The Marriage Portrait: the instant Sunday Times bestseller, longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
(Paperback)
Available Formats
Paperback, Large Print Edition
Published: 27th September 2022
Paperback
Published: 11th July 2023
Hardback
Published: 30th August 2022
Paperback
Published: 30th August 2022
Publishing Details
The Marriage Portrait: the instant Sunday Times bestseller, longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
By (Author) Maggie O'Farrell
Headline Publishing Group
Tinder Press
11th July 2023
6th July 2023
United Kingdom
Classifications
General
Fiction
Historical fiction
History of art
823.92
Physical Properties
Paperback
448
Width 128mm, Height 196mm, Spine 36mm
400g
Description
The instant Sunday Times bestseller from the acclaimed author of Hamnet, The Marriage Portrait is a dazzling evocation of the Italian Renaissance in all its beauty and brutality.
Winter, 1561. Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara, is taken on an unexpected visit to a country villa by her husband, Alfonso. As they sit down to dinner it occurs to Lucrezia that Alfonso has a sinister purpose in bringing her here. He intends to kill her.Lucrezia is sixteen years old, and has led a sheltered life locked away inside Florence's grandest palazzo. Here, in this remote villa, she is entirely at the mercy of her increasingly erratic husband.What is Lucrezia to do with this sudden knowledge What chance does she have against Alfonso, ruler of a province, and a trained soldier How can she ensure her survival.The Marriage Portrait is an unforgettable reimagining of the life of a young woman whose proximity to power places her in mortal danger.Reviews
Every bit as evocative and spellbinding as Hamnet. O'Farrell, thank God, just seems to be getting better and better . . . O'Farrell's writing is so vivid it melts away the time and space between now and 16th-century Italy . . . With The Marriage Portrait, then, O'Farrell hasn't just produced another magnificently transporting page-turner. She has given us an exhilarating, devastating look at women's captivity, creativity and ultimately, rebellion in a world run by some very cruel men * i newspaper *
Finely written and vividly imagined, it is far from being simplistic, but there is an engaging simplicity to it . . . a very good one to be read, as publishers used to say, by "children of all ages" * Guardian Book of the Day *
In O'Farrell's hands, historical detail comes alive . . . evocative, moving and sensitively rendered * Spectator *
O'Farrell is simply outstanding * Guardian *
Her writing is exquisite. Immersive and compelling * Marian Keyes *
An extraordinary writer with a profound understanding of the most elemental human bonds * Observer *
One of the most exciting novelists alive * Washington Post *
Ingenious, inventive, humane, wry, truthful . . . better than her last novel * Scotsman *
Her narrative enchantment will wrest suspense and surprise out of a death foretold * Financial Times *
Author Bio
Maggie O'Farrell, FRSOL, is the author of HAMNET, Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020, and the memoir I AM, I AM, I AM, both Sunday Times no. 1 bestsellers. Her novels include AFTER YOU'D GONE, MY LOVER'S LOVER, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX, THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE, which won the 2010 Costa Novel Award, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE and THIS MUST BE THE PLACE., and THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT. She is also the author of two books for children, WHERE SNOW ANGELS GO and THE BOY WHO LOST HIS SPARK. She lives in Edinburgh.
