September
26
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
I feel like I’ve just spent the last 10 days wrapped in a priceless Italian tapestry. A heavy but lavish carpet of Dukes, Duchesses, frescos and treachery.
Set in Italy the mid 1500’s, the story is based on Robert Browning’s poem about the short life and marriage of the 16-year-old Duchess of Ferrara. Married off at the age of 15 to help form an alliance between the ruling Medici and d’Este families, she ultimately died less than a year into their marriage.
Although the cause of death was never confirmed, this girl really did live and her story was captured not only in Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” but also in small portraits that were painted of her at the time.
Just like with her last runaway bestseller, Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell makes no secret about how things are going to end in The Marriage Portrait. In fact, the book opens with the clever Duchess’ grim realisation that she is about to be killed.
The genius is not in the plot of The Marriage Portrait, it’s the telling of it.
It’s how O’Farrell develops the characters, manipulates hope, sets the scene and propels the inevitable that makes the magic.
Lucky for me, I love a tapestry and will always be a sucker for a clever, female protagonist. If I’m honest, I think Maggie could have dialled back on the of’t flowery language involving rasping stones and desperate whirs. Yea verily, me thinks it’s too much. At the same time, the heady adjectives didn’t stop the plot and this is not the book to get caught out skimming. Turns out bad shit happened at night in big castles in the mid 1500’s if you were not watching.
I’d pick this one up for a book club for sure – it’s not super skinny, but it’s a quick and immersive read with enough substance to get you thinking or at least make you ponder what your host might have dropped into your wine. The biggest challenge is coming out from under the tapestry when it’s all over.
And that’s my 2 cents worth.
Readhead 