Summary

At the outset of the novel, in “A Wild and Lonely Place”, Lucrezia is convinced that her husband, Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, intends to kill her. She is sixteen years old, and they have been married for less than a year. As they sit at the dining table, in the remote fortress, she attempts to keep her suspicion imperceptible to his intent gaze.

In “The Unfortunate Circumstances of Lucrezia’s Conception”, the protagonist’s is mother, Eleanora, is perusing a map in the Florentine palazzo when her husband enters and begins to fondle her. As they have sex, Eleanora’s mind wanders “towards the marshlands again skimming over their reeds, their yellow flags, their tussocks of scrubby grass” (9). After Lucrezia is born, her mother blames her inattention during Lucrezia’s conception...