Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell Trilogy: The Mirror & the Light Schedule
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Dates/Times/Assignments
We meet every other Wednesday, on Zoom, at 6.00pm Eastern. Interested in joining the conversation? Email Mike Bevel!
The Mirror & the Light is a Very Long Book; I’ve tried to keep the assigned sections to around 40-60 pages. Absolutely read ahead if you want; I’ll make sure the conversation stays focused on the assigned section.
July
7 July 2021: Part I, Chapter 1: Wreckage and Chapter 2: Salvage
Read through page 48. Stop at the end of the section that concludes with the sentence ‘How typical of bankers,’ Chapuys says, sniffing. ‘More money than taste.’
21 July 2021: Part 1, Chapter 2: Salvage
Read through page 108. Stop at the end of the section that concludes with the sentence It is Mr Wriothesley, a sheaf of peonies in his head.
August
4 August 2021: Part 1, Chapter 2: Salvage and Chapter 3: Wreckage (II)
Read through page 168. Stop at the end of the section that concludes with the sentence He imagines her whipping down some draughty hall of the hereafter, where the walls are made of splintered glass.
18 August 2021: Part 1, Chapter 3: Wreckage (II) and Part 2, Chapter 1: Augmentation
Read through page 228. Stop at the end of the section that concludes with the sentence ‘And be borrowing from you, Thomas Cromwell, before my corpse is cold.’
September
1 September 2021: Part 2, Chapter 1: Augmentation; Part 2, Chapter 2: The Five Wounds; and Part 2, Chapter 3: Vile Blood
Read through page 288. Stop at the end of the section that concludes with the sentence Not without an imbalance of the humours and congestion in the organs, a sluggish diet and a fat liver.
NOTE DATE CHANGE: 14 September 2021: Part 2, Chapter 3: Vile Blood and Part 3, Chapter 1: The Bleach Fields
Read through page 348. Stop at the end of the section that concludes with the sentence But those days are long gone and childhood.
29 September 2021: Part 3, Chapter 1: The Bleach Fields and Chapter 2: The Image of the King
Read through page 409. Stop at the end of the section that concludes with the sentence Legs that could never stagger, feet never lose the path.
October
13 October 2021: Part 3, Chapter 2: The Image of the King and Chapter 3: Broken on the Body; Part 4, Chapter 1: Nonsuch
Read through page 468. Stop at the end of the section that concludes with the sentence There’s a reason God put them where they are.
27 October 2021: Part 4, Chapter 1: Nonsuch and Chapter 2: Corpus Christi
Read through page 531, the end of Part 4, Chapter 2: Corpus Christi.
November
10 November 2021: Part 4, Chapter 2: Corpus Christi and Chapter 3: Inheritance; Part 5, Chapter 1: Ascension Day
Read through page 646. Stop at the end of the section that concludes with the sentence From that time he had no curiosity as to what he would find under her clothes: just teats and her slot, pouches of skin and hair.
December
8 December 2021: Part 5, Chapter 3: Magnificence
Read through page 693, the end of Part 5, Chapter 3: Magnificence.
22 December 2021: Part 5, Chapter 3: Magnificence; Part 6, Chapter 1: Mirror and Chapter 2: Light; Author’s Note
Read through page 757. Stop at the end of the book.
