One of the many ballads that were made in the pubs of England during Henry VIII’s reign named the King Littleprick, according to Hilary Mantel’s latest [2012] Man Booker Prize-winning novel, Bring Up the Bodies . There are many places in the novel where Henry’s sexual potency or the size of his genital organ is called into question. In a way, the novel is about the King’s lack of “skill” and “vigour” in copulation. Is it some psychological complex about his sexual skills or the size of his penis that drove Henry to marry six times? Well, Anne Boleyn was his second wife, and the present novel tells the story of the King’s and many other men’s affairs with her. Maybe, in the next volume of the series, Mantel will explore this theme further. Maybe not. Mantel’s real interests lie in Thomas Cromwell who is the indirect narrator of both the first two volumes and promises to continue that job in the next one too. Wolf Hall , the first...
Cerebrate and Celebrate