Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - The Marriage Portrait

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

57 reviews

morethanmylupus's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Maggie O'Farrell has a talent for building multi-layered personalities and histories for people we don't have much information about. She did this with Hamnetas well, but she had to work within the bounds of more known history this time. This isn't a fast-paced thriller or full of dramatic twists and turns. Instead, it's more of a literary fiction set in historical times that tells about the life of one woman living at that time. If you enjoy historical fiction that's more about a person's life and less about a plot that's driving towards the finish line, you'll like this one.

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jennikreads's review

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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sevensableyes's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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helen's review against another edition

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4.0

This was a bookclub pick and I was nervous going into it because, y'know, I've read Lucrezia de’ Medici's wikipedia page, but I'm really glad I read it because the author takes the facts and weaves her own brilliant story.

The writing is vivid, immersive and suspenseful. She drops you into the head of a 16 year old Duchess in Renaissance Italy who has just realised that her husband is taking her to his remote fortress in order to kill her. The narrative then flashes backwards and forwards, showing you how she came to be in that situation.

O'Farrell uses a lot of painterly metaphors - particularly hidden paintings beneath paintings - and I think you can tell it was written in 2020, because there's a lot of exterior vs interior (Lucrezia doesn't get to go outside much, and when she does she revels in it). I also like how important servants were in the story.

It's all very skilfully done, and I was gripped throughout.

Content notes:

child bride, murder, violence, character death, misogyny, still birth (in the past), animal cruelty, grief, homesickness, on page sex

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stvalentine's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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icieri's review

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dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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judythedreamer's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Quick thought on story structure: the non-chronological double timeline lends itself to an alternative structure. The current day sections are in actuality the third act playing out, so plot point 2 is them leaving Ferrara for the fortezza with the poisoning.

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