Huntington U: Hilary Mantel and Historical Fiction
Wed., March 5, 2025, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.
Six Wednesdays, March 5–April 9 Public: $250, Members: $230
Roger’s Classroom
Huntington U is a college-style seminar with no homework or tests. This spring, the series continues as Mark Eaton, professor at Claremont Graduate University, leads participants on a six-week course to explore the work of the late Hilary Mantel, a writer who brought renewed interest to historical fiction through her acclaimed Wolf Hall trilogy. The seminar will start with an excerpt (about 65 pages) of Mantel’s earlier novel about the French Revolution, A Place of Greater Safety (1992). Then we will dive into the Wolf Hall trilogy by reading excerpts from Wolf Hall (2009), Bring Up the Bodies (2012) in its entirety, and excerpts from The Mirror & the Light (2020). Throughout the course, we will think about what makes Mantel’s historical fiction so compelling and plausible.
Participants will learn how to read historical fiction more critically by asking such questions as:
- How does Mantel strike an appropriate balance between historical accuracy and fictional embellishment?
- What kinds of archival sources does she use, and how exactly?
- What is different about historical fiction compared to narrative nonfiction and history?
Participants will also learn from curators at the Huntington Library about archival materials in the Hilary Mantel Papers, part of The Huntington’s collections.
View/download the course syllabus (PDF)
For questions about this course, please contact Joy Yamahata via email at jharding@huntington.org or by phone at 626-405-3457.
About the Instructor
Mark Eaton is a research associate professor of American literature at Claremont Graduate University. He is also a professor emeritus of English at Azusa Pacific University. He has taught at Pepperdine University and was a visiting professor of film studies at the University of Oklahoma. He has held research fellowships at Oxford University and the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey. He is the author of Religion and American Literature since 1950 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020) and the co-editor, along with Bruce Holsinger, of Historical Fiction Now (Oxford University Press, 2023). His chapter “Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, Historical Fiction, and New Novels of Slavery” is forthcoming in Approaches to Teaching Colson Whitehead, edited by Stephanie Li (Modern Language Association, 2026).
In-Person Class Ticketing Policies
Tickets are not sold at the door for this event.
To join the waitlist for this event, please email publicprograms@huntington.org. A space is not guaranteed, but you will be contacted if a space becomes available.
To receive a refund, you must cancel at least 5 days prior to the event. Cancellations made within 5 days of the event will not be refunded.
