Tonight on BBC2 in the UK, the series Wolf Hall begins. (No idea when well see this in the U.S.) Tudor history is one of my favorite periods and I look forward to this series, but I have to confess that I had serious trouble with the book by Hilary Mantel on which the series is based. Not with the history (this is fiction, after all, and liberties may be taken), nor with the recasting of heroes and villains (I actually think making Cromwell a sympathetic character and the sainted Thomas More as a villain was a rather fun idea). No, my complaint is with the authors use of pronouns. Seriously. There would be 4 or 5 men in a scene, and all of them identified as he. The rules governing pronouns and their antecedents was thrown out the window, making the reader struggle to figure out who was doing and saying what. It felt as though Mantel had initially written the book in first person, with Cromwell as the narrator, then decided to change it to third person and did a global change of all instances of I to he. It was so !@#$ confusing that I gave up. Plus, I found the use of present tense throughout to be a literary affectation that failed. I know, I know ... it won the Booker Prize so it must be wonderful. But I seriously felt it was an emperors-new-clothes situation with the Booker judges. And I have no doubt just outed myself as a total rube. Anyway, I look forward to the TV series just because I love this period. And Damian Lewis as Henry VIII? Oh, boy. Anyone else have an opinion of Wolf Hall? Book or TV series?
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 14:05:01 +0000
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