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Thomas Cromwell

the Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant
May 07, 2015DASTardlyGal rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Really liked the book. Since 1970, when I was a wee child, and my mom sent me to see "Anne of the Thousand Days", I have never liked Thomas Cromwell. As the years passed, my dislike only intensified. While this book has taken away a smidge of my dislike, it did show me that he was HUMAN after all, which I never considered him to be. He mourned his wife and daughters' deaths but had too much to do for Wolsey to really even deal with it. I felt bad for him for their deaths, since he truly loved his wife and children, again, something I never thought capable of him. I was still glad he got what was coming to him in the end, but, now, I have a small amount of sympathy, not much, but small for the way the king turned on him. My problem with the book was, and my husband says I'm not a stupid woman, the author's use of the original letters and comments made by Thomas Cromwell, and others. I was at a loss trying to figure out what words were and meant, since they weren't spelled how we spell words now, taking anywhere from 30 seconds to almost a minute trying to figure out what the word was , and what was worse, for me, was, I didn't know what the significance of some of the original exerpts meant, what she was trying to tell was, and what the purpose of putting them in the book in the first place. Sometimes she didn't elaborate what the exerpts meant, and it took away the reading pleasure I had reading this book considerably. Hope this makes sense. Most historical books I've read use modern translations of the original texts but, this author didn't. While I liked seeing how people wrote and spoke, most of the times, it made no sense to me, sadly. What amazes me is that people wrote and talked like that and understood what they were saying. Boggles this mind, but, at the same time, it is interesting that they did speak like that. I recommend this book highly. It was so interesting to me. I will never have a high opinion of Master Cromwell, but I realize, that he was a man living before his time, and I understand a lot of his policies are still in effect today, so that is something in his favor. I liked this book so much, I might purchase it in the future to read again one of these days. I applaud Miss Borman, as this must have been a huge undertaking with all the information she had to sift through and what to use and what not to use. My closing is this. I find it ironic that he rose to power with the downfall of one Anne, while HIS downfall was caused by another Anne.