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Summary: Very enjoyable and thought provoking
Review: This book relates the adventures of a young girl forced into becoming a maid by a family misfortune. The struggles of someone without status or power to navigate her way through her new masters (with their contrary demands), mischevious children, and powerful community members makes for a very good plot. I would highly recommend this book to all readers. No special interest in history or art is required. Side note: This story is so well done that I think the only possible criticism might be related to its very perfection. Griet-our young maiden and main character-seems to be just a bit too perfect; both in her responses to each situation, as well as perhaps also her keen powers of observation. (Critics of Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby" have said something similar, e.g., that Jordan Baker's knowledge of the details of Daisy's past are difficult to credit.)
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Summary: Very nice little book, this.
Review: Tracy Chevalier, Girl with a Pearl Earring (Dutton, 1999) To date, I've read only one bad review of this slight novel, and a whole lot of excellent ones. I'm casting my vote on the excellent side. Chevalier took one of Vermeer's best-known and most enigmatic paintings and built a story around it (there are a series of these novels; Joyce Carol Oates' I Lock My Door Upon Myself is the only other one I've read, and it is similarly excellent). Griet, a sixteen-year-old from the Protestant side of the tracks, becomes the maidservant of the Vermeers after a kiln accident forces her father out of a job, and the story alternately skips between the variouis tensions within the Vermeer household and Griet's courting by a somewhat ham-handed, if well-meaning, butcher. It's subject matter that could have (and has) been screwed up in too many ways to imagine, but Chevalier pulls it off by keeping the prose spare and letting the silences speak most of the necessary lines. ****
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Summary: Girl with a Pearl Earring
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As I initially read the reviews I was skeptical, but the title kept coming up on the list of books I might enjoy. They were right. The title character tells the story from her point of view and you can't help but be captivated by her story.
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Summary: WHAT A TREASURE!!
Review: Tracy Chevaliar has accomplished something I have considered many times when viewing art...."Who is the muse?" She shares that information with us in a fictional account of Griest, "The Girl with the Pearl Earring." Her words are such lovely compliments to the visual. I was astounded at her ability to create the perfect tale for the picture, and bring to life every aspect of the art. This was a joy to read and I recommend it to all who love to learn history through fiction. I was not that acquainted with Vermeer's work, but now I am captivated by it. I wish I could be among the lucky patron's in NYC who are privy to a showing of Vermeer's masterpieces at the MET, inspired by the response to Chevalier's book. BUT, I will settle for having had the grand opportunity to read this book, and be privy to Vermeer's and Griet's world in Delft. Wonderful, wonderful, reading!!!!!!
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Summary: Enjoyable
Review: It's a good thing I have a book with all of Vermeer's paintings because I had it next to me while reading this book. It made the experience so much more enjoyable. I know this book is pure fiction based [very] loosely on the little known facts about Vermeer's life, but that did not detract anything from the book. I liked all the characters with the exception maybe of Vermeer's wife Catharine. She was a little over the top. All in all a good read.
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Summary: Tender, beautiful, imaginative
Review: I was completely taken in by this magical novel of another time and another place. I am astounded by the imagination the author demonstrates by creating this rich and utterly believable story around a piece of artwork, weaving the sparse facts we know about Vermeer's life with knowledge of the people and customs of Delft. Thank you, Tracy Chevalier, for a look into lives I didn't know I'd been missing.
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Summary: I'll never look at a painting the same!
Review: Chevalier engages the reader in the creation of this painting by developing a fictional character as the subject and expounding on Vermeer's style as an artist. The historical account surrounding the lives of subject and artist adds a whole new dimension to the work itself, giving the reader some insight into the reason the portrait may have been painted and how it was most likely influenced by social, religious and economic factors of the time. Chevalier has been immensely creative in so carefully weaving history, fact and fiction to create this book. Save the stuffy art history books - I think every work of art should have such a wonderful, believable story behind it - fictional or not!
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Summary: A lot of hype for nothing
Review: I was really excited to get this book and read it. I started it right away and was promptly dissapointed. This book is BORING! I am suprised I stayed awake long enough to finsh it. I don't know were everyone is getting all this stuff about this book being great. I did not see the point of this book. In one word, yuck.
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Summary: A Perfect Pearl
Review: If I hadn't been involved in a reading group I never would have known about and would have missed reading one of the best books I've ever read. The author creates the story behind one of Vermeer's most celebrated paintings, "Girl with a Pearl Earring". Griet is that girl. She is from a simple upbringing and due to her father's accident on the job he is unable to work. She must work to earn money to help the family and is sent to work for an upper class family as a servant. The family is that of the famous painter, Johannes Vermeer. She has a sense of color and organization that captures the painter's interest from the moment he meets her. With Griet in their home there is lots of tension, which is ruled over by the Vermeer's jealous, clumsy, eternally pregnant wife and his mother-in-law. Griet is quiet but strong. As the story continues Griet finds that she is falling in love with Vermeer. I also believe that Vermeer respects and loves Griet as much as a self-absorbed person can love. But this love can never be fulfilled. For not standing up for Griet I feel that Vermeer tried to apologize in the end. The author captures life in 1660s Delft, Holland beautifully. The book was a pleasure to read from beginning to end.
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Summary: Captivating, Passionate and Mysterious.....A must read
Review: This is a must read. It has got to be one of the most captivating and chilling stories i have ever read. After reading, I decided to look up information on Johannes Vermeer only to discover that most of the names and information on the artist and his family were correct...right down to where he married into a catholic family after being a christian. I could not put it down, it was so, moving in a way, knowing that half of it was true. It was like you were Griet and you were being painted...Really this is a must read for anyone, no matter what your tastes are like, I am only 15 and i loved it, yet I'm not usually interested in history... it will make you want to keep reading..to learn more...i am now going to study history in school because of this book. Please read it or you may regret doing so.
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