The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

 

Maggie O’Farrell’s latest novel, The Marriage Portrait, is even better than Hamnet and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, both of which I thought were terrific. Unlike other novels that purport to be the backstory of a famous work of art (e.g., The Girl with the Pearl Earring, The Lady and the Unicorn), this is the backstory of a portrait that probably existed but that hasn’t survived, which makes it even more intriguing.

This is the story of Lucrezia di Medici, a middle child and third daughter of Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Florence, and teenage bride of Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara. She died early in the marriage, perhaps from disease, perhaps murdered by her husband who was desperate for an heir and unwilling to wait long for Lucrezia to conceive.

I absolutely loved the character that O’Farrell bestowed on this unsung female who for centuries has been little more than a footnote of Florentine history. She was an artist, fascinated and attuned to the natural world, particularly animals. She was strong, energetic, and intelligent—had the Florentine world not been enslaved by a patriarchal society, she would have been an ideal successor to her father, much more so than any of her brothers. She was definitely a spiritual sister of the caged tiger she charmed into letting her pet her, and their stories tracked each other until near the end when Lucrezia's veered in a different direction.

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I absolutely adored the ending and was fervently hoping that the story would resolve as it did, with Lucrezia escaping from the fate history allotted her and finding a place and role for herself as an anonymous artist of exquisite tiny paintings of animals, presumably finding love and passion, purpose and fulfillment outside the trappings and dangers of court and politics and power.

Usually, I am a stickler for historical accuracy, but in the case of Lucrezia, about whom so little is known, I have no problem with this author creating an alternate reality for her.

I also think that O'Farrell did a great job in her portrait of Alfonso. Our view of him was entirely governed by Lucrezia's, evolving as she matured from the little girl she was when she first met him to the innocent bride whose only role is to bear children to the scared teenager who has learned what he is capable of doing when thwarted. 

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Definitely a 5-star novel that I look forward to rereading someday.

Mid-summer Mini Reviews

The twin peaks, Longs Peak and Mt Meeker, on my Saturday morning walk earlier this month.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman - finally got around to reading this, knowing nothing about the story whatsoever, so was pretty blown away by how good it was. Honeyman did a masterful job in keeping Eleanor's pov on target. In a way, it reminded me of a time travel story in which a person from another time/space is plunked down in the modern world and is aghast at what passes for normal amongst the natives. I loved how Eleanor grew as a person as she traveled the road from trauma to health, and the ending was particularly satisfying.

A Sunlit Weapon, by Jacqueline Winspear - the latest Maisie Dobbs mystery, still in WWII, but this time focused on female pilots and the work they did during the war. I absolutely love this series and seeing the war through Maisie's eyes and experiences.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell - I read O'Farrell's Hamnet last year and absolutely loved it, so when Joann of Gulfside Musing reviewed this earlier novel by O'Farrell, I promptly got a copy and dived right in. Like Eleanor Oliphant, the story is about a woman who is out of step with her world. In this case, Esme is the wild child of a conservative colonial family that returns to Scotland from India in the early 20th century (between the wars). Like Honeyman, O'Farrell does a masterful job of revealing the full scope and horror of Esme's story layer by layer over time as her last living relative, Iris, digs for the truth of who Esme is and what her family did to her. I cannot say that I loved the ending as I did with Eleanor--in fact, it shocked and disturbed me. It almost ruined the book for me, but I respect O'Farrell and trust that she told the story she wanted to tell.

Sharpe's Triumph, by Bernard Cornwell - number 2 chronologically in the series about Richard Sharpe, soldier of the British Empire, circa 1800. As with the first book, this was a terrific adventure story in which I learned about military strategy and the British subjugation of India. I picked up the next four books in the series--it's that good!

Hope everyone is having a good summer if you are in the northern hemisphere and a good winter if you are down under. It's been hot here in CO, but mercifully our afternoon thunderstorms are yielding much needed rain (though not nearly enough, as always), which cools everything off to bearable.