'Homo Homini Lupus': A Note on Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall

Historical novels, though popular in the 19th century, have not received much critical attention. The novels of this genre attempt to convey the spirit of the past, the manners and social conditions with adequate fidelity to historical facts and impress the reader with an illusion of reality and willing suspension of disbelief. The historical novel started with Scott’s Tis Sixty Years Since and in the present century Hilary Mantel attempted to revive the genre in A Place of Great Safety, dealing with French Revolution and Wolf Hall, which narrated, with focus on accuracy, the events during the reign of Henry VIII, the rise of Oliver Cromwell, the fall of Cardinal Wolsey and the destruction of Thomas More. This paper brings out the predatory nature of man who is really wolf to man. The novelist attempted to look at the historical details through the eyes of Cromwell and they appear differently. Among the reading public and also the literary critics, the historical novel has not gained much as an entirely respectable form in the modern times. It was popular during the early 1880s as the reading public of that period evinced interest in reading about “the long ago … and far away” (Orel Harold, 1995). It has as its setting a period of history that attempts to convey the spirit, manners, and social conditions of a past age with realistic detail and fidelity to historical fact. It also deals with actual historical personages and it may also contain a mixture of fictional and historical characters.