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One of the last projects recorded by singer/actress Marianne Faithfull (who passed away in January) was a 2021 spoken word album of English Romantic poetry, including a hauntingly beautiful 12-minute recitation of Tennyson’s “Lady of Shalott.” After exploring Faithfull’s passion for (and family connections to) classic literature, Amy finds new meaning in this poem about an exiled woman fated to forever view life through a mirror’s reflection. This episode includes accounts of several other doomed and exiled noblewomen in history — Lucrezia de Medici and Marguerite de la Rocque — and the books their lives inspired.

Mentioned in this episode:

She Walks in Beauty by Marianne Faithfull

“As Tears Go By” by Marianne Faithfull

“The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch

Venus in Furs by The Velvet Underground

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

Lucrezia de Medici

Portrait of Lucrezia de Medici at North Carolina Museum of Art

“My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning

Isola by Allegra Goodman

Marguerite de la Rocque

The Heptameron by Marguerite de Navarre

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