer and Chief Minister at Henry VIII's court, is approached in a manner very different, more organic precisely. The employment of present tense gives the readers an access to that particular age, where we intuitively begin to see that there is no leisurely time for Cromwell and the other characters to engage in introspection, rather they all survive and act out their next few breaths. In fact, at one point we see Cromwell saying that he is just trying to survive the week, and it remains thus where survival becomes one of the imperatives that enable the several characters to act impulsively.

Even though it is the story of a historical character that Mantel has narrated in her 'Wolf Hall' trilogy, we, as readers, begin to see Cromwell in the present and simply as an individual who steps into myriad experiences in his life of power and rule. Unlike a historian, Mantel treats time differently and invests herself in comprehending the inner experiences of the subject. The readers are given a story where Cromwell is not cast in binaries of good and bad, instead he is presented as a man whose identity shifts from obscurity to fame, and as an individual of singular experience fishing for some inkling of what comes next. The text, no doubt, is a 'historical fiction', but Mantel doesn't make things up or exaggerate unnecessarily; instead her imagination is just enough and is placed in the context of a familiarity with the age she is talking about.

The third book completes Cromwell's journey, where Mantel traces Cromwell's final years. It is a grand story that investigates how an ordinary man would behave when he acquires power. The individual now, with power, builds a modern nation through his actions that emerge from conflict, passion and courage. The narration is rich, for there is a lot to account for, and Mantel's way of writing induces paradoxes subtly and surprises the readers.