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Girl with a Pearl Earring centers on Vermeer's prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel's quietly perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old narrator becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant--and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model. Chevalier vividly evokes the complex domestic tensions of the household, ruled over by the painter's jealous, eternally pregnant wife and his taciturn mother-in-law. At times the relationship between servant and master seems a little anachronistic. Still, Girl with a Pearl Earring does contain a final delicious twist.
Throughout, Chevalier cultivates a limpid, painstakingly observed style, whose exactitude is an effective homage to the painter himself. Even Griet's most humdrum duties take on a high if unobtrusive gloss:
I came to love grinding the things he brought from the apothecary--bones, white lead, madder, massicot--to see how bright and pure I could get the colors. I learned that the finer the materials were ground, the deeper the color. From rough, dull grains madder became a fine bright red powder and, mixed with linseed oil, a sparkling paint. Making it and the other colors was magical.In assembling such quotidian particulars, the author acknowledges her debt to Simon Schama's classic study The Embarrassment of Riches. Her novel also joins a crop of recent, painterly fictions, including Deborah Moggach's Tulip Fever and Susan Vreeland's Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Can novelists extract much more from the Dutch golden age? The question is an open one--but in the meantime, Girl with a Pearl Earring remains a fascinating piece of speculative historical fiction, and an appealingly new take on an old master. --Jerry Brotton
| AUTHOR: | Tracy Chevalier |
| CATEGORY: | Book |
| MANUFACTURER: | Plume |
| ISBN: | 0452282152 |
| TYPE: | 1632-1675, Fiction, Fiction - Historical, Historical - General, Literary, Vermeer, Johannes,, Fiction / Literary, Reading Group Guide |
| MEDIA: | Paperback |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
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Customer Reviews of Girl with a Pearl Earring
Please don't read this book! My high school english class were forced to read this book and the majourity of us found it very dull and boring. <
>The main character Griet was not very likeable and she was creepily obsessed with Vermeer and the ending was very unsatisfactory. <
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Conveys the feeling of the painting - beautiful story
If like me, you read many of the reviews of this book that are less than positive, you might think it's going to be a boring book with little substance. I'm glad I read the book before I read the reviews.
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>If you are seeking action, depth, subplots, and a complex story line, this book is just not for you. It's a quiet, almost dreamy tale of one person's musings on the model/subject of a famous painting by an enigmatic artist.
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>Perhaps you're like me: you've just finished a long string of involved novels, with story lines that constantly jump around in time (Time Travelers Wife, The Sparrow, Kite Runner, etc.) and just want a pleasant, linear story to read on a rainy saturday afternoon - then Girl with a Pearl Earring is just the thing. It's very well written, with a well-crafted, if limited, glimpse into 2 very small neighborhoods in Delft, Holland. It's not a sweeping saga of how life was in 17th century Netherlands, or detailed chronical of the life of Johannes Vermeer, as some reviewers have complained it should have been.
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>It's more of a delicate watercolor that simply suggests a life that might have been; the girl in the painting could have been anyone - why not Griet? The book to me is as evocative as the Vermeer painting on which it's based - we know very little (if anything) about the girl in the painting, but she still speaks to us. I think that Tracy Chevalier has succeeded in crafting her story with the same simple mystery that haunts, frustrates, and pleases us when we see the actual painting.
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>The story is simple - a young girl is forced to seek work to support her family after her father loses his sight in a work-related accident. She becomes the newest maid in the home of Johannes and Catharina Vermeer, and slowly finds herself becoming more involved in the master painter's work, to the point of becoming his subject. That's really about it - everything else just consists of the details of that process. The ending, while not at all dramatic, is fitting with the rest of the story. And while fictional, you'll never look at the famous Vermeer painting (from which the book takes its title) in the same way.
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>I hope my review helps put some of the negative reviews in perspective. Don't read it for all the wrong reasons!
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>5 well-deserved stars.
Enchanting Story is a Pleasure
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>Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier is an enjoyable and thoughtful read. It transfers the reader into the Delft, Holland in the mid-1600s via the eyes of a young servant girl. Pre-knowledge of the setting is not a requirement of the reader as Chevalier does a magnificent job of flawlessly explaining the setting and place with interest and history versus story transfers unnoticeably. The story is rich with the culture without any dullness. How does Chevalier do it? The narration is through Griet, a reserved servant girl sold to work in the great master artist, Vermeer's home -- she is to clean his studio. As Griet explores her new residence, unravels mysteries of the elusive artist and learns how to interact with the fragile household the reader is slowly unfolded to her new settings and the place generally. It is written with contemporary English in a way that is formal yet simplistic and does not clash with the setting. The setting is often serene and Griet's insightful, reserved conscience is quick, enjoyable and realistic.
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>As I fell deeper and deeper into the story, I quickly empathized with the various characters and their reserved yet tense relationships with one another. The tensions are of interest and do not make the reader weary. Then the novel turns and Griet becomes closer to the artist, more knowledgeable of the family and beings a romance of her own. These great folds of the story are beautifully written escapes rich with painting, emotion and swiftly moving plot.
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>I highly enjoyed the novel. When the last page had turned, I wished to visit the town again, the fish markets, the studio, the brick roads and interesting characters. The novel isn't complicated, it is written artistically and well but does not exceed a high scholastic level. I believe young adults as early as junior high could fully appreciate and understand the novel. However, the novel could easily peak the interest any age beyond it. It is not wholly feminine, in fact, I think for Vermeer's character insight may be lost in women. I would recommend the book on the basis of its story, enchantment and interest.