1. The Mirror & The Light
2. Figure
   1. Thomas Cromwell 🤵
      1. cunning
      2. pragmatic
      3. intelligent
   2. King Henry VIII 👑
      1. impulsive
      2. authoritarian
      3. tyrannical
   3. Anne of Cleves 👩
      1. good-natured
      2. clever
      3. shrewd
   4. Thomas Wyatt 👨
      1. charming poet
      2. morally ambiguous
   5. "The point of power is power."
   6. "The king's favour can be withdrawn more quickly than it takes for a cloud to cross the sun."
   7. "She begins to see that the ending of the story may be more cheerful than the middle part."
   8. “The skies are threadbare, and the future has no weather."
3. The New York Times
   1. The triumphant capstone to Mantel’s trilogy
4. ★★★★★
5. Cromwell enables Henry VIII to replace Anne Boleyn. He arranges new alliances but loses favor. Imprisoned, Cromwell reflects on his rise and the fragility of life. Executed, undone by forces he unleashed, Cromwell gained power but not security.
6. "The fabric of the world is fragile; by any reckoning of cause and consequence, it does not make sense that he is still here while others are gone; at any moment, the world could lose some essential support, and lean or lurch or tilt some fatal degree. "