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    The Marriage Portrait: Reese's Book Club: A novel
    The Marriage Portrait: Reese's Book Club: A novel
    The Marriage Portrait: Reese's Book Club: A novel
    Audiobook13 hours

    The Marriage Portrait: Reese's Book Club: A novel

    Written by Maggie O'Farrell

    Narrated by Maggie O'Farrell and Genevieve Gaunt

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    About this audiobook

    WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The author of award-winning Hamnet brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life in this unforgettable fictional portrait of the captivating young duchess Lucrezia de' Medici as she makes her way in a troubled court.

    “I could not stop reading this incredible true story.” —Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Pick)

    "O’Farrell pulls out little threads of historical detail to weave this story of a precocious girl sensitive to the contradictions of her station...You may know the history, and you may think you know what’s coming, but don’t be so sure." —The Washington Post

    Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.
     
    Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?
     
    As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court’s eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess’s future hangs entirely in the balance.
     
    Full of the beauty and emotion with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell turns her talents to Renaissance Italy in an extraordinary portrait of a resilient young woman’s battle for her very survival.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
    Release dateSep 6, 2022
    ISBN9780593628089
    Author

    Maggie O'Farrell

    MAGGIE O'FARRELL was born in Northern Ireland in 1972. Her novels include The Marriage Portrait, Hamnet (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award), After You'd Gone, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, The Hand That First Held Mine, and Instructions for a Heatwave. She has also written a memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death. She lives in Edinburgh.

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    Reviews for The Marriage Portrait

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      This historical fiction brings a teenaged Medici daughter, Lucrezia, to life as a strong willed girl whose defiance creates disturbance in the household of her father, Duke of Tuscany, and in the kingdom of her future husband, Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara, in 1560. Lucrezia would rather paint than to become skilled at the womanly arts that will make her a typical woman in a royal court, powerless and decorative, married off to strengthen alliances. When her elder sister dies of a fever, Lucrezia is chosen to replace her as the bride of Alfonso, desperate for an heir. He is mercurial and surrounded by loyalists who despise the young Duchess. When Alfonso decides to have Lucrezia's portrait painted, everything shifts as she struggles to regain some agency and to survive the plot against her, as she is barren after a year of marriage. She is a brilliant heroine and the interior of her mind and the exterior riches and rivalries of court life are vividly rendered.
    • 2/5
      I never expected to not like a book by Magggie O'Farrell. In fact I bought the book blind just by author and title--last time I do that. I found the theme dreary and the narrative way too long. All the detail did not manage to transport me to another time, it just sent me straight to yawns.
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written imagined life of Lucrezis de Medici, who was married off at 13 and died at 15. Much of the story is written as suspense with Lucrezia portrayed as intelligent, creative, and artistic. She has a strong independent streak despite a terribly sheltered life.

      She is married off to Alfonso Ferrara who has recently become a duke and is striving to achieve control of his empire by any means necessary. It is imperative that he produce and heir to protect his position from possible heirs birthed by his sisters. He is duplicitous with a vicious mercurial temper and Lucrezia comes to realize that her life is in danger when she fails to become pregnant.

      The story is written as suspense. The portrait is used as a portent of her demise, though the story ends with a twist.
    • 4/5
      I did enjoy this. It lacks the magic of Hamnet though, and I was disappointed. If somebody else had written it, I'd probably be more thrilled because it is a very good historical novel.

      Lucrezia di Medici is the third daughter and least-valued child of Cosimo and his Spanish wife Eleanora. She is also likely the smartest and most talented, the one most determined to go her own way. When she is nine, she is holding a pet mouse when her sister Maria and her fiance Alfonso d'Este walk by. Alfonso looks at her, makes a perfect mouse face, and winks. Her fate is sealed. Maria dies, and four years later Alfonso asks for Lucre in marriage. (Her parents also saw each other once, and were married at his request.) At fifteen she is married and off to Ferrara with only her maid Emilia to help her find her way in her new home.

      The action then moves from her marriage in 1560 to her final days as duchess in 1561. She has not gotten pregnant, and Lucre is sure that Alfonso means to kill her.

      Everything is present for historical drama, but somehow the action only smoulders without catching fire. In an afterward O'Farrell explains how she borrowed elements of her plot from stories of other members of Lucrezia's family. I did enjoy it, but it isn't magic.
    • 5/5
      I knew nothing about this book when I started reading it. The writing was engaging. I looked forward to reading it each time.
    • 5/5
      Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.

      Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?

      As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court’s eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess’s future hangs entirely in the balance.
    • 3/5
      A well-written historical novel. It begins in medias res creating the tension that pervades the book and that might be necessary to keep you going through the descriptions of a young noble girl's life in 16th-century Florence.
      ========
      Spoiler!
      ========
      The ending is satisfying but quite artificial.
    • 4/5
      Beautifully written story of Lucrezia’s trapped circumstances with her husband Alphonzo. Renaissance art is at the forfront of this novel but behind the art there is brutality.
    • 5/5
      The Short of It:

      Marriage can be hard, especially when your husband wants you dead.

      The Rest of It:

      Florence in the 1550s. Marriages are carefully arranged to preserve
      status, to guarantee the continuance of the family line, and sometimes, attraction is taken into consideration. But in The Marriage Portrait, young Lucrezia stands in for her sister who passed away right before her wedding. Lucrezia is just a child. Far too young to be married so her nurse manages to delay their joining for a short while, but Lucrezia doesn’t want anything to do with any of it. She just wants to roam her childhood home, drawing and painting her natural surroundings.

      As much as she fights it, her parents fully support the union and what it will mean for their family. Lucrezia is young but once she becomes a woman, she should be able to produce many heirs which is what her future husband Alfonso is counting on. But we learn very early on that Lucrezia will not survive this marriage and what unfolds is an unputdownable story.

      I enjoyed O’Farrell’s previous book, Hamnet so when it came time to choose another book for book club I chose The Marriage Portrait and it did not disappoint. It’s full of beautiful passages, and centers itself around art and beauty, even with the threat of something darker lurking in the background. The characters are well-developed and although the story is based on true events, O’Farrell gives Lucrezia the ending that she wants her to have. It’s very well done and now I’ve added all of O’Farrell’s books to my Libby list.

      Highly recommend.

      For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter.
    • 4/5
      *Shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction*

      “Across the room, propped against the wall, is herself – another self, a former self. A self who, when she is dead and buried in her tomb, will endure, will outlive her, who will always be smiling from the wall, one hand poised to begin a painting.”

      Set in mid-sixteenth-century Italy, The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O' Farrell is a reimagining of the life of Lucrezia di Cosimo de Medici, and her short marriage to Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. In reality, less than a year after her marriage Lucrezia passed on having succumbed to putrid fever, though it was rumored that her husband was responsible for her death.

      The narrative follows Lucrezia the youngest daughter of Cosimo I de Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany from her early years with her family, her love for art, and her betrothal to Alfonso II d’Este almost twelve years her senior, after the death of her older sister who was originally to be his bride – a political alliance between two powerful families. At the age of fifteen, she leaves her home to begin a new life as the Duchess of Ferrara.

      “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. She will surround it with a thorn-thicket or a high fence, like a castle in a folktale; she will station bare-toothed, long-clawed beasts at its doors. He will never know it, never see it, never reach it. He shall not penetrate it.”

      In a new land, surrounded by strangers, Lucrezia’s new life comes with its set of challenges. Her husband, initially attentive begins to show his true colors soon after they reach Ferrara. He expects her to be an obedient wife who will never challenge or question his decisions and turn a blind eye to the cruelty he displays in the course of his rule. The pressure on her to give birth to an heir and be the perfect wife and her dynamics with her husband’s sisters and his associates overwhelm Lucrezia who has no close friends or family nearby barring her maid Emilia, who is the only one she can trust. Alfonso’s obsessive need to oversee the minutest detail in the portrait of his new bride he commissions - the “marriage portrait”, is a testimonial to Alfonso’s controlling and cruel nature and the restrictive suffocating environment in which Lucrezia finds herself trapped. The narrative follows Lucrezia as she struggles to adjust to her new position despite the rumors about her husband and his family and her growing fears for her own safety.

      “In the painting is a woman who looks like her, or a version of her, or an ideal – she cannot tell which. This is her, yet not her; it is so disturbingly like her, while being completely unlike her. It is Lucrezia, but it is also someone else. This girl is a duchess it is clear to see from the jewels that adorn her ears and neck, wrists and head, from the gold-and-pearl cintura around her waist, from the ornaments on her bodice, from the pleating and embroidery of her gown. Here before you, the portrait shouts, is no commoner, but someone high-born and exalted. She loves it, she loathes it; she is dumbstruck with admiration; she is shocked by its acuity. She wants the world to see it; she wishes to run and cover it again with the cloth at the artist’s feet.”

      Beautiful prose with vivid descriptions of the settings and the era make for an engaging read. The author transports you to the palazzos and castellas of Renaissance Italy and even though we know how the story is going to end, I could not stop turning the pages. The characterizations are superb - each of the main and supporting characters is well-fleshed out and convincing (even the unlikable characters). Lucrezia’s loneliness, fear and suffocation are palpable. There were moments that were a tad melodramatic and few segments toward the end that felt rushed, but this does not detract from the overall reading experience. I found this to be an immersive read that I would not hesitate to recommend. Do read the Author’s Note where she discusses her inspiration for this novel, the historical context and how it differs from the fictionalized account of events. This was my first time reading this author and I can’t wait to explore more of her work.
    • 4/5
      I read this gradually for an online book club, but I think it would have been better read in one go, given the dual timeline of the novel itself. I found it an interesting read, although I tired a bit of Lucrezia seeing everything in terms of how she would paint it, and I skimmed some of her dreams towards the end.

      I knew nothing of the historical figure, so the suspense as to whether her husband really did wish her dead worked for me. The ending was also satisfactory to me, although I felt sorry for Emilia. I thought the depiction of Lucrezia's naive belief that her marriage would be like that of her parents was touching.

      I wouldn't re-read this though, as it was dark and mainly depressing.
    • 4/5
      Is Hamnet a better novel?

      The fact that I cannot easily provide an answer to that question betrays that this is another excellent work by Ms. O'Farrell.

      I would hazard that this work is the less obvious in its imagining and therefore its realization marks the greater achievement. It doesn't in the final analysis matter a jot whether 16th century Italy or England strike a firmer chord as both are a joy and privilege to have read.
    • 5/5
      O'Farrell paints a vivid portrait of Lucrezia's life as a young woman of privilege in 1600s Italy when a woman's chief value was the ability to produce an heir. I felt claustrophobic and frustrated much like the protagonist. Although this is a historical novel and the lives of many women are more expansive, the desire to hold power and wealth at any cost seems to remain the same. Character driven, emotional and very well written. I started reading O'Farrell when her first novel was published and have never been disappointed.
    • 5/5
      This book enthralled me from the first page. It is the year 1561 in Florence, Italy. Lucrezia, is a fifteen your old bride who is sure that her husband Duke Alfonso is intent on killing her to make way for a newer bride who might give him an heir. She wonders how he might do it, poison, strangulation, a knife... Lucrezcia ponders the possibilities while dining with him at a hunting lodge hidden away far from her family and friends.
      And so we are introduced to our young heroine Lucrezia, a girl of noble birth with a keen mind and much artistic talent. The story then goes back a year in time and tells of how Duke Alfonso II was betrothed to Lucrezias older sister Maria who suddenly died before the wedding could take place. Lucrezia is offered up instead as a replacement bride, but because of her young age must wait till she is at least fifteen years old or of child bearing age. She dutifully marries Alfonso and discovers several disturbing facets of his personality. She does not know this husband, nor as time goes on does she want to. In the beginning marriage is agreeable for her, she has much more freedom than she has ever had and can do almost anything she likes. She rides, she paints, she strolls the beautiful grounds of her husbands estate. But this unfortunately does not last and she must follow her husband to his Castello in Ferrara and meet his sisters. From here things become more politically complicated and because she has not yet conceived a child all kinds of quack medical therapies are thrown at her. But Lucrezia is a spirited and intelligent girl and she meets these obstacles head on with a new sense of guile she must learn in order to survive.
      This book is absolutely addicting and so well written. Beautiful descriptions of the scenery, the costumes, the tense air between characters. I received this book as a Good Reads Advanced Readers Copy and would like to thank the author and publisher for such a riveting read. Very highly recommended!
    • 4/5
      Well written, but not much historic events. very much about the new Duchess, and women, being used as a pawn in politics.
    • 3/5
      The opening lines made me think I would love this, but I just could not stay in the story because it all seemed one level and thus was hard to distinguish the timeline jumps, especially while listening.
    • 3/5
      Character driven story of Lecretia de Medici of Estes, not the more interesting Lecretia Borgia. Feminist story of woman trapped in a marriage in which women don’t have any control. Long on describing the scene but not the interesting time period or the politics of the outside or men’s world. The ending is contrived and disappointing.
    • 3/5
      Underwhelming....I love Maggie O'Farrell but this was a miss for me, ( read it in two days so it's not terrible) not my quote but it applies...it took me out the narrative to hear the writer writing.
    • 4/5
      Great story with lots of historical touchstones.
    • 5/5
      I've heard great things about Hamnet but haven't read it yet, so when this title showed up on the Libby app I decided to jump on it. I'm glad I did. The story of the strong willed daughter of the famous Cosmo de Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, is interestingly told through alternating chapters. One point of view takes place on Lucretzia's possible final days of life as she suspects her husband, Alfonso , Duke of Ferrara is plotting her death. History seems to back up that the young bride, forced into a marriage arranged by her father to secure financial stability for the family, did in fact die at the early age of 16. But the author has some fun with her version of events. The other chapters provide the background of Lucretzia's birth and her early years of education. We see that she is a gifted young artist but mostly ignored since her older sisters are the more appropriate future matches. There is a beautifully written scene where the curious child pets a new addition to her father's menagerie of caged animals, a tiger. " The tigress didn’t so much pace as pour herself, as if her very essence was molten, simmering, like the ooze from a volcano. It was hard to distinguish the bars of the cage from the dark, repeating stripes on the creature’s fur. The animal was orange, burnished gold, fire made flesh; she was power and anger, she was vicious and exquisite; she carried on her body the barred marks of a prison, as if she had been branded for exactly this, as if captivity had been her destiny all along." It is her sisters death that propels her into the early match. Her husband is an attractive and seemingly attentive spouse, but at times we catch glimpses of his temper. The writing is full of lush settings and attention to the details, especially when we see Lucretzia attending to her painting, or when the professionals are brought in to render the marriage portrait. Evidently it is this portrait that inspired the poem by Robert Browning that inspired the author. O'Farrell creates nice elements of tension as the alternating chapters catch up to present time of the ill fated 16 year old. You find yourself rooting for her even though the facts of history loom large. I would recommend this novel and look forward to catching up on her other works.

      Lines:
      Eleonora is a woman all too aware of her rarity and worth: she possesses not only a body able to produce a string of heirs, but also a beautiful face, with a forehead like carved ivory, eyes wide-set and deep brown, a mouth that looks well in both a smile and a pout. On top of all this, she has a quick and mercurial mind.

      “What did Agamemnon do,” the tutor tried again, “to get a wind so that the Greek fleet could sail on to Troy?” Slit his daughter’s throat, Lucrezia said to herself. She recalled every word of the story the tutor told them last week—it was the way her mind worked. Words pressed themselves into her memory, like a shoe sole into soft mud, which would dry and solidify, the shoe print preserved for ever.

      Liquid was her motion, like honey dropping from a spoon.

      Sofia’s advice on the matter of her wedding night: let the man do what he will, don’t fight or struggle, breathe deeply, and it will soon be over. But it is not, she had wanted to say to Sofia, in my nature to acquiesce, to submit.

      She knows, and Emilia knows, that after the violet oil must come the foot washing, then the nail cleaning, then the bean-flower water on the face, then the hair brushing. How tedious it is, all this upkeep, all this tending, as a gardener must weed a flowerbed or trim a hedge.

      Her father would have found her an advantageous match because that is, after all, what she has been brought up for: to be married, to be used as a link in his chains Her father would have found her an advantageous match because that is, after all, what she has been brought up for: to be married, to be used as a link in his chains of power, to produce heirs for men like Alfonso.

      She feels, she realises, as if she is suddenly absent from this room, or disappearing from it, evaporating into the air. The Duchess is present, in the painting. There she stands. Lucrezia is unnecessary; she can go now. Her place is filled; the portrait will take up her role in life.
    • 5/5
      The story of Lucrezia de Medici who was married to a duke when she was only 15. She is a smart, outspoken young woman, but the duke only wants her so she can bear an heir. When she realizes that he has taken her to a remote place with the intention of killing her, she tries to imagine how she can escape.
      This is a beautifully told story of a real woman and her childhood marriage. I was entranced reading the story. I enjoyed this story better than Hamnet, which had beautiful prose.
    • 5/5
      Lucrezia di Cosimo de’ Medici lived during the 16th century and was the daughter of the Duke of Florence. She left Florence to begin married life with Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, becoming a Duchess at a very young age. Official records are scarce, but Lucrezia is known to have died in 1561, very early in the marriage. The historical note that opens this novel reads, “The official cause of her death was given as ‘putrid fever,’ but it was rumoured that she had been murdered by her husband.”

      Maggie O’Farrell offers a rich and plausible story of Lucrezia’s life and her untimely death. As the daughter of a duke, she led a privileged life, but also one with few choices. Marriage was a transaction, in which daughters were wedded off in hopes of strengthening political alliances. Initially, Lucrezia’s union looks promising; Alfonso is kind and respectful. But his dark side becomes increasingly apparent, especially when Lucrezia fails to immediately produce an heir (and yes, this was always the woman’s fault). Lucrezia is stuck: she cannot return to her family, nor can she live as an independent woman. She is, effectively, a prisoner in her own home.

      This novel is so well written. The narrative structure gradually reveals details of Lucrezia’s life like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falling into place. Despite knowing how her story ends, the tension is palpable. The ending is especially well done. The author’s note at the end clarifies which elements were fact, and which were fiction. There may have been little documentation of Lucrezia’s life, but other women of the period – other wives of Italian noblemen, in fact – were murdered by their husbands. How many times did this happen without proof? It brings an air of credibility to the theory that Lucrezia was poisoned, and draws attention to the ways in which women have been marginalized and written out of history.
    • 4/5
       I don’t know what, but I was dreading this one. Maybe it was a case of judging the book by its cover. Instead of a dry history I found a riveting portrayal of a young girl trapped in a dangerous marriage. It’s based on the real marriage of Lucrezia de' Medici and Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara. The author does an incredible job, building the tension in the tear as the options narrow for the Lucrezia.

      The author was inspired by the real family portraits and the poem “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning.
    • 5/5
      The Marriage Portrait is based on the life of Lucrezia de Medici, who married the Duke of Ferrara. The book opens with Lucrezia realizing that her husband intends to kill her, and then alternates between the story of her childhood and marriage, and the days of her impending death.

      O'Farrell is a brilliant writer. She makes people and places come to life. Lucrezia is a interesting and relatable character, and the book is suspenseful and hard to put down.
    • 4/5
      The 1550's, Renaissance Italy, women's life in a troubled royal court....I'll always think of this book when I view those beautiful paintings of those women dressed heavily in jewels looking at us. This Dutchess, Lucressia, led a life of confinement, and duty, surrounded by intrigue and ruthlessness. So little is actually known about her, but this book captures the wonderfully written and well researched possibilities.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this book very much, and I'm looking forward to reading one of the author's earlier books, Hamnet.
    • 4/5
      Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. This novel was very hard to read due to triggers, but I stuck with it until the end and was very glad I did. The ending richly rewarded my patience and was one of those "hug your Kindle and sigh" endings. Maggie O'Farrell is an amazingly skilled writer. The research and history are solid throughout, and the book makes it clear that the events are within the context of the fate of untold numbers of women throughout history. Due to being triggered so much I do not think I can be completely objective; some part of my brain just could not fully engage with the story, but I give it five stars and count it among my top ten favorite books of the year.
    • 4/5
      This was my second Maggie O’Farrell novel, the first being the acclaimed “Hamnet.” That book, like this one was masterfully written, and it is O’Farrell’s writing that I am most in awe of. “Hamnet” seemed to channel the Bard himself, and this one, “The Marriage Portrait” had hints of a fairy tale in its style. Being a former English teacher, I am always on the lookout for books that not only tell a good tale but are well written too. That said, it seems like O’Farrell in both books is on something of a crusade to combat paternalism. Men take a pretty good beating in both books, maybe deservedly so. And, yes, I am a man, so perhaps it is gender paranoia on my part. I did enjoy this book and for the first time in a long time, I anxiously awaited the end to see what would happen. Without giving any spoilers away, it is worth the wait and not necessarily predictable. It’s a well crafted and sufficiently clever finale for an admirable novel. Speaking of its genre, O’Farrell has a section after the conclusion explaining what parts of the story actually happened and what parts were changed and for what reasons.
    • 4/5
      O'Farrell imagines the life of the young girl portrayed in Browning's "My Last Duchess" in a brilliant novel of Italian politics and art. While I have ambivalent feelings about the ending, the creation of Lucrezia as a complete character is fabulous.
    • 4/5
      Fictionalized version of the short life of a real person, Lucrezia de' Medici, focused on her marriage to Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. As the story opens, in 1561, Lucrezia believes her husband has brought her to a remote estate in order to murder her. The narrative then flashes back to tell the story of Lucrezia’s early life and how she arrived at this point.

      Lucrezia is a beautifully drawn character. She is portrayed as a free spirit and an artist who loves nature and animals. Her life goes fairly well until her sister dies, and her life changes irrevocably. The story focuses on the distresses suffered by child brides. Lucrezia is basically sold for political purposes by her family. She goes into marriage unprepared for the expectations placed upon her. It is, of course, “her fault” if she does not immediately produce an heir even though her husband has never been successful in producing offspring before.

      The historical record shows that Lucrezia died of tuberculosis, but rumors abounded that she had been poisoned. The author takes this tidbit and crafts it into an engrossing narrative. O’Farrell’s elegant writing style vividly describes Renaissance Italy. It is a wonderful example of historical fiction done well. Themes include loss of innocence, intrigue, lies, betrayals, greed, and defiance. The ending contains an unexpected turn. Be sure to read the author’s note, which clarifies what is real versus what is fictionalized.

      4.5