Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

Young Lucrezia de Medici has her whole life ahead of her – or so she thinks. Betrothed to Alfonso d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara, she is looking forward to her marriage to the handsome Duke.  But Lucrezia quickly finds that marriage to Alfonso is not all she thought or hoped it would be. Their wedding night is a disaster which sets the tone for her marriage. As her unhappiness builds, she finds solace watching the creation of a large fresco that will grace the walls of her home and along with it, a forbidden attraction.


Initially, Lucrezia desperately wants to please her husband. But his dark moods frighten and confuse her and Alfonso begins spending long periods of time away from home. This does nothing to help him with his primary goal – to father a legitimate heir in order to prevent the Pope from reclaiming his family’s nine hundred year old duchy – and as their continued attempts in the bedroom fail completely, Alfonso’s resentment of  Lucrezia grows. He becomes increasingly paranoid that everyone knows the truth about his marriage and he begins to look for a way to deal with his "dangerous" duchess.

Alfonso is tormented by voices and images in his head he cannot control. He has a twisted cruel streak and a need to control that makes unwilling victims out of his wife and his long time mistress, Francesca. Although he finds his wife charming, beautiful and desirable, there is something about her that seems to freak him out. Not allowed to run her new household, Lucrezia feels she is nothing more than Alfonso’s “newly acquired artistic treasure”.

Lucrezia’s charm, graciousness and bubbly personality earn her lots of friends and admirers and her tendency to be on friendly terms with those "beneath her" only antagonize Alfonso more. Any smile or glance that she happens to give to anyone fuels a raging jealously that drives Alfonso to his ultimate solution for dealing with his wife. But unknown to both Alfonso and Lucrezia, an ally appears from an unlikely source which may ruin Alfonso’s carefully laid plans.

Based on the poem My Last Duchess by Robert Browning, Gabrielle Kimm creates a story around Lucrezia and Alfonso who many believe are the subjects of the poem. In her Author’s Note, Kimm makes clear that her story is not based solely on the known facts of their lives but rather on the poem itself. As I read through the poem (printed in the back of the book along with a short interview with Kimm and a few book club discussion questions), I was amazed at the number of small references Kimm managed to include. A great deal of detail is also provided on the art of creating a fresco.

The plot is a little slow in a few places and there is the over used "girl dressing up as boy" on one ocassion in order for Lucrezia to sneak out.  But the plot twists and turns that make up the last 100 or so pages more than made up for it and managed to bring together threads and characters from the early part of the book that frankly, initially had me wondering how they were relevant to the story. I enjoyed His Last Duchess very much and am looking forward to Kimm’s next book which will focus on Francesca. 

Although the book is not available in the US, you can order it from the UK's Book Depository with free worldwide shipping.





In case the FTC asks: The author had a copy sent to me – I’m so glad she did!