Sign In Join Now
User Accessibility
  • Increase Font

  • Invert Colours

Search for a Book Browse Books Menu
The Marriage Portrait Cover Play Sample

Sample may contain unsuitable content.

Open Audiobook

Audiobook streaming provided by:

OverDrive Logo

Share this book:

The Marriage Portrait

AuthorMaggie O'Farrell

NarratorGenevieve Gaunt

Duration13h 29m

CategoriesAdult Fiction, Historical Novels, Novels

PublisherHodder Headline

VersionUnabridged

  Save to Wish List
  Add to Favourites List

Florence, the 1560s. Lucrezia, third daughter of Cosimo de' Medici, is free to wander the palazzo at will, wondering at its treasures and observing its clandestine workings. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, 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 to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appears 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?

0 (0 Reviews)
0
0
0
0
0

Related Titles

So Lucky Cover

So Lucky

Author: Dawn O'Porter

So Lucky

Author Dawn O'Porter

Narrator Dawn O'Porter

Duration 9h 19m

Is anyone's life.... Beth shows that women really can have it all. Ruby lives life by her own rules. And then there's Lauren, living the dream. As perfect as it looks? Beth hasn't had sex in a year. Ruby feels like she's failing. Lauren's happiness is fake news. And it just takes one shocking event to make the truth come tumbling out...

View Book
This Must Be the Place Cover

This Must Be the Place

Author: Maggie O'Farrell

This Must Be the Place

Author Maggie O'Farrell

Narrator Thomas Judd, Penelope Rawlins

Duration 14h 28m

An addictive and unforgettable novel of a marriage in freefall, shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2016. A Richard and Judy Pick 2017. A top 10 best seller, This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell crosses time zones and continents to reveal an extraordinary portrait of a marriage. A reclusive ex-film star living in the wilds of I...

View Book
Instructions For A Heatwave Cover

Instructions For A Heatwave

Author: Maggie O'Farrell

Instructions For A Heatwave

Author Maggie O'Farrell

Narrator Patricia Leventon

Duration 9h 25m

It's July 1976. In London, it hasn't rained for months, gardens are filled with aphids, water comes from a standpipe, and Robert Riordan tells his wife Gretta that he's going round the corner to buy a newspaper. He doesn't come back. The search for Robert brings Gretta's children - two estranged sisters and a brother on the brink of divorce - back...

View Book
This Mournable Body Cover

This Mournable Body

Author: Tsitsi Dangarembga

This Mournable Body

Author Tsitsi Dangarembga

Narrator Adenrele Ojo

Duration 11h 32m

Anxious about her prospects after leaving a stagnant job, Tambudzai finds herself living in a run-down youth hostel in downtown Harare. For reasons that include her grim financial prospects and her age, she moves to a widow's boarding house and eventually finds work as a biology teacher. But at every turn in her attempt to make a life for herself,...

View Book
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill Cover

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

Author: Abbi Waxman

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

Author Abbi Waxman

Narrator Jessica Preddy

Duration 9h 28m

Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They're excited to meet her! She'll have to Speak. To....

View Book
Hamnet Cover

Hamnet

Author: Maggie O'Farrell

Hamnet

Author Maggie O'Farrell

Narrator Daisy Donovan

Duration 10h 31m

On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will n...

View Book
Real Life Cover

Real Life

Author: Brandon Taylor

Real Life

Author Brandon Taylor

Narrator Kevin R. Free

Duration 9h 25m

Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even wit...

View Book
I Am, I Am, I Am Cover

I Am, I Am, I Am

Author: Maggie O'Farrell

I Am, I Am, I Am

Author Maggie O'Farrell

Narrator Daisy Donovan

Duration 6h 1m

A childhood illness she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. A terrifying encounter on a remote path. A mismanaged labour in an understaffed hospital. Shocking, electric, unforgettable, this is the extraordinary memoir from Costa Novel-Award winner and Sunday Times bestselling author Maggie O'Farr...

View Book
The Last Kingdom Book 12: Sword of Kings Cover

The Last Kingdom Book 12: Sword of Kings

Author: Bernard Cornwell

The Last Kingdom Book 12: Sword of Kings

Author Bernard Cornwell

Narrator Matt Bates

SeriesThe Last Kingdom, Book 12

Duration 13h 27m

England is in turmoil as Vikings and Saxons battle for territory. Rumours build about the fatal sickness of the King, and the country awaits an heir. A violent clash at sea forces the warrior lord Uhtred to lead his men from his Northumbrian fortress to London and plunge into the eye of the storm. For two kings claim the empty throne and a new king...

View Book
Rodham Cover

Rodham

Author: Curtis Sittenfield

Rodham

Author Curtis Sittenfield

Narrator Carrington Macduffie

Duration 13h 58m

'Awfully opinionated for a girl' is what they call Hillary as she grows up in her Chicago suburb. Smart, diligent, and a bit plain, that's the general consensus. Then Hillary goes to college, and her star rises. At Yale Law School, she continues to be a leader- and catches the eye of driven, handsome and charismatic Bill. But when he asks her to ma...

View Book