Rating: 
Summary: work of art
Review: I loved this book! The painting on the cover of the book caught my attention and I could not stop reading. Griet was wonderful! The story read like a painting. Just as Vermeer's work looks like photographs of daily life. When I finished this book I felt like i had lived in that time and place also. And under different circumstances, Griet could hve been a great painter also!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This book takes you back in time seamlessly, without the reader needing a moment's pause to understand the differences in setting or social status. It's as if it is the world we have lived in our entire lives; the simplicity of it gleams from the writing to the characterization of Griet herself. Before you know it, you are as taken with her as everyone else. Her simplicity reveals more than had she screamed. This is a wonderful read, unfortunately, I could not put it down and was done in an hour. It reminded me of the recent best seller "Memoirs of a Geisha."
Rating:
Summary: Marvelous!
Review: I couldn't disagree more with the other reviewer, who says that it was difficult to listen to this because the reader's voice sounds so old. On the contrary, Ms Phimister does a spectacular job. I don't think the age of the reader matters (not that she sounded THAT much older than Griet would) as much as the emotions and inflections carried by her voice. She is a great story-teller, and I was quickly engrossed. In fact, I did not imagine that anyone would have a problem with her voice until I happened upon that negative review. If you keep an open mind and have a bit of imagination, you will enjoy this performance as wholeheartedly as I did.
Rating: 
Summary: DULL
Review: What a great concept--taking a breathtakingly beautiful painting and giving it life! I couldn't wait to read about this lovely girl with the pearl earring. What a disappointment, what a bore!Much has been written about the author's portayal of a 17th century Dutch household. True, there's historical information that's interesting, but it was like reading non-fiction, not a novel with well-developed characters and an intriquing story. The prose was tedious, the style undistinguished. Nothing about the book really drew me in, except the cover--I found myself looking back often, gazing upon that beautiful face and wondering what really was behind the pearl earring. Maybe there's a book in it.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read!
Review: This novel is wonderful for anyone, but especially appealing for those of us who are in book discussion clubs. The novel is open for personal interpretation on many levels. Ms. Chevalier's presentation of life in a very difficult time is tempered with one girl's strong sense of identity even as she responds to duty imposed by family hardship. There are many levels to this story, and while Griet is the main focus, the fear of Vermeer's wife and her insecurities about her place in her husband's priorities are very interesting, as is the character Vermeer himself. A wonderful novel!
Rating:
Summary: The beauty of Vermeer's paintng inspired a beautiful story.
Review: I didn't know much about Jan Vermeer, except that he was a Dutch painter. Based on Vermeer's painting "The Girl With a Pearl Earring", the book is a fictional first hand account of that girl, who the author invents as a maid turned muse in the Vermeer household. There are enough facts to stir up interest, for me at least, in the works and life of the painter. The story told by the maid, Griet, speaks of the 1600's where Catholicism was suspect, the plague caused many deaths,and food was scarce. You also glimpse the technology of the times; the camera obscura, the boats with swolen holds in the harbor, the mixing of herbs at home for medicine, and the use of various plants and bones to make paint. I think that Chevalier was inspired by Vermeer's use of light and shadow, and has researched this period, plus whatever scant personal information exists about the artist,and has written a beautiful, insightful, well thought out book. It is as rich in color and light as the painter's work. I loved "Galileo's Daughter", for much the same reasons as I love this book. When I think of the 1600's, I have a hazy view of that period of great artisans, a crippling lack of technology, cold and damp houses. I am always delighted to read about micro perspectives of that time that deliver me from this sort of hazy macro collage I have of the past.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Reading
Review: This book compels you to read on and on to reach the end. The descriptive passages in the book make you feel as if you were there. There are definite characteristics from each character that you would find in your family, friends, and acquaintances. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Bland, Colorless Encounter with Vermeer
Review: Chevalier has painted Vermeer's world, but has forgotten to make it interesting. We enter Vermeer's world through the first-person narrative of Griet, a young sixteen-year old maid. In typical Cinderalla-like fashion, Griet is hated by Vermeer's wife and daughter, Cornelia. Griet, pious and beautiful, maintains her place in the home, gaining the attentions of the male characters. Chevalier tells rather than shows, breaking the first rule of good writing. In addition, her prose is amateurish: simplistic and syntactically dull. Perhaps Chevalier should have spent less time including as many socio-historical tidbits as possible and focused on developing the characters . . . . and the plot.
Rating: 
Summary: Hey, i actually enjoyed a book
Review: Okay, so I'm a seventeen year old girl which is pretty much an assurance that I don't spend my free time reading. The weather was horrible yesterday so I got this book out of the library. The beauty of it was that it wasn't written from the point of view of someone that was so much over my head that I was forced to reread sentences. The novel is narrated my Griet who begins that book as a 16 year old. I also enjoyed the author's imagery due to the fact that after spending a year in AP english it is hard to read a book and not invision the actions of the characters. Tracy Chevalier describes everything in such vibrant imagery that the reader is forced to produce a mental picture. I really don't know what else to say. I really only picked up the book because I had seen it over 2 years ago in Seventeen Magazine. I think the beauty of the book is that you do not have to be a sixteen year old girl to appreciate the actions of the characters. I was also intrigued by the fact that Chevalier based a whole novel around one painting. It is a wonderful premise and the novel does not disappoint.
Rating:
Summary: A LOVELY BOOK
Review: Some books seem to improve one in the best of ways. Girl With A Pearl Earring is one such. Besides feeling that I've experienced a perfectly authentic view of the era and an enhanced appreciation of the picture, I feel a sense of being better for having been in the heroine's company during my reading of the novel. Of absolution, almost. What a lovely book.
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