Fludd: A Novel

Hilary Mantel has created a masterpiece, a ironic piece of magic. She turned an English town of the 1950s into a preternatural kingdom. A divine act, as it were. She gave the characters full lives--a bit of the angelic in each. Or a bit of the devil? I'm not sure which; I'm not sure it matters.My favorite character is Sister Philly. She has too much life for the nunnery. And, of course, there is the alchemist Robert Fludd--now curate. I'm not sure how he got to Fetherhoughton--from the 1600s. Time travel perhaps? Or reincarnation? What fun Fludd has and also creates for the reader--this reader anyway.The novel is a comedy of sorts--an 'ironical' romp. Also a dissection of belief, especially superstition. I'm not sure how to distinguish them.It is incredibly rich in detail and description--lush, even, given that it is a grey little town.This is going onto my 'favorites' list.

I was so impressed by Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies" that I became curious about her previous career and chose this 1989 novel to sample. It is full of the author's mordant black humor, her gimlet eye for the telling phrase, her talent for sharp dialogue and beautiful descriptions, her sharp insight into her characters -- but it remains a minor work. Perhaps she was practicing for a challenge worthy of her tremendous talents and eventually found it in "Wolf Hall." For I am convinced that Mantel is one of the major literary figures of our time -- which makes even her minor works very much worth reading.We are somewhere in northern England in the mid-1950s in Fetherhoughton, a grimy village peopled by ignorant and superstitious mill workers. Their spiritual needs are met by Father Angwin, a strictly traditional Catholic priest who long ago lost his faith in God but holds his life together through orthodox adherence to the traditional religious forms. "Faith is dead," the father says. "And faith being dead, if we are not to become automatons we must hang on to our superstitions as hard as we may."The villagers send their ill-shod children to be educated in a school staffed by sadistic nuns with names like Mother Perpetua and Sister Polycarp. Father Angwin says of his parishioners, "These people aren't Christians. These people are heathens and Catholics." He himself is lost in weighty theological questions such as whether meat drippings may be used to fry fish on Fridays.One day, the local Bishop visits Father Angwin and tells him he must bring his church and his practices up to date. That means getting rid of the array of statues of minor saints all except three. To Father Angwin's horror, he even suggests saying mass in the vernacular -- and he promises to send an assistant to help the venerable Father look after his flock. Some time later, the curate Fludd arrives.From the first, there is something strange about him. Nobody can ever remember quite what he looks like. Father Anwin sits drinking whiskey with him long hours and yet the bottle is never empty. Nobody ever sees him eat; food simply disappears from his plate. Is Fludd the Devil -- or at least a devil?If he is, his intent seems benign. It is to rescue from the drudgery of the convent a young Catholic girl Sister Philomena. Mantel provides a harrowing account of convent life, from the tasteless food to the unending prayers to the clumsy garments (and she knows exactly how they must be put on and taken off.) Rescuing this sweet, young girl from such a meaningless and miserable life would be like liberating an entire people from tyranny.This book is a notable entry in the annals of black humor and deserves to be read as a kind of "amuse bouche" ahead of the author's really significant later novels.

Wonderful tale of transformation in this British village microcosm during a time when the larger world outside is about to change . You’ll have to decide for yourself just who and what Father Fludd might be .There’s magic and manipulation throughout this tale and it’s a fun ride even if there are no clear cut answers. My impression was that Fludd comes off as a short story that’s been stretched into a short novel and that it left me wanting more from Mantel . But , an enjoyable worthwhile read nonetheless .

With Fludd, Mantel reveals a kinship with Muriel Spark - the ability to crawl under the skin of an isolated community (in this case an entwined collection of isolated communities) and investigate its innards with a sharp wit and an understanding heart. Here we have a Lancashire mill-town populated with Irish Catholic mill-workers who, according to their priest, would no more understand the Mass given in English than in Latin, locked in mutual misunderstanding and enmity with the heathens of the neighboring hamlet, a convent of miserable nuns condemned to daily sufferance of weak tea and soups made of vegetable peelings, and a rectory housing the priest, who believes the local tobacconist is the devil, and his ever helpful housekeeper. It is 1956 and in walk the change-makers: the Bishop who wants the priest to succumb to modernity and Father Fludd who brings with him a different kind of alchemy.The world and characters of Fludd are so vividly created that we cannot help but accept whatever happens here, no matter how miraculous or absurd.

I don't know who helped edit the book but St. Theresa and St. Therese" the little flower are two different saints and there was something else but I did not plan to write a review. Now Wolf Hall is a masterpiece IMO

I thought this was going to be the usual murder mystery, but it was not. And that was a good thing, because this novel is so much more. I believe it is set in Ireland and is the story of a priest, nuns, villagers and a mysterious visitor named Fludd. On the surface, it is an interesting story, but it is also deep, pointing out various inconsistencies and problems the characters face with their understanding and practice of religion. Be sure to read this one and make of it what you will!

I am on my third reading.I keep buying used books and many have notes in the book. One of the critics noted that every time she reads it,she finds something new.I agree. I am on my third reading and my third copy as I sent the others to friends whom I knew would enjoy the book.It is sad and humorous and touching and just fine in every way. I had already read "Wolf Hall " when I saw "Fludd" on Amazon. As another critic says this book , along with previous work establishes Hilary Mantel as one of the best writers in the UK in the present day. This is a small but not to be missed book.

I can see some reviewers here saying, 'I don't quite get it...' but, this isn't a thriller. Great writers don't always give you the answers. They make you think. You have to do the workings out, and by the way, it is just a story, so enjoy it while you think.That's Fludd for you. It is part Brendan Behan, part Craggy Island. Its a darkly comic tale, which may leave you unsure whether to laugh or cry. Its made, in modern film terms for Brendan Gleeson, who would make the perfect Father Angwin.Always understated, working in small increments of pain and pleasure, Fludd is about a man who mystifies everybody, a man whose work is on two levels. Can you see through him? Or, is that even possible? Mysterious, yet small-scale, lyrical, yet quotidian, and intelligent but funny, almost farcial at times. And it is sentimental too, but more in conclusion than throughout.It takes a clever author to spin a tale this fluid and concise and to make characters this well defined and for us to care about them. Hilary Mantel is simply remarkable in her ability to craft this short but utterly beguiling tale.I do very highly recommend it if you like subtle but moving stories which have a way of quietly laughing at themselves. If so, you will feel that great pang of sadness when you come to the end. In a few years time, I shall read it again. But I suspect those who didn't get it the first time will still be struggling then.

One of the most enjoyable things about this fantastic little novella is what is left unsaid. A lot happens in its scant pages but things are left pretty open. We’re never really told who or what Fludd is. Father Angwin learns he’s not a priest and wasn’t sent to the village by the bishop so who is he? Is Fludd a devil sent to tempt Father Angwin who’s lost his faith and the bored villagers? Is he a crazy person posing as a priest to ruffle the feather and stir up trouble? Is he something else? Or is a priest of some kind the bishop doesn’t know? Mantel leaves it’s open for your to reach your own conclusions. This is well worth a read.

Readers who have come to Hilary Mantel through 'Wolf Hall' and 'Bring Out the Bodies' are in for something different here.Mantel based this novel on events in her own childhood growing up in a Catholic community in a Northern mill town. It's a comedy, and it takes a classic scenario of an enigmatic outsider coming into a small community and causing all sorts of disruption and crisis. What makes it special is that Fludd, the outsider, is a bit of a mystery. We aren't sure if he's really who he says he is, if he's a real person or some sort of demon, and whether he has anything to do with some of the allegedly supernatural goings on in the town of Fetherhoughton. Whilst the book is very funny and wryly observant, there's a sense of something dangerous lurking in the background throughout which gives it its oddly charming character.The brilliance is that the ambiguities and suggestions of the supernatural are handled with remarkable emotional realism. All of the characters come across as well-drawn and believable, and their actions, even when strange, are understandable within the world the author has created. As the story progresses over its fairly short span, we even start to see Fludd as a bit more human, rather than just a mysterious stranger, and there's a section towards the end where - without giving away the plot - I really felt for one of the characters in the situation they found themselves in.I would definitely recommend this book, to fans of Mantel's other work or not. Come to it with an open mind, though. 'Wolf Hall' is isn't!

Wonderful book, I've always had a soft spot for the imaginative alchemist Fludd and it's great to see him resurrected as a mischievous priest. Possibly a bit of a cad, but also a riotously joyous catalyst in the lives of those deserving release. Brilliant.

If you haven't read anything yet by Hilary Mantel then this is a good place to start. Her descriptions of the grim villages in the north of England and the dysfunctional catholic church that serves them are brilliantly funny.