Two years ago, Maggie O’Farrell became an international literary star thanks to the multi-award winning ‘Hamnet’. The novel not only received ecstatic (and well-deserved) praise from critics, it also captivated audiences worldwide and sold over 1,000 copies. one and a half million copies. There, O’Farrell covered the never-before-told story of William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, who died at the age of eleven and inspired ‘Hamlet’, and the wife of the English literary genius. biographers
O’Farrell is back with the now highly anticipated ‘Married portrait’ (published in Catalan by Libros del Asteroide and L’Altra) and repeats the formula: it is also concerned with showing. The lesser known facet of a world-famous surname that radiates prestige, Mediciand it does so by bringing to light a tragically truncated biography that has sunk into oblivion: Lucrezia de Medici. Married to the Duke of Ferrara at the age of 13 She was killed by her husband only a year after her marriage, probably because she had not fulfilled the main purpose of the arranged wedding, to ensure her family’s well-being and immense economic and political influence: give birth to children
O’Farrell masterfully recreates boom of the renaissance: A court full of music, readings and whims, like exotic animals that Lucrezia’s father collected, Grand Duke Cosimo de Medici, married to Spaniard Eleonora Álvarez de Toledo allowed him to rule in his absence. “In their letters they mention very little of Lucrezia. luck for readers, almost no trace remains. he has a portrait bronzino It was made a year before his death, on display in a museum in North Carolina. “It caught my attention because it wasn’t like most portraits of the period,” admits O’Farrell.his face is sad, as if he had something to say. He wanted to see her and maybe tell the story he wanted to tell.”
suspected poisoning
The novel recreates the family life of one of the most famous dynasties of the Renaissance and the short life of Lucrezia. Died of “frightening fever” (that’s what tuberculosis was called at the time) but the suspicion of poisoning always hovered over the common cold and the Machiavellian Alfonso. Lucrezia’s father sent a doctor to do it. a second autopsy, but by the time he got to Ferrara he was already buried. He hired a spy, and Afonso was worried about possible reprisals. Good enough clues to guilt,” says O’Farrell. loneliness and despair sending a cultured and bright young man from home as a bargaining chip, very scared on the wedding night (“One of the scenes that cost me the most to write,” admits O’Farrell) and is overwhelmed by one man’s machinations. wild political-internal crossroads. What we call manual ‘gaslighting’ today.
“When we think of the Renaissance, we imagine an era of beauty and education, but there’s a much darker side to it,” says O’Farrell. “The Medici were an institution, without them we wouldn’t have so many paintings and sculptures by Michelangelo… But if you look closely at politics it is never clean. At any age, there is always a dark side.” According to O’Farrell, “The Renaissance was a dichotomy of beauty and brutality,” in which leaders were trained to be “brutal and cruel.”Henry VIII He had six wives, and although he did not kill them with his bare hands, hired someone to cut off their headsThere is not much difference,” he says.
Hamnet and the Royal Shakespeare Company
With this, O’Farrell carries two historical novels linked. Is the present tense boring? “Not at all!”, he explains, “You know the Chinese proverb that says, ‘Can you live in interesting times? I think we definitely live in very interesting times,” he jokes. “However, during quarantine, I felt great relief that I was writing a novel set in the past. Especially when I didn’t know if we would survive the pandemic”, admits the author, who has an important appointment this April: Premiere of the stage adaptation of ‘Hamnet’ by the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon. “I wrote that novel because Shakespeare’s son Hamnet is not mentioned twice in history books. It is very special for me that this child will now be performing in the city where he was born and died.”