Between the Lines Reads the Marriage Portrait (Depot)
If you like to read a variety of books, and if you like to discuss the books you read, you should join one of the Aurora Public Library District’s book groups! There will be afternoon groups that meet at the Aurora Public Library on April 25th @ 1:00 pm and the Dillsboro Public Library on April 26th @ 1:00 pm. There will also be an evening meeting at the Local History Library on April 30th @ 6:30 pm. This program is open to anyone age 18+. Visit the Aurora or Dillsboro Public Library to pick up your copy!
We will be discussing The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell this month.
Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf.
Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?
As Lucrezia sits in constricting finery for a painting intended to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court’s eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferranese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, the new duchess’s future hangs entirely in the balance.