FIRST FRIDAY BOOK CLUB | THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT by Maggie O’Farrell

Join The Friends for another lively First Friday Book Club.

Robert Browning’s famous, sinister poem, My Last Duchess, a monologue about the Duke of Ferrara’s former young wife, is the seed which nourishes Maggie O’Farrell’s novel The Marriage Portrait.

When the narrative begins in 1561 Lucrezia is one year into her marriage and convinced her husband intends to murder her, as she has failed to produce an heir.

The events which lead her to marriage at 16, the political manoeuvrings of a turbulent age and the consequences of desiring more out of life than is proscribed for a young girl makes for a suspenseful historical tale.

Maggie O’Farrell, The Marriage Portrait, Penguin Random House, 2022

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