Rating: 
Summary: Tulips, Dutch art, and romance
Review:
The story is about a young woman married to a much older man, a solid Amsterdam merchant. As was common, he commissions their portrait, and, inevitably, Sophia and Jan, the painter, fall in love and begin an adulterous affair. At the same time, the maid Maria becomes pregnant. Sophia comes up with a plan that will allow her to be with her lover. (I won't give it away - you'll have to read it.) But it takes money. And so they get caught up in Tulipmania.
Moggach does an excellent job of bringing 1630's Amsterdam to life. These are the people in Rembrandt's and Vermeer's paintings, in the flesh.
It's an interestingly constructed book as well. The chapters are short, each being told through the eyes of a different character.
The last few chapters seem, in some ways, to be tacked on, as though the author felt, "I must decide what happens to everyone and tell my readers." No loose ends here.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Cornelis!!
Review: "Tulip Fever" is a book that begs to be reviewed about using phrases like "torrid affair" and "grand deception." Told from the different viewpoints of the characters, the reader quickly realizes everyone is doomed. This is a wholly predictable read -- even the epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter are telling. Also, it has a "Wings Of A Dove" feel to it -- you cannot believe at what lengths these characters will go to in order to get what they want. Ultimately, this is a story that is in the same vein as Tracy Chevalier's "Girl With A Pearl Earring" and Susan Vreeland's "Girl In Hyacinth Blue," the difference being "Tulip Fever" is a much lighter read (I hesitate to label it a "Romance," but...). The descriptions about life in Amsterdam during this time period are interesting and the "tulip fever" that infected so many of its citizens is a clever backdrop -- it mirrors the frenzy of Sophia and Jan's actions brilliantly. This is a great book for those who enjoy historical fiction or are looking for a quick, easy read about a doomed love affair.
Rating:
Summary: Poor Cornelis!!
Review: "Tulip Fever" is a book that begs to be reviewed about using phrases like "torrid affair" and "grand deception." Told from the different viewpoints of the characters, the reader quickly realizes everyone is doomed. This is a wholly predictable read -- even the epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter are telling. Also, it has a "Wings Of A Dove" feel to it -- you cannot believe at what lengths these characters will go to in order to get what they want. Ultimately, this is a story that is in the same vein as Tracy Chevalier's "Girl With A Pearl Earring" and Susan Vreeland's "Girl In Hyacinth Blue," the difference being "Tulip Fever" is a much lighter read (I hesitate to label it a "Romance," but...). The descriptions about life in Amsterdam during this time period are interesting and the "tulip fever" that infected so many of its citizens is a clever backdrop -- it mirrors the frenzy of Sophia and Jan's actions brilliantly. This is a great book for those who enjoy historical fiction or are looking for a quick, easy read about a doomed love affair.
Rating:
Summary: Dutch Schlock
Review: "Tulip Fever" is an entertaining beach read smartened up with the gloss of 17th century Dutch art and history. The plot stretches credulity and it's main character, Sophia is loathsome. The only likeable character in the book is Cornelius. I pitied him for being enthralled by his vacuous young wife."The Girl With a Pearl Earring" is a much better book.
Rating:
Summary: 17th Century Soap Opera
Review: "Tulip Fever" was bit too soap-opery for my taste, complete with a faked death and switched-at-birth baby. Even those somewhat over the top touches, however, could have been pulled off if the rest of the plot were less bodice-ripping, swooning-in-her-lover's-arms, torn-between-two-worlds melodramatic. The basic story is, well, basic: Pretty younger wife married to old but rich husband falls in love with talented yet penniless painter. Ah, chuckles Benevolent Yet Oblivious Hubby, kids these days, with their heaving bosoms and trembling lips! Let me invite Hot Young Artist back into my home again and again, since it amuses my Modest and Demure Young Wife so! Let me rejoice when Young Wife suddenly, after years of barrenness, becomes conveniently pregnant! You can see how this becomes tiresome after awhile. Do we sympathize with poor Sophia, stuck in her marriage with a man she doesn't love while her lover awaits her in a seedy apartment in the Jordaan slums? Sure. Can we appreciate her pluck when she devises several implausible, "that's so crazy it just might work" schemes in order to keep up with her mounting indiscretions? OK. Do we want to beat all three (four, if you count the maid who ends up becoming entangled in the whole mess) of them upside the head and tell them to get a clue? You bet. The twist at the end, which brings the whole house of cards crashing down, is the best part of the whole book. I laughed aloud, then felt a little guilty about it, then shrugged and settled back in with a smirk on my face. Schadenfreude is a wonderful thing. Tulip Fever was a very real phenomena in 17th century Holland, akin to the Internet bubble of the 90s. When the market crashed, countless people lost everything. The ups and downs of the tulip craze were, in my opinion, quite exciting and dramatic enough, without turning them into a deus ex machina in a morality play. Too complicated to be beach reading, too bosom-heaving to be serious historical fiction. Too bad.
Rating:
Summary: Decent...
Review: *Tulip Fever* is a fantastically quick read, set in mid-1600's Amsterdam. Tulips, originating in Turkey, have found their way to Amsterdam, where men and women alike catch the fever of growing, selling and trading these precious bulbs. In the midst of the excitement, Cornelis and Sophia Sandvoort, ask a local painter by the name of Jan to paint their portrait. Sophia had been unable to bear children for Cornelis, and he saw this as his one method for achieving immortality. Meanwhile, the Sandvoort's maid, Maria, has fallen in love with Willem, who sells fish door-to-door, and they are about to embark on a new life together. At the moment that Jan enters the Sandvoort home, everything changes for the five main characters. Deception, infidelity and lies permeate the household. The results cannot be undone, but forgiveness and healing must begin for everyone. Overall, an easy read and fairly enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Nifty Historical Small Gem- Travel to 1630's Holland...
Review: ...On a Time Machine. You've got a rogue of a lover with an old master art talent,a naive and sentimental young housewife married to an old bore of a husband (shades of ANNA KARENINA),some vivid desciptions of Dutch life way back when,the floods,wars, day to day affairs, religious friction,and generally crisp on the mark prose, that would make any aspiring author green with envy. Plus a roller coaster ride in the tulip craze of the time (update "dot-com" craze.) How can you beat it? Not easy! If you're a gardener,and especially a tulip buff,this is even better. It's obvious Ms. Moggach has done her homework,and has a sense humor too.!
Rating: 
Summary: Tulip Fever
Review: Admittedly, I did not get beyond page 27, but this is a Harlequin romance in disguise. The offensive sexual content was enough to make me stop reading (at page 27 no less). This was recommended to me because I also bought Artemisia, which is an excellent read. The two couldn't be more different. Artemisia actually told a story, but the plot in Tulip Fever took a back seat to the sexual exploits of the book's main characters. Don't be fooled by packaging or other reviews. If you like romance novels, this is for you. If not, you will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Will Make a Great Cinematic Character Study
Review: After listening to "Girl With a Pearl Earring" on audio cassette, I admit to wanting more of the Delft scene of the 17th century. Amazon's recommendations pointed me to this little novel written by Deborah Moggach, and although very different from Chevalier's work, that creates an imagined scenario from the emotional impact procured from the view of a noted masterpiece, "Tulip Fever" successfully depicts the Delft of the Grand Masters as it relates the controversy of doomed love and ironic circumstance so admirably executed in the works of O. Henry and Wm. Shakespeare.
Sofia, a young girl forced to marry much older widower, Cornelis, because of the impoverished state of her family, falls deeply in love with painter Jan when he comes to their home to paint the couples' portrait. Always priding herself on her practical sensibilities, Sofia finds herself swept away and suddenly willing to do the unthinkable. Amidst a backdrop of wild tulip bulb speculation, Jan and Sofia gamble on their love as their thoughtless and inflamed actions swirl out of control and influence everyone that touches their lives.
This novel provides a quick read urged forward by short chapters narrated by different character voices---even the painting has its own moments in the reader's spotlight. I highlight the sub-story of Sofia's maid servant and her hapless fisherman lover as almost enjoyable as the main storyline.
This fast and pleasant reading experience that contains some predictable and unexpected moments should make even a better full length motion picture with Jude Law playing Jan and Keira Knightly as Sofia. The scene of the Tulip marketplace should be exciting and as memorable as the twist ending. Not as compelling or introspective a read as Girl With a Pearl Earring, but good just the same.
Rating:
Summary: Lust, greed, envy, jealousy etc. etc.
Review: all come to play in this tale of Holland in the 1600's. Of the five main characters there is not one who does not have all of these failings. Cornelis, old and seeking an heir, is married to Sophia, young and seeking nothing in her hundrun existence, until that is, Cornelis commissions a portrait by Jan Van der Loos. Passions rise as the painter and mistress of the house lock eyes across the canvass. Thus begin the trysts and deceptions.
Meanwhile, the maid, robust and jolly Maria, and the equally passionate Willem are getting cozy in the back room of the kitchen and subsequently planning their marriage and family life with their imagined children.In the background tulip fever rages and fortunes are made and lost in the blink of an eye. How these five lives become entangled in an almost unbelieveable series of events is interesting, but not compelling. The situations seemed too ludicrous to me but I enjoyed nonetheless as a light read and I do commend the writer for her style and her wonderful descriptions of the town and life style of the times...the story line is what I found wanting. If you read this first and then GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING, I am sure you will enjoy both.
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