University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book Jepson School of Leadership Studies chapters and other publications 2010 Dis-Manteling More Peter Iver Kaufman University of Richmond,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/jepson-faculty-publications Part of the European History Commons, History of Christianity Commons, and the Political History Commons Recommended Citation Kaufman, Peter Iver. "Dis-Manteling More." Moreana 47, no. 179/180 (2010): 165-193. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Peter Iver KAUFMAN Moreana Vol.47, 179-180 165-193 DIS-MANTELING MORE Peter Iver Kaufman University of Richmond, Virginia Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, winner of the prestigious 2009 Booker-Man award for fiction, re-presents the 1520s and early 1530s from Thomas Cromwell’s perspective. Mantel mistakenly underscores Cromwell’s confessional neutrality and imagines his kindness as well as Thomas More’s alleged cruelty. The book recycles old and threadbare accusations that More himself answered. “Dis-Manteling” collects evidence for the accuracy of More’s answers and supplies alternative explanations for events and for More’s attitudes that Mantel packs into her accusations. Wolf Hall is admirably readable, although prejudicial. Perhaps it is fair for fiction to distort so ascertainably, yet I should think that historians will want to have a dissent on the record.