Books

First editions, first impressions, each signed by the author on the title page. The trilogy presents Mantel's complete narrative of the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell in Henry VIII's Tudor Court. Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies both won the Booker Prize in their year of publication, making Mantel the first female author to win the award twice. Wolf Hall was the book that not only established Mantel's reputation but also rehabilitated that of its historical protagonist, Thomas Cromwell, "by presenting him as a brilliant and revolutionary strategist. Enraptured critics said [Mantel] had presented the historical novel as high literature, portraying her subjects not as cardboard characters from centuries past but as real people of contradictions and psychological complexity, relatable in any age" (Marshall & Alter). The first novel was adapted both for the stage in 2014 and into a 2015 television series starring Mark Rylance, Claire Foy, and Damian Lewis. In Mantel's own words, the novels are "about all the big important things that matter, about sex and power and high politics, statecraft and forgery and delusion and lies" (The Guardian). Alex Clark, "Hilary Mantel: 'I've got quite amused at people saying I have writer's block. I've been like a factory!'", The Guardian, 22 February 2020; Alex Marshall & Alexandra Alter, "Hilary Mantel, Prize-Winning Author of Historical Fiction, Dies at 70", New York Times, 23 Sept. 2022. Three works, large octavo. Original black and blue boards, spines lettered in gilt, pictorial endpapers, The Mirror on the Light with gilt rampant lion on spine and black silk bookmarker. With dust jackets. Housed in custom black card slipcase. Publisher's postcard dated 10 May 2012 loosely inserted in Bring up the Bodies. A fine set in fine, unclipped jackets.

Winner of the Man Booker Prize, 'Wolf Hall' explores the complex personality of Thomas Cromwell and his rise to power in the court of Henry VIII.