"That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive."
This quote is actually the epigraph of the novel. These are the opening lines of the poem "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning. This poem is the inspiration for the novel and thus as important as any quote from the actual narrative. It is possible to understand the story without knowing the poem, but it will be only a superficial understanding to do so. The protagonist of the novel is the last Duchess and the title of this book is a reference to that painting on the wall.
"Lucrezia is taking her seat at the long dining table, which is polished to a watery gleam and spread with dishes, inverted cups, a woven circlet of fir. Her husband is sitting down, not in his customary place at the opposite end but next to her, close enough that she could rest her head on his shoulder, should she wish; he is unfolding his napkin and straightening a knife and moving the candle towards them both when it comes to her with a peculiar clarity, as if some coloured glass has been put in front of her eyes, or perhaps removed from them, that he intends to kill her."
Browning's poem is a dramatic monologue by a widowed Duke who is considering a new wife. That last duchess of the poem is this book's Lucrezia de' Medici. This paragraph constitutes the opening of the novel and the last line of the paragraph is the essential unspoken subtext of the poem. Browning's poem considers the death of Lucrezia from the Duke's perspective by insinuating her death came at his hands. The opening of the novel situates the central conceit of the narrative that Lucrezia was not caught by surprise at the moment of her premature demise.
"Lucrezia met her future husband only once before their wedding, and he was, at the time, betrothed to her sister Maria."
This one single sentence encapsulates much of what this novel is about beneath its narrative storyline. To the modern reader, so much about the very concept of marriage will seem like the stuff of fantasy fiction. The rules of marital relations in the story can seem absolutely alien to modern readers. It is not just that Lucrezia marries a man who was going to marry her sister. Any modern reader who has seen an episode of the Jerry Springer Show can relate to that. But this juggling of siblings by the marriage-minded Duke becomes just that: one of the more relatable aspects of the relationship. That this is true may be enough to convey just how bizarre this story winds up becoming.
