Rating: 
Summary: It was half and half.......
Review: One half of me liked this book, I enjoyed reading about his paintings and the time in which they were painted.The other half was waiting and hoping for something to happen between Vermeer and the maid- it was totally left off- like
"what was that" - I agree with one of the comments made earlier,
I would recommend this to a young girl- she would enjoy it. Disappointed from ALL the hype!!
Rating: 
Summary: Girl With a Pearl Earring
Review: This should be considered a classic. It gives insight into the desires and disappointments we all have to face in our life. Even one innocent choice can lead to disaster and unhappiness for ourself and others, who may be unaware of our choice.
Rating:
Summary: This book took me into a world I would never have known.
Review: Although classified as a fiction, Girl With A Pearl Earring, exposed me to 17th century Holland and the fine details of Chevalier's people's lives. The book was interesting, the characters captivating, the settings mesmerizing, and the prose was simply lyrical. Once I started, I could not stop! Thank you Ms. Chevalier!
Rating: 
Summary: Charming if Unchallenging Read
Review: As has been noted by other reviewers, this is not a book that is going to be well-loved by scholars of Vermeer. It is purely a fictional tale. But it is a quite delightful fictional tale that I found to be a very pleasant and quite interesting read. It is the story of an impoverished girl who is sent to be a lowly maid in the Vermeer household in the mid 1600s. Her interaction with the master, whilst quite innocent, is a catalyst for suspicion and jealousy amongst other members of the household, both above and below stairs. Much of her time is spent treading carefully as rumours of her relationship with Vermeer spread throughout the house and the entire town. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I am sure others will too so long as they don't try to make it into anything more serious.
Rating:
Summary: not worth reading for what it claims to be
Review: I didn't like the writer's style at all--she tries to make every word very colorful and to play with your imagination and does it very poorly: every sentence is a hoard of images and a poor blend, too. She would say something like this: "her eyes were as blue as a sky in the mid afternoon,when the rain has just ended and the little pink and white clouds are running by like young horses." (I'm exagerrating,but you get the idea).
You do get some feeling from this book about the life in Delft in Vermeer's times but the story fails to give you any idea about where the artist drew his inspiration. Everything revolves around this fiction character of a girl and it doesn't build characters ---everyone in the book is either good or bad.
Rating: 
Summary: Girl with the Pearl Earrings
Review: The style of writing in this novel was appropriate for a ten year old girl who is just beginning to read novels. I would not recommend this for adults.
Rating:
Summary: Something is missing
Review: This is the first book I have read by Chevalier. I didn't love it, but I'm glad I read it. Parts of it were very good, such as the description of what life was like in the 17th century, how things were done, how life was seen through a painter's eyes, how families lived, etc... Others were dull and tedious to read, but I won't go into that. The main character, Griet, is a 16 year old girl, who is "forced" to work as a maid for Vermeer, a very famous painter. She is very bright, and she has the ability to know exactly what everyone thinks about her, feel when someone is behind her and when she is being looked at, know exactly what people want from her, and even make changes that make paintings perfect, which makes her very unbelievable, but, apart from that, she is likable and you do find yourself in her shoes from time to time. The storyline is simple, not very elaborate, and the characters are either pure white or midnight black. The story is definetly fiction, yes, it is based on a true painting, and on the life of the artist who painted it, but so little is known about the painter's life that Chevalier really let her imagination flow when it came to the feelings and attitudes of all the characters. Finally, if you really want to read this, you will enjoy it, if you don't have very high expectations, and it is a simple easy read for a relaxed afternoon with a nice cup of coffee!
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring for Artists and Dreamers alike
Review: I could not put this book down from the second I read the opening line. As an artist, I reveled in the simple details of Vemeer's life, and could not pull myself from the window into what life was like for families in the 1700's Europe. The author writes of Griet (the subject of Vermeer's famous painting) in such a unique and versatile way, which makes her someone we all can identify with. A work of fiction written with such substance and conviction one believes this story has to have been real. This is a book for anyone who loves to read, with the slightest appreciation for the arts and history. In today's world, there's a desire to regress to a time when things seemed to be more simple, and this book displays that time nor any amount of technological advances will ever change what is essential to human life - love and family.
Rating: 
Summary: Tickles, but fails to satisfy
Review: Prior to reading this book I didn't know anything about Vemeer, so I am grateful for the introduction to this painter. The problem that I had with this novel is that it never soars above being anything but a story about a maid. How interesting could that possibly be? Yes, she's a maid for a famous painter, but if this were set in our time, how interesting would it be to read about Dan Rather's maid? She's really not even that great of a maid, as you would expect her to be engaged in more gossip. I was hoping for something a little more risque, something more along the lines of the Marquis De Sade. The story is set in 17th Century Holland afterall. In the end, you'll get several hundred pages of her describing what it is like to wash linen, dishes, and serve food and drink. Eventually things get a little frisky, with one of the painter's friends and a young butcher, but by that point the story is pretty much over. Where's the conflict, the crisis, the test of character? The story contained in this novel was not "meaty" enough for me. I was left asking "So What?"
Rating:
Summary: Interesting! I want more!
Review: I satrted this novel thinking, "How boring is this going to be?! 17th century Sweden!" I mean, I was reading it for my history class, and I knew my mother had read it for her middle-aged women book club. I am a fourteen year old girl, and once I got into Girl With a Pearl Earring, I could not put it down. I actually found it interesting! I finished it in a day, and I was embarrassed to tell my friends in school that I had enjoyed it. I went to school that Monday discoving that almost half of my class had also finished it in a day and loved it, too! So if you are looking for a historical (but VERY interesting) book, whether it be for your book club, your grandchild, or yourself, I highly suggest reading Girl With a Pearl Earring. You won't regret it, and after you finish it you'll find yourself searching amazon.com for more books similar to it (like me!).
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