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The Mirror & the Light: An Adaptation in 30 Minute Episodes
- The Wolf Hall Trilogy Edition
- Narrated by: Joseph Kloska
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
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The Mirror & the Light: An Adaptation in 30 Minute Episodes
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Publisher's Summary
If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?
England, 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, Thomas 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, before Jane dies giving birth to the male heir he most craves.
Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he 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 breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?
With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with 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.
What listeners say about The Mirror & the Light: An Adaptation in 30 Minute Episodes
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Owen Willis
- 2020-04-29
Genius
What a mirror and a light on the history we had to learn at school! Her Majesty, aka Hilary Mantel, is a genius. Enough said!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- gentlereader
- 2020-07-17
Fascinating power struggle
History brought to life - great performance of the literally dozens of characters - Enjoy!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 2023-12-22
Phenomenal Narrator for this Masterpiece
I wish that Joseph Kloska had narrated the first two books in this trilogy! He did perfect justice to the finale, and he ought to be narrating more in general. His performance is very natural and convincing, and I never tired of his voice through to the end.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- mavo
- 2021-07-31
To abridge or not abridge
So, although I had loved Wolf Hall when I read it in the print version and adored the mini-series, I was reluctant to listen to this 'abridged' version of the sequel. My thinking was, that if Hilary Mantel thought that it took 800 pages to tell this story, why should anyone argue with her? If it hadn't been abridged, I would have scooped it up right away, but instead, it stayed on my wish list for a long time before I finally succumbed. I'd read a couple of more mediocre books and thought that some Hilary Mantel was better than none.
And I was right. Thomas Cromwell was in my head again, fighting inch by inch to stay ahead of a despot's dangerous truculence. The depth of historical research is evident in the seamless details of every part of the lives of those unfortunate enough to be associated with Henry the Eighth, the clothing, the books, the artwork, the illnesses and the personalities--from the brutal Norfolk to the pusillanimous Thomas Cranmer and the loyal and loving Rafe Sadler.
Mantel readies us for the end, as Thomas himself shows his bravery and thoughtfulness in the face of barbarism.
My only wish is that is hadn't been abridged.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- wendy anne brown
- 2020-09-14
a masterpiece
well narrated, a storey that is both gripping and fascinating. hard to believe it is true.
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1 person found this helpful