The Marriage Portrait: the Instant Sunday Times Bestseller, Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023

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Kingsolver’s ferocious indictment of the pharmaceutical industry, angrily stated by a local girl who has become a nurse, is in the best Dickensian tradition, and Demon gives a harrowing account of his descent into addiction with his beloved Dori (as naïve as Dickens’ Dora in her own screwed-up way).

The Marriage Portrait: the Instant Sunday Times Bestseller The Marriage Portrait: the Instant Sunday Times Bestseller

And, without the "rooting" effect, I found myself at a loss as to why I continued to read about her journey. Very little escapes his notice, including one of his sister's romances with the captain of the guard.

Lucrezia was a fascinating character in her childhood with her natural intelligence and affiliation with animals.

The Marriage Portrait: the Instant Sunday Times Bestseller The Marriage Portrait: the Instant Sunday Times Bestseller

I suspect O'Farrell had to make some tough creative decisions to spin a tale out of such thin cloth in terms of actual history. As they sit down to dinner it occurs to Lucrezia that Alfonso has a sinister purpose in bringing her here. It’s not necessary to have read Dickens’ famous novel to appreciate Kingsolver’s absorbing tale, but those who have will savor the tough-minded changes she rings on his Victorian sentimentality while affirming his stinging critique of a heartless society.Also gone was the "less is more" writing seen in Hamnet which was so emotionally powerful in its simplicity. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell review – a dark The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell review – a dark

This is a gripping story that has at its core the little-known life of Lucrezia de' Medici is a pawn in her family's desire for power and her husband's desire for an heir. Photograph: Alamy The duchess in the tower … Lucrezia de' Medici, who died aged 16 in 1560, is the protagonist in The Marriage Portrait. There is a virgin heroine whose floor-length red hair, modestly confined in a pearl-decorated net, hints at rebellious energy. I know these are different times but, really, what kind of parents allow their 13-year-old daughter to be betrothed to a man in his 20s?

Having now read all of O'Farrell's novels, this one certainly felt like a departure from her usual style of writing. Then again, on further thought, I didn't feel any compatibility with any of the characters: the 15-year-old bride Lucrezia, her bold and controlling husband Alfonso, her jealous sister, conniving sisters-in-law, uncaring parents. In Maggie O’Farrell’s imagining of 16th-century Italian courtly life, manners make the man, clothes make the woman, and an image is more durable than a person.