Rating: 
Summary: Like the Painting
Review: Like the paintings of Vermeer, Tracy Chevalier writes with incredible clarity, detail, and elegance. This book postulates who the subject of this painting was and why she was painted. It does not disappoint. The author's earlier book, Virgin Blue, is only available from amazon.co.uk. While not as perfect as this book, it is also enjoyable.
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Summary: Utterly enchanting!
Review: Chevalier is one of those writers that can make you pray for rainy Saturdays, just so you can have the pleasure of sinking into the sofa with her book and a blanket. Girl With a Pearl Earring is as rich and intriguing as its namesake. Griet is a lovely narrator, young and vibrant with a wonderfully curious dispostion. Chevalier captures the essence of the painting in Griet, a girl at once naive and honest yet possessing a clear and often cold acceptance of her fate that betrays her station in life.
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Summary: a lovely way to end a reading year....or to begin a new one
Review: I had the pleasure of discovering "Girl" in an Advanced Reading Copy. A small gem of a book, as lustrous and lovely and the pearl of its title, I recommend this first novel wholeheartedly. Tracy Chevalier's first novel speaks in the lovely voice of her maidservant character, who transports its reader to seventeeh century Delft and Vermeer's home and studio. It's the kind of book that you want to run your hand over its cover each time you close it.
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Summary: Fascination with Vermeer painting inspired book
Review: I wrote this book because I have always been fascinated with the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's works, especially the painting Girl With a Pearl Earring. I am never sure what the girl in it is thinking: sometimes she looks seductive, other times sad. Sometimes she is thirteen years old, other times thirty. I began to wonder what Vermeer said or did to make her look like that, and from that wondering the story emerged.
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Summary: Life imitating Art
Review: Rich with visual imagery and a arresting plot, this book draws the reader into a world of 17th century Dutch art, class relations, love and hate."Girl with a Pearl Earring" is a beautifully crafted work of fiction based around the painting of the same name by artist Johannes Vermeer. Griet, the 16-year-old narrator, becomes a servant of the Vermeer household after her family is unable to support her. Her innate sense of composition, colour and orderliness is recogised by the aritst, and their relationship blossoms under the eye of his watchful mother-in-law and jealous wife. I enjoyed this simple story for the way in which the words seemed to step out off the page and form detailed pictures in my mind. It was fascinating to see a story constructed around this famous painting which was believable yet unpredictable. Beautifully told, this book would be enjoyed by those who liked Chevalier's "The Virgin Blue" or simply those who like a good read!
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Summary: The Insight
Review: This book is a slow but tense novel to read. Tracy Chevalier gets the inspiration from the famous artist Vermeer for the book's title "Girl with a Pearl Earrings." Adding a fictional character, Griet, Chevalier creates scenes between the upper and lower class in the 17th century.
Griet who belongs to the lower classes of the society is a special girl with no education. She has sufferer many of the tragedies common in the 17th century. The differences between the Catholics and Protestants, the life of the rich and poor in Delft comes to life in this novel. A maid does not have the right to speak or express her thoughts, forcing Griet to be a subtle, quiet yet fully aware of her living environment. Nevertheless, she has something that no other normal people have- an artistic eyes. I would say this is a gift from God, but she was also caught into a misfortune due to her talent.
The author uses different aspects to illustrate the importance of a maid in a household, a community, and her own family. When Griet goes into service in the house of the famous painter Johannes Vermeer, she does not realize how her life will change. Her feeling towards her own family is going to change and an awkward relationship is going to develop between herself and her master and the members of his family.
Chevalier describes the story with such rich words and vivid expressions that makes the readers feel the whole thing is based a real story. I¡¦m impressed by the way Chevalier can take hold of so many different characters within one book. She totally grabs my attention so that I want to know more about each character in the novel. The best part of the book is the use of Griet as the narrator, which enables the readers to understand the thoughts and feelings of a young maid in the 17th century. When I read this novel, I couldn¡¦t stop wondering how did the author came up with all these unique characters that seems so profound and intriguing.
I strongly recommend those who enjoy classical and dramatic stories to read this book - ¡§ Girl with a Pearl Earring¡¨! Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.
Rating: 
Summary: Contrived
Review: I didn't like it at all. I was able to finish it but I credit that to an extremely boring day at work. It never ceases to amaze me that people will grasp onto a book like this and sing its praises. This is not "literature". It is a trite story written for 6th graders. There is no mystery, nothing left for the imagination, nothing to build toward. From the moment you meet the main characters you realize where you're being led and how it will all turn out. I closed the book and am left with nothing a few characters that will leave my memory as soon as I begin my next book. How disappointing!
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Summary: More detailed than the movie
Review: I saw "Girl with a Pearl Earring" a couple of months ago because I loved Scarlett Johansson in "Lost in Translation". I loved the movie adaptation but it wasn't without its flaws. I didn't discover the flaws until I read the book by Tracy Chevalier. I found myself liking the book slightly more than the film because the book went into greater lengths to explain why Griet left her family to become a maid for the house of Vermeer. Due to a tragic accident which left her father (a tilemaker) blind and unable to work to support his family, Griet is hired by Catherina and Johannes Vermeer to help clean Vermeer's studio as well as with the household duties of laundry, cooking, and going to the market for food. This is not a actual account of Vermeer's life but rather a fictional story about Vermeer's portrait of the girl with a pearl earring. What I got was a 1600 soap opera (which isn't a bad thing per say). Catherina was this insecure, jealous, always pregnant housewife. She was reluctant to hire Griet but she did nevertheless. Maria Thins is the patriarch of the family. It is her house that the Vermeers live in. Johannes is your typical brooding artist. His middle daughter is a mischieveous, wicked daughter who had an axe to grind. Master Van Ruijven, Vermeer's patron and a lecherous man. Pieter, the son of the Vermeer's butcher and Griet's wooing suitor. And of course there was Griet, a quiet farmgirl who didn't really have a choice in the matter when she was employed by the Vermeers. It doesn't take very long for Johannes to become captivated by Griet which doesn't go unnoticed by his wife Catherina. Everything goes down hill when Johannes starts working on his famous painting. After reading the book, I wished that the film didn't begin and end the way that it did and began/ended the way the book had. I enjoyed the film but I enjoyed the book even more so.
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Summary: "Virtuous women did not open their mouths in paintings..."
Review: "Girl With a Pearl Earring" is based on the Johannes Vermeer painting with the same name. Sixteen-year-old Griet is forced to leave home and go to work as a maid for a painter and his family in order to provide for her family. Although she faces numerous challenges with most members of the Vermeer household, Griet slowly begins to bond with her master, who commissions her to help him in his studio and eventually has her sit for one of his paintings.
This book is interesting on many different levels. For one thing, creating this fictitious tale based on such a famous piece of art is intriguing, and Tracy Chevalier's characters are all very believable. Having the story narrated from Griet's point of view was also an excellent choice. The reader is treated to a description of how life was for a young woman living in poverty during the 17th century. Griet is forced into so much during the course of this novel, and all her options seem vert limited: there could be serious consequences if she continues to work for the Vermeer family, but her family will starve if she chooses to leave. There is also the potential of romance with a young suitor, but Griet is torn between a "sensible" relationship with Pieter and the growing feeling she has for her master.
The relationship between Griet and Vermeer is very mysterious and still leaves a lot of questions until the very end. We become aware of Griet's feelings for her master, but how does Vermeer really feel about her? Griet's interaction with the other women is also interesting to follow...Vermeer's wife sees her as a threat, Tanneke sees her as a rival, and Cornelia sees her as someone to destroy. The relationships between all of the women in her life escalate as the story progresses, which makes the final confrontation in the last few pages of the book even more powerful.
I would recommend "Girl With a Pearl Earring" to anyone. Now that I've read the novel, I am very eager to see the movie version...hopefully Hollywood didn't butcher it beyond repair. :)
Rating:
Summary: Utterly fabulous
Review: The book was like new and shipped promptly...as good as Amazon.com.
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