TWILIGHT AT MONTICELLO: the Final Years of Thomas Jefferson by Alan Pell Crawford, 2007.

  Richmond author Crawford has done a marvelous job of researching a variety of sources (including some never before used letters and documents), analyzing, distilling information, and weaving an interesting and intelligent account of Jefferson's final years at Monticello as a private citizen.
    Crawford's revealing portrait gives the reader a view of Thomas Jefferson that is a bit different from the icon most people are familiar with: an esteemed former president whose greatest desire seems to have been to live a life of quietly industrious and orderly retirement surrounded by loved ones. however, from his return to his home at Monticello in 1809 to his death in 1826, Jefferson found himself sorely tested and his life full of sadness and hearbreak.
   Jefferson's life at Monticello was not one of ease and luxury and pleasure. His surviving daughter, Martha Randolph, with her own troubles regarding her marriage and her relationship with her famous father, as well as with her brood of children, lived with members of her family with her father at Monticello; he enjoyed their company immensely, yet at the same time, they had myriad problems and issues which at times threatened to engulf Jefferson. His life became one of awful family squabbles, alcholism, violence, scandal, and lingering gossip concerning Sally Hemings; massive debts (his own and others) as well as crushing costs of maintaining his gorgeous but deteriorating mansion; illnesses; crop failures; troubles with his "Poplar Forest" plantation in Bedford County, and his own internal struggles with his deeply rooted opinions concerning government and the "hideous evil of slavery." Pell's descriptions of some of the medical treatments for some of Jefferson's health issues is almost nightmarish, and it is amazing that Jefferson managed to live and lead an active life for as long as he did with such care. Jefferson's shock heartache over his favorite grandson Jefferson Randolph's suffering from the attack of a drunk brother-in-law left him shattered and confused, and the reader can feel his anguish. Not at first told when his granddaughter Anne became ill, her death left Jefferson weeping and grief-stricken.
   And yet Jefferson, even burdened by such problems, still managed to be an active political force in advising his son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph, during Randolph's chaotic governorship of Virginia, in his exhausting work in establishing the University of Virginia, and in encouraging and aiding his good friend James Madison during his presidential term. He graciously received and lavishly entertained many visitors to his home, including the Marquis de Lafayette on his final visit to the United States in 1824. He kept up a busy correspondence with many old friends and colleagues, even happily re-establishing his friendship with the brilliant but quarrelsome John Adams, which continued until their deaths on the very same day, July 4, 1826. The eighty-three-year-old Jefferson's funeral was held on a rainy day and attended by over fifteen hundred people, including a seventeen-year-old Edgar Allan Poe.
   Pell's narrative is smooth, reads well, and is accessible to the general reader. He succeeds in making Thomas Jefferson a very human individual, without lessening the man's greatness. He was a man who lived and breathed life and liberty, encouraged others to do well, attempted to follow his principles to the end, but at the same time had faults and foibles like everyone else. At times Pell's writing moved me greatly to sadness for Jefferson in picturing him as aging and infirm and plagued with worries, and yet Jefferson never lost his indomitable spirit, his charm, and his intellectual mind, even as he lay on his deathbed.
   The author provides sources and notes at the end, but a chart of Jefferson and his immediate family would have been helpful. That said, I found this a splendidly done book and an informative and satisfying read about the last years of one of our nation's greatest founding fathers.
  

BRING UP THE BODIES by Hilary Mantel, 2012.

Henry VIII moved heaven and earth to get the fascinating Anne Boleyn-- divorcing Katherine of Aragon and becoming Head of the Church in England, even executing people. However, once he married Anne, made her his queen, and then she gave him a daughter instead of the much-needed son, he became disenchanted, her sharp tongue and strong personality no longer pleased him. He made up his mind to get rid of her and her scheming family. It falls to his right hand man, his chief minister and secretary Thomas Cromwell, to figure out how to make this happen for his monarch. It's hard to believe that any writer could take this old story and really make something fresh out of it, but I give Mantel high marks for doing so with imagination and creativity.

   A sequel to Wolf Hall, this novel, covering a much shorter period, 1535-1536, traces the series of events leading to Anne's downfall and how they occurred, as told by the now 50 year old Secretary Cromwell. This Cromwell has power and knows its uses, and the story really is about the power struggle between Cromwell and Anne Boleyn. The author provides us with a multi-faceted man, who can show single-mindness and cunning, as well as sympathy and care for those he loves, although I never felt I knew him very well. Mantel, though, knows her subject thoroughly and manages to bring well known Tudor characters to vivid life. Her writing style I found somewhat of a challenge--mostly because of her habit of not using Cromwell's name but "he" instead, which was confusing--but that didn't stop me from reading it.
   This is a dark and harrowing story, full of machinations and manipulations, grasping, greedy and mostly unlikeable people and dramatic, even sinister, events. The author's spin on just how Cromwell was able to oust Anne from the throne to make way for the meek and mild Jane Seymour is eye-opening, definitely informs the reader as to how dangerous and uncertain it was to be a member of Henry's court. It's absolutely fascinating and horrifying how by innuendo, threats, and insinuation that the case is constructed against Anne and the men she was alleged to be intimately involved with: Francis Weston, Mark Smeaton, Harry Norris, William Brereton, and her own brother, George Boleyn--all of whom paid the ultimate price for being associated with her. Even her powerful uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, is no match for Cromwell, and abandoned his niece to take care of damage control for the Howard family. Anne's own father distanced himself from her, as well as most of her court. Others, like the King's oldest friend, Charles Brandon, are happy the upstart Boleyns are being destroyed and watch closely. Friendless, desperate, and miserable, Mantel's Anne is brought down and destroyed. Cromwell has achieved the king's wishes, and he will get his rewards...
   An excellent, intelligent piece of historical fiction, well written and researched. I enjoyed it even more than Wolf Hall, and I will be interested to see how she treats the rest of Cromwell's story in the final volume of the trilogy.