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Girl with a Pearl Earring
by Tracy Chevalier
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780452282155 |
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Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Tracy Chevalier transports readers to a bygone time and place in this richly imagined portrait of the young woman who inspired one of Vermeer's most celebrated paintings.
History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius...even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil.
Review:
"Outstanding." USA Today
Review:
"The richest, most rewarding novel I have read this year." The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Review:
"Tracy Chevalier has so vividly imagined the life of the painter and his subject that you say to yourself: This is the way it must have been." The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Review:
"A jewel of a novel." The Miami Herald
Review:
"[A] completely absorbing story with enough historical authenticity and artistic intuition to mark Chevalier as a talented newcomer to the literary scene." Publishers Weekly
Review:
"A vibrant, sumptuous novel...triumphant...a beautifully written tale that mirrors the elegance of the painting that inspired it." The Wall Street Journal
Review:
"Absorbing....Chevalier's writing skill and her knowledge of seventeenth-century Delft are such that she creates a world reminiscent of a Vermeer interior: suspended in a particular moment, it transcends its time and place." The New Yorker
Review:
"Another small and Vermeer-inspired treasure." Kirkus Reviews
Review:
"Girl With a Pearl Earring is an engaging fictionalization.....The reader thinks, Yes, Chevalier got it right — that was the story hidden behind those eyes, silent for centuries." The San Francisco Chronicle
Review:
"Chevalier's imagination adds life to an already brilliant painting in this elegantely developed and beautifully written novel." Denise Kersten, USA Today
Review:
"Tracey Chevalier has written a vibrant, sumptuous novel about the enigmatic subject of a painting....It is a beautifully written tale that mirrors the elegance of the painting that inspired it." Katie Flatley, The Wall Street Journal
Review:
"With wonderfilly effective restraint, Chevalier captures the glances and brief comments that gradually lead Griet into her master's studio, his painting, and finally his heart." Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor
About the Author
Raised in Washington, D.C., Tracy Chevalier moved to England in 1984, and in 1994 graduated from the M.A. course in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Her first novel, The Virgin Blue, was chosen by W. H. Smith for its Fresh Talent promotion in 1997. She lives in London with her husband and son.
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 4 comments:
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Jeane, March 16, 2008 (view all comments by Jeane)
A fictional account of Johannes Vermeer's household, told through the eyes of a young maid, Griet. Vermeer puts her to work in his private studio, cleaning and doing rudimentary preparations for his paintings (like grinding pigments). The continual mundane labor of Griet's days is described in a slow, poetic fashion against building emotional friction in the household. Griet alone is privledged to enter the master's sacrosanct studio, and pretty enough that one day Vermeer asks her to pose for him. Eventually the novel builds into a tense household drama and scandal, over the painting of one of Vermeer's most famous portraits.
Griet is something of an anomaly. She is very quiet, observant, and hardworking, but also (for an uneducated maid) surprisingly outspoken and forward-thinking. Much of the book is about the slow awakening of her intellect and spirit. My only complaint is the lack of illustrations; I would have liked to see the paintings as I read about them.
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zapper9327, October 6, 2007 (view all comments by zapper9327)
This is the best historical novel I have ever read.
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stevenlight, August 18, 2006 (view all comments by stevenlight)
This gifted author weaves a mesmerizing tale around Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer's most famous painting, creating an incandescent and luminous work of her own. His painting is a simple, though enigmatic, portrait of a girl with a pearl earring, about which little is known. The author, however, a born storyteller, creates a living, breathing story around it, using a singular, first person narrative. Told in spare, elegant prose, the author leaps into literary renown with this book.
The events in the book are viewed through the eyes of Griet, a sixteen year old Dutch girl, whose changed family circumstances force her into taking a position as a maid in the home of a renowned painter, the taciturn Johannes Vermeer. There, the painter resides with his tempestuous wife, Catharina, their brood of unruly children, his commanding and shrewd mother-in-law, Maria Thins, and their loyal housekeeper and cook, Tanneke. The author lovingly details seventeenth century life in the Dutch city of Delft. It is here that Griet's story unfolds.
Sensitive and perceptive, Griet is attuned to the under currents in the Vermeer household and, at first, takes care not to draw attention to herself. Still, she, the daughter of a tile painter, is curious about Vermeer's artistry and is drawn to his work and his methods. Vermeer, sensing a kindred artistic spirit in Griet, draws her into his world of paint, color, light, and beauty, creating an intimacy of the spirit between the two.
Still, Griet, a girl on the brink of becoming a woman, finds herself confused and breathlessly desiring more than she may have. Her longing for more than a communion of the spirit with Vermeer is palpable. It is, therefore, not surprising that the undercurrents in the Vermeer household should come bubbling to the surface and engulf Griet, much to her consternation.
This is a stunning literary work that fully realizes the promise that the author showed in her debut novel, "The Virgin Blue". She is an author that understands the less is often more, and she makes every word count. Deliberate and spare, her prose is lyrical in its simplicity, weaving a tale that will keep the reader spellbound. This is historical fiction at its finest.
Also recommended: Conversation with Spinoza by Goce Smilevski, In the Company of the Courtesan
by Sarah Dunant.
View all 4 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780452282155
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Plume Books
- Author:
- Location:
- New York
- Subject:
- General
- Subject:
- Literary
- Subject:
- Historical
- Subject:
- Historical - General
- Subject:
- Historical fiction
- Subject:
- Netherlands
- Subject:
- 17th century
- Subject:
- Women domestics
- Subject:
- Artists' models
- Subject:
- Biographical fiction
- Subject:
- Delft
- Copyright:
- 2001
- Series Volume:
- no. 41
- Publication Date:
- January 8, 2001
- Binding:
- Paperback
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 240
- Dimensions:
- 7.72x5.10x.60 in. .47 lbs.
