The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

4.03 AVERAGE

amanda_lou's review against another edition

4.0
The story of the imaginative, artistic, perhaps slightly mad Lucrezia de Medici who was married off at age 13 to a sadistic Duke Alphonso. A surprising end — not a twist exactly, but not exactly comfortable … This book — as opposed to Hamnet — somehow kept me at a distance from the main characters… I just found I did not care about any of them. But as usual with O’Farrell, the prose shines gloriously. Particularly gorgeous was the internal narration of Lucrezia, who simply sees the world differently. So in all, totally enjoyable read, if a bit… formal and impenetrable.

hojo06's review against another edition

4.0
adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

madi_jo_reads's review against another edition

4.5
dark emotional fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

carrieannw's review against another edition

5.0
adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

laurenportland's review against another edition

4.25
dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

libbiebond's review against another edition

3.0
3.5. Couldn’t stop comparing it to Hamnet
librarysue's profile picture

librarysue's review against another edition

5.0
I have not always been a fan of Maggie O'Farrell but I LOVED this one! She gives us a vivid look at life in 16th C Italy (so glad I didn't live then!) and a very suspenseful imagining of what might have happened after the ill-fated marriage of teenage Lucrezia de'Medici to the Duke of Ferrara. The story is a fast-paced nail-biter (altho told in O'Farrell's typical free-floating prose, and with a fair amount of shifting timeframes as well): you think you know what is going to happen but the ending is a big time surprise. Well done!
melissa_keen's profile picture

melissa_keen's review against another edition

4.0
adventurous informative mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
A fantastic story. Not my usual genre, but it was a beautifully written book and easy to read despite the historic setting. The writer is wonderful at creating colourful, vivid descriptions - it is easy to become immersed in this book.

alexisdslater's review against another edition

4.0
dark emotional sad
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No

hannahcopeland's review

4.25
adventurous challenging mysterious