BookLife Dual Review: Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O'Farrell

historical novel, England, Florence and Ferrara Italy, 1550s, Renaissance Art, arranged marriage, escape, thriller; 180s, Stratford-on-Avon, London, Shakespeare, bubonic plague

Maggie O’Farrell injected new excitement in the genre of historical fiction with Hamnet, A Novel of the Plague, taking a surprisingly fresh spin on, of all subjects, Williams Shakespeare. Much is known about The Bard, but little is written about his live with his wife and children.

Shakespeare married Anne/Agnes Hathaway, who takes center stage in the playwright’s personal life, at least for a while. A work of fiction, O’Farrell imagines Agnes as a sprite of nature, a dweller of the woods surrounding her farm. The story presents them as a love match, and the newlyweds move in with his family. Agnes sacrifices a great deal, not uncommon then (and not all that uncommon now!). The couple gives birth to twins, and his son carries the titular name of Hamnet. As the unnamed Shakespeare’s star as a playwright ascends, he spends an increasing amount of time away from their home in Stratford-on-Avon, to practice his art and produce his plays in London. The story is set in England in the 1580s. Illness comes to town, in the form of the bubonic plague, and it takes a devastating toll on the playwright’s family.

This book unfolds without rush and hurry, relying on lush language of the flora and fauna surrounding the characters, and vivid depictions of the home, clothing, transportation, customs, the preparation of food and the otherwise ordinary acts of daily living in the 16th century. For history lovers, this is a gold mine. O’Farrell does it without losing touch with the characters or the march of the tragic story. This is a five-star, must-read book for historical fiction lovers.

In her follow-up work, The Marriage Portrait, O'Farrell brings history alive once again specifically Florence, Italy in the 1550s. Lucrezia, a 15 year-old duchess, has the unhappy misfortune to take the place of her elder sister who dies on the eve of her wedding to a lord of a neighboring dynasty. Initially smitten with her husband, Lucrezia grows increasing isolated. This suspenseful story highlights the plight of women in this era when women were at-risk chattel, traded by fathers for power or lands or political alliance and often treated by husbands as heir machines, without rights, devoid of intelligence or talents and without avenues for self-determination.

The Marriage Portrait isa page turner, as you root for the very young (15) married heroine to survive, and possibly escape. Along the way, we peek at into the world of Renaissance art and the titular tradition of the commissioned marriage portrait. Though his book was not as complex, gripping or as lushly written as Hamnet, it is a solid read in the historical fiction genre.