December 5, 2022

The Wife From The Poem

Maggie O’Farrell came face to face with her inspiration: a portrait of a young duchess. In the work, she says she found her protagonist—Lucrezia, a young woman determined to break free of her gilded cage.

The Wife From The Poem

Maggie O’Farrell came face to face with her inspiration: a portrait of a young duchess. In the work, she says she found her protagonist—Lucrezia, a young woman determined to break free of her gilded cage.

Ideas for novels tend to start very gradually. Elements of them will creep up on me, sometimes under cover of night; potential characters and plots hang about my study like uninvited guests, until I’m ready to pay them attention.

The Marriage Portrait is the exception to this. I can pinpoint exactly when my novel about Lucrezia de’ Medici began. It was an afternoon in February 2020 and I had arrived uncharacteristically early to pick up my daughter from what would turn out to be her last playdate before lockdown began.

I had, at the time, been rereading Robert Browning’s poems and I was wondering to myself, as I sat there, whether or not the most famous of these, ‘My Last Duchess’, was based on real events. The poem features a Duke telling a visitor about how he murdered his previous wife, pulling back a curtain to reveal her portrait. Was it possible that a 16th-century Duke from Ferrara had actually done committed the horrifying act of uxoricide?

I must have searched online because I have the strong memory of, within a few clicks, finding a name: Lucrezia di Cosima de’ Medici. And then her portrait began to load, extremely slowly, on my aged phone. First there was a glimpse of an ornate, jewelled headdress, some auburn hair, a stiff lace collar, and then, suddenly, there she was, gazing back at me.

I don’t think I will never forget the moment I first saw her face, when I looked into those dark, troubled eyes. Here she was: the wife from the poem, the one kept behind a curtain, the person in the background of one of literature’s most mesmerising poems. But this, thrillingly, was the real her, the actual woman – or girl, as she had been sixteen at the time of her death.

What struck me most about the portrait was that there is a deep sense of unease about it. The fathomless black of the background, the frank and beseeching gaze, the tremulous set of her lips. Lucrezia di Cosima de’ Medici does not seem happy; she gazes at us from across time with an anxious, apprehensive expression. She looks as if she has something she wants to say. She is, I thought as I sat in the car, like someone appealing for help, or mutely communicating that all is not well in her world.

As well she might: a year or so later, she would be dead.

The official cause of death at the time was given as “putrid fever” – which could possibly indicate pulmonary tuberculosis. Rumours spread, however, that she had been been poisoned by her husband, Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara.

Either way, I knew as soon as I saw her that I had found my next novel, that I would to write the narrative she herself might have told, were she able. I wanted to bring her out from behind the Duke’s curtain, into the light and give her a voice and story of her own.

We’re taking our copy of Gone Before Goodbye on a little coffee date this weekend ☕📖 
Link in bio for book tour tickets and to get your own copy!

Where are you reading yours this weekend?
Had the most amazing time connecting with the Reese’s Book Club community IRL at #ShineAway2025 last weekend! ✨ @RaeganRevord and @TembiLocke picked up some incredible book recs that we are immediately adding to our TBR. Drop your must-reads below!
This Thursday's coffee and current read is an iced matcha and our new favorite eco-fiction mystery, Bog Queen by @AnnaNorthBooks. Talk about a perfect combo!
Bog Queen is now available, including at our link in bio.
We’re incredibly lucky to have the incomparable and inspiring @Malala join us on Bookmarked, the Reese's Book Club podcast. 💛

She's a powerful voice for so many—championing causes like girls’ education and women’s rights. In her new memoir Finding My Way, Malala Yousafzai turns inward, exploring the messy, beautiful journey of rediscovering yourself after the world has already decided who you’re supposed to be.

In this episode, @DanielleRobay and @Malala's conservation has all the heart—and then some. Listen now on the @iHeartPodcast app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you love to listen. 🎧
Did not see that coming! Gone Before Goodbye by @ReeseWitherspoon & @HarlanCoben is here and you don't want to miss another second. 

Start reading at our link in bio.
Diving back into the brilliant Anita de Monte Laughs Last after hearing @XochitltheG’s powerful conversation with @DanielleRobay at Shine Away.

Feeling deeply inspired by the vibrant storytelling and the beauty woven into every word.
Sorry, we're booked.

It's official! Pick up your copy of Gone Before Goodbye by @ReeseWitherspoon & @HarlanCoben at our link in bio.
Shop the Reese's Book Club Space with us at #ShineAway2025! ☀️@ZibbysBookshop brought the perfect vibes and of course, so many fantastic reads to add to our TBRs.

Which three books would you chose and why?
Today we honor Indigenous voices like our September Pick author @ElianaRamage. ⭐

With honesty and heart, To The Moon and Back shows us what it means to search for a sense of self—and emerge proud.