itt WOLF HALL the book by hilary mantel and the upcoming hbo/bbc miniseries based on the same

matt dc otm. rylances performance is a real grower. the big issue i had is just that mantels books are such fantastic slow burns, both individually and across both, and its impossible to really let the plot work itself out in only six hour long episodes

found myself doing a mark rylance impression lately bc it's such an enjoyable way to speak

this ruled

I'm watching this now (it's streaming through the PBS channel on the Roku box if you have one of those) and I'm at the part where he loses his wife and daughters and it's absolutely gutting me.

That was sad in the book but holy cow. ;_;

Knowing what was about to happen, I nearly lost my shit at the little girl walking off with the candle and angel wings.

I knowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

When the nursemaids were trying to wake up the girls, god.

I just bumped the ILB books of the 00s thread with the realisation that we somehow managed to poll 101 books without Wolf Hall even placing, and that was in a list containing the fucking God Delusion.

If we polled the whole thing again now WH would probably stand a pretty good chance of winning.

i was into the asynchronicity of the adap; when it started with wolsey's fall i thought the whole thing was gonna be fucked up

i really liked the way the episode handled the int'l political stuff (emperor charles, catherine, the pope etc), w just a little more direct exposition to make it stick. it's sort of hidden in plain sight in the book that cromwell, even more than henry!, can see the succession as an issue of national stability

also when mathieu amalric showed up as chapuys i was like yessss

oh i love him

i guess i'm still not entirely sold on rylance's supercool reading; i always heard the character as being cheerfully unflappable.

funny to dig around on the web/twitter for reactions to this and see comments from catholic conservatives that it's "propaganda". more's been dead nearly 500 years, let it go

lol

for catholics tho 500 years is like the 90's for us

for catholics tho 500 years is like the 90's for us

lol

I'm way into Rylance in this. He's cheerful in his own way. The look on his face after he meets with Henry the first time was perfect. So subtle but the Cromwellian version of jumping into the air, pumping his fist, and saying "YESSSSS."

Just one ep in the US so far, right?

yah

fellas you need to chill: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3027617/Americas-Catholic-bishops-attack-prejudice-laden-Wolf-Hall-BBC-drama-hits-screens.html

I think part of what got to me so hard about Liz and the daughters dying is how Mantel treats Cromwell's ongoing grief in the books. It's always there, quietly, relentlessly. He goes about his business, being 100% Cromwell, and then finds the wings and is hit with the loss all over again. Just knowing that their death is more than a sad scene, I think.

Also I'm a walking stereotype who since having a child cannot cope with seeing children die on TV or in movies.

dvr'd the rerun on thursday, cant wait to see this

the scene where henry gets knocked off the horse is dynamite

yeah it's a corker. rylance spoke about how he was more sympathetic to henry seeing him as being aware of how thin the veneer of peace that came with his rule was and seeing the instant panic and fear erupting immediately is fantastic

watched the first episode of this last night. it's definitely the best thing I watched this week. I'm hooked. makes me want to re-watch a man for all seasons.

also i want to see rylance in everything now.

ep2 was a little slow but it continues to rule

would have been fun to sit in on their classes w/ the hoplology advisor who taught them to shoot

I liked the kitten and the bunny.

i'm kind of bummed they skimmed over a lot of the calais sequence, it's one of my favorite pieces. he meets king francis! he finds that french urchin!

kitty <3

it's weird how no-one looks at all like i pictured yet for the most part they are all so unexpectedly great

love sir thomas moore, and wriothsely looked appropriately twatty

how is rylance so good in this? he's so subtle & excellent

Thank u this thread, reading WH and liking it a lot

aw man they skipped over henry's visit to the house after C gets over his fever. i'm loving this but a lot of the sweet moments and personal stuff is gone.

also it could be faulty memory but anne is coming off way worse than on the page.

poor joan :(

yeah they def miss all the gorgeous detail...100% broadstrokes this

Yeah, I think I'd be way more into this if I hadn't read the books. OTOH, Rylance is perfect.

JUst found a copy of the 2nd book reasonably cheap in a charity shop. haven't read the first but have watched the tv series. So wondering if I'm missing anything by starting in the wrong place chronologically. But bet I'm not the first to do so.
Surprised to see that on the shelves when I was looking since this close after the series was shown I would think it would be snapped up almost instantly. maybe I did . Don't know when that went out. but it wasn't the series tie in version so maybe people didn't see it.

series was good and enjoyable (haven't watched the final ep yet) but felt almost like a ghost of the world of the books

you might not exactly miss anything of the sense of chronology Stevelende but you'll miss a whole book of words and in the end I think it's all about the words

words v important. one of my favourite things about the second book that won't resonate so much without reading the first is the 'left leg' etc bits.

you gotta read the first book. as good as it is, tv broad strokes barely scratch the surface of the book's richness

THing is I probably will read the first book at some point. it's just so happened that the 2nd book has appeared before i found a cheap copy of the 1st so my opportunity to read it is coming first. Subsequently wondering if I did need to wait and try to get to read the first one first or just go ahead with the 2nd one.
Was thinking that everything I needed to know would probably be explained in the book since with it having been a popular book it has to have been expected that a significant part of the audience would not have read the first one first.

& that what ever plot development i was missing by not having read it first would have probably also been covered to some extent in the tv series. But I do know that they are different media with different focuses for the story. Book is apparently a lot more internal to Cromwell. Will find out when I go to read it. But do have a couple of things to finish first.
Chance is open taht in the interim I might just score a copy of Wolf Hall before I start Bodies anyway.

LISTEN TO ME

READ THE FIRST BOOK FIRST

you must listen to vg, stevolende, she has not said a false word in this whole thread. it was her posts that finally got me reading these books and i am so grateful.

plot's good but with wanting not to be evangelical or didactic plot's a bit secondary like

agreed

no they're really not about plot at all but the first book establishes so much more otherwise. couldn't imagine starting with BUTB, seems like a terrible idea.

Definitely read the first book first.

Virtually all the plot is in the real history anyway. It's about character really.

Right, do have a number of other books to read anyway, just happened to pick the 2nd book up. Maybe I can get the first one from a library before that or keep my fingers crossed for a cheap copy to appear.

Anyway have the 2nd book and being told to wait before reading it just means its going to be backburnered.

But everything is a question of chance anyway in terms of what does turn up. Did think that maybe a number of things that would make reading the 2 books in the wrong order in isolation from the tv series odd might be somewhat different once I had seen the tv series.
Which I have but people are saying stick to chronological order.

Really it is just a book that I have picked up cheap in a charity shop and I doubt I would have been the first person to read those the other way round. Sure some people have gone back to the first book after enjoying the 2nd. Happens with a lot of series I think.

JUst hope that backburnering doesn't become permanent and the book remain unread.

patience grasshopper

the exchanges between Moore & Cromwell as things ratchet up in the show are starting to get v close to the electricity conveyed in the book

there are times when it feels like a look from Cromwell could set Moore alight

u+k:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/30/wolf-hall-codpieces-too-small-says-literature-researcher