This novel might be one of my new all-time favorite books. Published in 2022, this novel sets a new bar for historical fiction about forgotten women in history. Maggie O’Farrell has developed a compelling narrative structure that builds in suspense, unfolding with immediacy in the present tense.
Told in third person with exquisite detail and rich symbolism, the story closely follows the young Lucrezia de’Medici who marries the Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso. She moves from Florence to Ferrara as a young bride. We learn what life is like as a royal woman in Renaissance Italy in the 1550s. The plot also follows the creation of a painting of Lucrezia, like the title of the book, which itself holds a mysterious and eternal significance.
The chapters alternate across time as Lucrezia learns her fate to be betrothed to the Duke. Even though the time periods are not so distant, the two points of the narrative converge at the ending with a satisfying twist of fate that is almost Shakespearean. The poem “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning was also inspired by the young Lucrezia.
Read more at Book Passage: The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell
Diana Adair 