Little is known of Lucrezia (1545-1561), fifth child of the fabled Florentine Cosimo de’ Medici, beyond a beguiling portrait painted in honour of her betrothal. Her unexplained death at 16 gave rise to rumours that she had been murdered by her husband, Duke of Ferrara, a legend which inspired Robert Browning’s poem ‘My Last Duchess’. In a new, female-centred version, Lucrezia is imagined as a sensitive, discerning young artist, overlooked by her worldly family except as a gilded pawn to barter in marriage. The lush novel opens as Lucrezia intuits that her husband plans to kill her. Intrigue and terror make for compulsive reading, as does the literary portrait of a rare spirit fighting for life in a world that seeks to annihilate her. G MacKay Graham

A new novel set in Renaissance Italy that centres on the young duchess, Lucrezia de Medici. This novel follows Lucrezia as she makes her way in a world that’s not made for her.

* I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada, Knopf Canada in exchange for my honest review

I'd almost agree with other reviewers who have suggested the simplicity of the story puts it almost into sophisticated YA territory. Delighted to include this title in the September instalment of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

Maggie O'Farrell is such an engaging writer & really lets the reader into the heart of the characters she is writing. The Marriage Portrait is a familiar & heartbreaking story about a woman in history who was talented & clever & completely stifled by the times she lived in & the men in her life. However, even though the story is familiar, the writing and the character of Lucrezia, how she is drawn, what motivates her, and her thoughts & feelings make it a wonderful read.

I really loved this book, I could not put it down. Anything to do with the Medici is alway fascinating, and this doesn't disappoint. It must have taken so much research to offer such a detailed account of life in court in the 1550's.

I am always excited to read anything written by Maggie O'Farrell, and The Marriage Portrait did not disappoint. The story unfolded with the same exquisite detail, three-dimensional characters, and beautiful writing I have come to expect from this author. I really enjoyed getting to know Lucrezia, and the structure of the book kept me guessing about what would happen to the very end. I also learned a great deal about Florentine/Ferrarese history and culture, which was a bonus.

I'll definitely be recommending this one widely. Thanks for the opportunity to read it in advance of publication!

I haven’t read a lot of Maggie O’Farrell, but I very much enjoyed both her memoir (I Am, I Am, I Am) and her last historical novel (Hamnet; on the death of Shakespeare’s son, which won multiple literary prizes), so I expected to like The Marriage Portrait very much as well. And it was just okay. More historical fiction than literary fiction, this is an imagining of the life and marriage of Lucrezia de’ Medici, and while the plot is an interesting enough take on the time and place (Florence and Ferrara in the mid-sixteenth century), I made little emotional connection with the characters (and honestly found more psychological insight into the Duke of Ferrara in Robert Browning’s inspirational poem “My Last Duchess” and the corresponding analysis to be found on it at The Poetry Foundation website). I don’t regret picking this up — I learned a lot (and especially off the page) — but this wasn’t an entirely successful novel for me.