In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII\'s court, only one man, Thomas Cromwell, dares to gamble his life to win the king\'s favor and ascend to the heights of political power.
With a vast array of characters, overflowing with incident, the novel re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hairbreadth, where success brings unlimited power but a single failure means death..
Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph? In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage.
But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous.
Cromwell is a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people and a demon of energy: he is also a consummate politician, hardened by his personal losses, implacable in his ambition.
Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell.
The quest for the king\'s freedom destroys his adviser, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum.
The pope and most of Europe opposes him.
Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn.
If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war.
In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII\'s court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king\'s favor and ascend to the heights of political power England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster.
In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII\'s court, only one man, Thomas Cromwell, dares to gamble his life to win the king\'s favor and ascend to the heights of political power
