The Marriage Portrait
By Maggie O'Farrell
Published Year : 2022
Page count : 376 Pages
Medium used : Kindle PW
Genre : Historical Fiction, Italy, Uxoricide, Suspense, Psychological Fiction, 2024-read.
Rating : 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I was wavering between a 4 and 4.5 rating while reading the book. But the last few pages solidified my decision into a firm 5 point category. The prose is so delicious and refreshing. The suspense is both chilling and thrilling to unravel. The plot is riveting. Lucrezia de Medici, the duchess of Ferrara and daughter of Duke of Tuscany, one year into her marriage, senses that her husband is set to kill her. The book opens on a note of his being coy and nice to her, where she is not fooled for a second. This sense of danger with no hope for escape is shocking and revelatory of the times the narrative takes place in. There is also a sense of adventure, in planning for escape from her enslaved, dreary existence juxtaposed with the danger, that is totally alluring.
A girl is born into wealth, married into even more wealth, but she has always felt more comfortable and at peace without it. Lucrezia was born to Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo and his wife Eleonora as a 5th child. Right from the start, she was different from her sisters and did things in a more rebellious spirit to what her parents expected. It is difficult to contain her energy or put shackles on her liberal spirit. When she is around 13ish, her sister Maria dies from an ailment and Lucrezia is bound into marriage with Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso ii. She pleads with her parents to let her off the deal because she is still very young and doesn't fancy a much older man for husband but her pleas fall on deaf ears. She is bundled off to Ferrara by her husband whom she feels isolated and disconnected from. Slowly over time, she realizes that he is a cruel, sadistic tyrant that doesn't brook no for an answer. She very much enslaves herself to his carnal desires and finds it hard to cross him on anything. He waits for an year to see if she would bear him a child before taking some decisive, sinister action. He senses a resistance and insubordination within her which he doesn't like. Her freedom is limited and she is surrounded by spies and villainous characters that report everything to the husband. If only, someone would come and set her free, right?
I felt very glad with the ending - although it involved the death of a good character. This story is very much reflective of the times and the lengths to which some go in order to gain or retain power. It would have been so much better for the heroine to have been born into an ordinary family. Definitely recommend it to all the women readers!! It is an eye opener on how to read the signs of disaster about to strike, in a marriage! Loved this!
P.S. Apparently, a lot of the script in the book is a fictional concoction by Maggie. Lucrezia, it is said, has suffered from a tuberculosis induced ailment for over a couple of months before succumbing to death. Her husband, contrary to all speculation and conjecture, has had no role in this - or so some historical books recount! Her last months also had a physician by her side - who was sent by her father - no one less ! But, nevertheless, this book makes for a good angle of domestic jealousies and distrust between Lucrezia and Alfonso with his sisters playing a major role in what's to come.