The Mirror & the Light: A Novel
Written by Hilary Mantel
Narrated by Ben Miles
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
"The many listeners enthralled by the earlier two volumes in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy will find all their expectations met in this final installment... Here is a narrative achievement of the highest order." — AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner
This program is read by Ben Miles, who played Thomas Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies
*This program includes a bonus conversation between Ben Miles and Hilary Mantel*
“If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?”
With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.
The story begins in May 1536: Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour.
Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to the breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortune’s wheel turns, Cromwell’s enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry’s cruel and capricious gaze?
Eagerly awaited and eight years in the making, The Mirror & the Light completes Cromwell’s journey from self-made man to one of the most feared, influential figures of his time. Portrayed by Mantel with pathos and terrific energy, Cromwell is as complex as he is unforgettable: a politician and a fixer, a husband and a father, a man who both defied and defined his age.
A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company
"Miles’ familiarity with Mantel’s portrayal of Cromwell pervades his performance of The Mirror & the Light, which traces Cromwell’s fall from greatness, beginning with the aftermath of Anne Boleyn’s beheading and ending with his own.Miles’ voice carries the power-hungry statesman’s monumental final act with ease and a delicate nuance, as only someone with a deep understanding of the story could." - BookPage
"Ben Miles — Group Captain Peter Townsend in “The Crown” — has, in addition to narrating this final volume, taken on the massive task of delivering “Wolf Hall” and “Bring up the Bodies,” as well. He also played Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of “Wolf Hall Parts One & Two,” and captures again the man’s voice, its taint of baseness, its ups and downs and quiet ruthlessness." -- Washington Post
Editor's Note
Cromwell’s conclusion…
The final installment in Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning trilogy follows the ascension of Thomas Cromwell to his most influential position within Henry VIII’s court. But as Cromwell gains power, he gains more powerful enemies, too. An excellent conclusion to one of the most celebrated series in recent memory.
Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel is the author of seventeen books, including A Place of Greater Safety, Beyond Black, the memoir Giving Up the Ghost and the short story collection The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. Her latest novel, The Mirror & the Light, won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, while Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies were both awarded the Booker Prize.
Related to The Mirror & the Light
Related audiobooks
Music & Silence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dissolution: A Novel of Tudor England Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Eyes of the Queen: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen's Governess: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Place of Greater Safety Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Western Wind Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Light Perpetual: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Double Blind: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lionheart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Katherine: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Queen's Gambit: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Terminus: A "The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher" Essay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Katharine Parr, the Sixth Wife Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winter in Madrid Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brooklyn: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mantel Pieces: Royal Bodies and Other Writing from the London Review of Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White Tiger: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tidelands Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Room with a View Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Maid: A Novel of Joan of Arc Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Magician: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Promise: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Garden of Evening Mists Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Voyage of the Morning Light: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl with a Pearl Earring Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dark Tides: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Renaissance Fiction For You
Niccolò Rising Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Familiar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elizabeth of Bohemia: A Novel about Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dragon of the Sea Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll the Queen's Spies: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Death of a Gentleman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jane the Quene Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ruled Britannia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Queen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Masterpiece: A Novel of World War II Italy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence: A Story of Botticelli Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Stolen Lady: A Novel of World War II and the Mona Lisa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death of a Dowager Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Raphael, Painter in Rome: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last White Rose: A Novel of Elizabeth of York Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death of a Schoolgirl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secrets of Saffron Hall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Prisoner of Paradise Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Red Queen: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poison Keeper: An enthralling historical novel of Renaissance Italy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boleyn Inheritance: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Christmas at Ferndean Manor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mists of Glen Strae: A Highland Romance of Tudor Scotland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fifth Queen: And How She Came to Court Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marvelous: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poison Bed: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Juliet's Nurse: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At the End of a Dull Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Residence: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Mirror & the Light
53 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ben Miles voices so many characters with depth that you forget it’s one person bringing the web of history seen by Hillary Mantel‘s mind.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautifully written and narrated! Having been in quarantine the last couple of weeks, this was the perfect way to pass the time! Alot of digression but otherwise perfect novel of the last part of Thomas Cromwell, Lord Privy Seal to Henry VIII.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shows much more of Thomas Cromwell’s inner thoughts, his hidden Lutheranism at odds with his overwhelming desire for power and riches
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Best. Trilogy. Ever. Didn't want it to end. Gorgeously written Text so rhythmic and rich, pleasing to the ear. Cromwell's complex character is captured with skillful nuance. Must see this text on the page, so will buy Mantel's trilogy to enjoy it all over again. No small feature making this astounding was Ben Mile's narration.