Posted on April 25, 2023 at 12:05 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Author Hilary Mantel's literary legacy was secured by her award-winning Wolf Hall trilogy, which chronicled the politicking of Henry VIII's romances and reign.
But at the time of her death, she was ready for a transition, both professionally and personally, reports the Guardian.
Mantel and her husband were preparing to move to Ireland, and in her very last minutes, she was working on a new novel that mashed up her own work with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
She left about 20,000 words of Provocation, told from the perspective of middle sister Mary Bennet, but her husband was only comfortable with sharing two paragraphs from it right now.
You can read that small excerpt from Provocation, also read at Mantel's memorial service last week, in the Guardian.
The entirety of the draft has been sent to the Huntington Library in California, which also received about 150 notebooks; those will remain private until after her husband's death.
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Categories: Today in Books