Author of the fantastic novel Hamnet, reviewed here, https://www.margueritereads.com/home/hamnet-a-novel-of-the-plague-by-maggie-ofarrell , O’Farrell has done it again with her new, eagerly anticipated novel, The Marriage Portrait. Set in Renaissance Italy, 1544-1561, the story follows the life of Lucrezia di Cosimo de’Medici, fifth child and third daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleonor di Toledo. Lucrezia manages to slip under the radar of the household, eluding most expectations of her parents. She is very bright, remembers everything she hears the teacher say to her older siblings, is accomplished in art, loves nature, feeling a deep visceral connection to the environment and animals. Her father has a collection of wild beasts in the basement of the castle, including a tiger. Lucre is drawn like a magnet to the beast, and manages to manipulate her father into taking the children to see it. Lucre’s connection to the natural world is an important theme throughout the story, emblematic of freedom and constraint, and roles of men and women. Lucre is not interested in the conventional pursuits of her sisters, or the manners and customs of the court, a deficiency that will endanger her later.

Lucre thinks she will escape the fates of her siblings: boys are trained to be future leaders, girls will be married off to other Dukes to unite land, create peaceful, beneficial alliances for their father. When her sister Maria suddenly dies prior to her wedding, their father arranges for Lucre to marry Maria’s fiance, Alfonso II d’Este, the new Duke of Ferrara. Lucre is only thirteen years old when this is arranged. Her nanny, Sophia, manages to delay the wedding for two years, hiding her menses, until Lucre’s mother at last discovers that she has begun her menstrual cycle. Lucre sees signs that Alfonso may be a good match, but once married and heading to her new home, she observes sign upon sign that he is not who she believed him to be.

The two distressing realizations Lucrezia comes to are firstly, that the man she has married is cruel, perhaps what we would now call a psychopath; and secondly, that all she is valued for is to produce an heir— in fact, she learns her very life depends on it. Much of O’Farrell’s book is faithful to the historic record, but she also goes beyond with artistic license. O’Farrell breathes life into the history, making the reader feel the constraints and dangers of Italian court life for women. Men were angling for power, or fighting to maintain it. Women covertly maintained power, finding their value in their marriage partner’s status, and in the necessity of producing heirs. O’Farrell’s strength is bringing to life dry history, expressing the humanity of persons from the past. She can empathize with our common humanity, what it would feel like to live within the systems and strictures of times past.

O’Farrell is a successful author of historic fiction, but actually elevates this genre, succeeding at creating excellent literary fiction, dramatizing universal themes of the human experience. One of the best of the year, I highly recommend this novel. Much to discuss here for book groups, too.