Girl with a Pearl Earring

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Girl With a Pearl Earring - Rated
Tracy Chevalier's novel "Girl With a Pearl Earring" is a story about a 16 year old girl called Griet. The narration takes place in the 17th century Delft, Holland where the head of the common protestant's family - Griet's father the tile painter looses his sight in a factory accident. Griet's parents have no choice but to send Griet to work as a maid. The girl's new employers - a famous couple - painter Johannes Vermeer and his wife come to meet her in her house where she is caught cutting vegetables for a soup. The way she arranges little cubes according to colours attracts painter's attention. Soon Griet moves to the couple's house where she is shocked by the Catholic paintings of Biblical scenes and feels rather uncomfortable. There she meets all the other family members - Vermeer's mother-in-law, five children and the old maid Tanneke. There she does her everyday chores quietly and with her cap on her face so that none of the hair would be visible and where she would hide her facial expressions from the others. However the girl is greatly excited by the works of the painter and many of her thoughts are dedicated to him. In the household she is not liked by everyone - Vermeer's wife Catherine and her 6 year old daughter Cornelia seem to try and make Griet's life a bit harder. The family, however, struggles with money and Vermeer is forced to paint what his patron - the wealthy van Ruijven wants. Becoming a woman, Griet meets up with the attention of the three men - butcher's son, van Ruijven and that of the painter. Eventually Griet becomes Vermeer's assistant and helps him make the paints and clean the studio. After painting many women, standing alone in different shades of light Vermeer spontaneously paints Griet with his wife's pearl earrings...The painting ends up to be scandalous and Griet leaves the Vermeer's house forever.
Tracy Chevalier's novel "Girl With a Pearl Earring" is a fantastic work which owns exactly the same atmosphere which one would feel watching at the Vermeer's painting. The 17th century Delft, the guild, paintings in the Town Hall, the markets and people, butchers and maids, children playing in the market square - everything is so real and alive. I loved the way the novel was written and the story itself. All the characters were very real and believable, so the reader can attach to them rather easily. The novel is said to be inspired by the Vermeer's most famous painting - "Girl With a Pearl Earring" which has raised a lot of questions about who the girl was and why did she pose for the painter. Also, why hasn't the painting been sold for so long. The author's mission here seems to be to go back into the 17th century Holland, into the studio of Vermeer and bring back to life the mysterious girl who inspired Vermeer to paint such a successful painting.
Highly recommended.

Captivating Read - Rated
Having never read anything before by Tracy Chevalier I was suitably impressed with this. As I got more and more into the story I couldn't put it down! What's odd about this book (but fantastic as well) is that Ms Chavalier uses minimal language to describe people and scenes but yet it's enough to evoke strong images in your mind of what the people, the setting and the era must have been like. It's quite refreshing to read an author who can describe something to the reader in only a few words. I came away from this very impressed with Ms Chevalier's command of writing and intend to read more of her work to see if they are all as good as this!

Austere Light - Rated
Vermeer's portrait of the Girl with a Pearl Earring suggests a subtle unspoken communication between the girl and viewer. This masterpiece tells of knowing glances and unspoken understandings.

Chevallier's novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring, is the literary analogy. She describes with exquisite sensitivity, and yet with the minimalism one might expect of Hemmingway, the ambiance of a Dutch society where stoic restraint dictates silence, and where social control is achieved with knowing glances and unspoken understandings. She describes perfectly this country were even the Catholics are Protestant in their severity. And yet one where the deepest affections shine through the austere light.

A SPELLBINDING NOVEL... - Rated
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. Bravo!

A maid's life in 17th century Holland - Rated
The audio cassette version of Girl With a Pearl Earring:

The fictional story behind Vermeer's famous painting revolves around sixteen-year old Griet, who becomes a maid in the artist's home to help her struggling family. She is a quiet, intelligent girl, fully aware of her rather helpless situation: She must do the hardest work from morning til night without sympathy or kindness in the cold house. She does, however, greatly admire the elusive Vermeer, and to her shock and secret joy, he asks her one day to be his model for a painting. She must also contend with the unwanted attentions of Vermeer's wealthy patron, and is unsure of her feelings for the amorous young butcher.

Since the uneducated Griet is the story's narrator, author Chevalier has written in a very simple, uncluttered style: There are virtually no compound sentences, few adjectives, and even fewer words describing emotions. This is because Griet's lot in life is to serve; it makes no difference how she feels about people, events, or tasks, so she doesn't dwell on them.

Griet never refers to Vermeer by name; he is always "The Master," or simply "Him." While a bit of an affectation on the part of the author, it reflects Griet's view of him as bigger than life; godlike. She never puts into words her feelings for him, nor does he for her; indeed people at that time kept their thoughts to themselves. We learn little about Vermeer, except that he took scant notice of his homelife, which was rife with conflict between the mistress, servants, and children. The last chapter was the most intense and was indeed a satisfying end to Griet's story.

Narrator Ruth Ann Phimister's voice is low and sounds too mature to be speaking the words of a sixteen-year old. However, she does convey Griet's pluckiness as well as her constant fatigue. While we don't learn about Vermeer, the story does gives us a glimpse into Dutch society in 1665. It is a quiet story.