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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
The threat of murder hangs over the novel; historical violence and executions referenced
Language
Barely any
Mild language
Sexual Content
Some
A young woman's marriage and marital relationship; period-appropriate, not graphic
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The psychological terror of being trapped in a marriage with someone who may want you dead; the powerlessness of women in Renaissance society
What this book is about
The novel opens with Lucrezia, the teenage Duchess of Ferrara, realizing that her husband Alfonso has brought her to a remote villa to end her life. It then traces her extraordinary childhood as the overlooked middle daughter of the Medici, her betrothal after her older sister's sudden death, and the gilded trap of her marriage. O'Farrell's Women's Prize-winning novel is a portrait of female agency and survival set against the gorgeous brutality of Renaissance Italy, told in the same luminous prose as Hamnet.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Central threat of the husband plotting the protagonist's murder
Female powerlessness in historical context
Emotionally intense throughout
Reader Verification
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