actual history so much as he is in using a particular historical
period as a metaphor for contemporary concerns. The impulse
behind 7KH *LIW RI 6WRQHV, for example, was the industrial
decline of the British city of Birmingham.o If you read 7KH*LIWRI6WRQHV without knowing that it was
originally intended to be a metaphor for the decline of British
manufacturing, it reads as a powerful account of an ancient,
alien way of life. Whether it’s historically accurate is more
or less irrelevant to the literary merit of the book or to the
truths the book speaks about human nature and the effects of
technological change on everyday life.o Rather than relying on exhaustive research to underpin
his narratives, Crace pays close attention to his language,
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seem utterly convincing even if they aren’t as scrupulously
researched as the details in Mantel’s books. In fact, Crace
insisted in an interview that if you pick the right words, you
don’t need to get the facts right. For him, a simple bit of
YRFDEXODU\FDQPDNHD¿FWLRQDOZRUOGFRPHDOLYHz There’s an obvious difference in intent between Crace and Mantel. Crace
doesn’t claim that his novels are accurate; in fact, he tries to subvert the
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o It’s also true, however, that Mantel is not slavishly dedicated to
absolute historical accuracy in all instances. Shrewdly, she has
her characters speak in a modern-sounding idiom that makes
them seem real to 21st-century readers without also making
them sound anachronistic.
o The research Mantel did for :ROI+DOO is evident on nearly
every page, but what makes the novel soar is the way her
imagination inhabits the mind of Thomas Cromwell and the
way her muscular and modern prose evokes his world.