That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,Looking as if she were alive. - 'My Last Duchess' by Robert BrowningIn school, we studied Browning's 'My Last Duchess'-- a poem about a Duke presenting a portrait of his late wife who, it soon emerges, he himself had killed. The poem always gave me a chill, especially the way in which the Duke casually gloated over his hand in her death. I never knew the poem was based on the true story of Alfonso II, Duke of Ferarra, and his young bride Lucrezia de' Me...

**Time for another unfavorable review of a popular book**Though I love beautiful prose, I find that when a book is overwritten, I am pulled out of the story. Instead of being absorbed in the pages or feeling invested in the protagonist's troubles, I am constantly kept on the surface because of the constant reminder that... well, I am reading. I am reading words that the author thought sounded pretty together, and that's why there are so many of them on the page, because the author could not quit...

One of my favorite reads of 2022!Maggie O’Farrell has done it again, writing a book, The Marriage Portrait, that instantly transports you to another time and place. A time when women, even those of royal blood, were mere pawns in a game, their sole purpose to produce heirs. And God help the woman who couldn’t fulfill that critical demand. The story unfolds in 1560s Italy. Lucrezia is just 12 years old when her parents earmark her to marry the Duke of Ferrara, after her older sister, his original...

Marriage was her destiny, but death at a very young age was her fate. The canvas Maggie O'Farrell paints in "The Marriage Portrait" is Lucrezia’s story. A powerful and evocative reimagining / retelling of the true story of 16-year-old Lucrezia di Cosimo de’Medici, whose untimely and suspicious death was believed by many to be the work of her husband. A gripping historical fiction read!Skillfully written with sharp contrasts between the beautiful imagery created and the sad story of Lucz’s short ...

"If she is to survive this marriage, or perhaps even to thrive within it, she must preserve this part of herself and keep it away from him, separate, sacred."If you've ever wandered through an art museum and found yourself in a room full of portraits in ornate frames, dating back to the Renaissance, you've probably been struck by all those serious faces. The women, draped in velvet and weighed down with jewels, usually have a look of either indifference or sadness. If only their stories could be...

My heart is singing and racing as Maggie O'Farrell hums, stuns, and spins a tale of an arranged marriage: 15-year-old Lucrezia to Alfonso, the Duke, a man of 27. This girl possesses insight beyond her years, a premonition that she will die at the hands of her husband. O’Farrell weaves a story of such vivid colors, rich in detail in everyday moments, in paintings, in her portrait. We witness the transformation of child to adult, imbued with intuitive wisdom. It's an intimate character study; ...

This was actually a really good story, especially the last hundred pages which were filled with intrigue and suspense. However, there's just SO much superfluous description; it feels like when you were in school and had to pad out an essay's word count, so you just threw in a bunch of adjectives. I became quite skilled at scanning through the description to get to the plot points, but that's not how I like to read a book. And don't get me wrong; I love a bit of scene-setting, I love to know in d...

I read my first Maggie O’Farrell novel in 2014, and since then, I’ve devoured every single one she's written, including her memoir. I simply can't resist her beautiful and alluring opening sentences, which I found again here, just as I remember finding them in *The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox* and *The Hand That First Held Mine*. At first, I didn’t feel the same immediate emotional punch as I did with *Hamnet*, but before I knew it, Maggie O’Farrell had breathed life into Lucrezia de Medici, pu...

That opening paragraph, an instant classic, paints a picture that stays with the reader—not only from start to finish—but long after…due to its compelling surprise ending. “In 1560, fifteen-year-old Lucrezia di Cosimo de’ Medici left Florence to begin her married life with Alfonso II d’Este Duke of Ferrara.” “Less than a year later, she would be dead.” “The official cause of death was given as ‘putrid fever’, but it was rumoured that she had been murdered by her husband.” This novel, The Marr...

This doesn’t hold a candle to *Hamnet*, and for a number of reasons, it felt like it took an age to get through. While Maggie O'Farrell's writing is undeniably skillful, there's just an overwhelming amount of it in *The Marriage Portrait*. If you're looking for captivating historical fiction, this might be worth a look, but be prepared for a slower, more descriptive read.