Girl with a Pearl Earring

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Summary: This is one of my favorite this year!
Review: I couldn't stop reading this book! Everywhere I went I had to read a chapter.. I stayed up a few long nights to finish it during finals. I loved the art and the historical fiction surrounding another Vermeer. This is a very cleverly written book I will read again and again!

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Summary: Great Summer reading
Review: I read this book during a road trip. It was enjoyable reading for a summer vaction.

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Summary: Great story and quick reading
Review: This book has likable characters and an interesting plot that keeps you intrigued until the end. The reading is very quick and entertaining. Perfect for a hot summer day.

Rating:
Summary: unimpressed
Review: I was so excited to read this book--every time I saw it in the book store I thought..this is the next one! However, upon finishing the novel I am left with a sense of longing for a deeper, more richly worded novel, and a plot that does not leave one hanging on for more. The plot is too simple and ends with little to no resolution. Griet realizes very little about herself, and we are left not liking or especially disliking Vermeer. One would like to cultivate a reader's relationship with him as well. I wanted much more in this novel.

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Summary: A Look Behind the Canvas
Review: Rather than discussing the techniques of Vermeer this book portrayed what Dutch life was like during Vermeer's life. I found it an interesting and refreshing way to introduce the times and circumstances for that particular period, with a good description of how paint colors were mixed as well as some insight into how Vermeer may have actually worked when he was creating. All in all, a delight to read.

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Summary: Chevalier suggest women's fate is in the hands of men.
Review: Girl with a Pearl Earring

This novel is reminiscent of the equally popular "Memoirs of a Geisha". The theme of both books is that beautiful women, especially of an earlier age, are not in control of their destiny with regards to men. Henry James said exactly that in "Portrait of a Lady".

In the case of "The Girl with the Pearl Earring", the maid Griet, her beauty attracts the interest of powerful men-in this case the painter Vermeer and his patron. Tracy Chevalier, the author, gives us clues that their interest is dangerous and could lead to tragedy. When a gentleman fondles a maid in 1665 the maid cannot offer much resistance owing to her low status in life. More likely than not, as with Fantine in "Les Miserables", it is the maiden who is cast into trouble.

The beauty of this novel, for a male reader like myself, is that is draws you into the perilous existence inhabited by young women. Prior to this I always thought young women like Griet were just glittering beauties sailing easily through life on their good looks. It's kind of like reading the diary of a teenage girl-highly guarded and something to which one would not normally be privvy.

This novel is erotic too, but in a 17th century demure sort of way. Griet, we learn, is loath to let her full head of hair be seen by any man and she would never been seen with her lips held open. When she is intruded upon with her long mane of hair freely unfurled the reader's heart flutters and it must have for the young girl. And when she moistens her lips and holds them open at the request of the portrait painter Vermeer we are absolutely aghast and tingling with erotic excitement.

The other theme of this novel is the brutality of being poor and female in earlier ages. This is much like "Memoirs of a Geisha" where the two sisters are pushed into the business of entertaining men by their impoverished family. Griet is pushed into working as a maid because her family is poor as well. The women who work as maids of geishas have a brutal pecking order and are quite cruel to one another. An unattractive woman in the Geisha household is call "Pumpkin" because that is the shape of her head. Griet undergoes similar cruelty by Vermeer's children and the other maids in the large house.

For me, the most thrilling parts of the novel are where the young maid Griet is allowed to go into Vermeer's studio. This creates much jealously in the Vermeer household--not even the painter's wife is allowed into the room where the master creates his masterpieces. This is what is meant by the book jacket blurb that she is "drawn into an artistic wakening". Griet learns the subtlety of light, how to grind various potions from the apotheracy into vivid blues and reds, and the way a painting is made. It is assembled not by drawing an initial outline as one would imagine. Rather layer upon layer of color blotches are laid down until the final form takes place.

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Summary: A POTRAIT OF A SELFISH MAN
Review: The style of writing itself is excellent, don't get me wrong, it's just that I found the artist Vermeer's depiction totally unsympathetic, his wife a crass, much put-upoun harridan, and the girl Griet although supposedly quite clever, in the end a simpleton about the way of the world in which she lived. This book does absolutely nothing good for the artist Vermeer's charachter, portraying him as weak, vain, and insensitive, especially towards his wife, who although a bit silly, in my opinion deserved much better than what was handed out to her.....reading books like these always leave me with a sense of injustice, and quite frankly, for that I can just pick up a newspaper.

Rating:
Summary: a wonderful read!
Review: This book was one I kept contemplating reading for several weeks. I finally picked it up and am I glad I did! As an art lover, it gives you an inside look on the tecnique of making paints and who sat for artists in those days. But even if you dont enjoy art, its a fabulous and exciting story. Grete is full of gumption...rare for a maid in those days. As a reader, you can only love her. Its good till the very last page! One of my top 5 reads.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful cover, average story
Review: I love Vermeer's paintings and traveled with a friend to Washington, D.C. to see his show at the Corcoran a few years ago. I was looking forward to reading a rich novel about this painting and was quite disappointed by the writing. I thought the premise was clever, giving life to who the girl in the painting was and using that as a springboard for the story about Vermeer, his life, his family, and life during that period of time. Tracy Chevalier's writing felt stilted, the characters were not fully developed, and I was left wondering why I had read it at all. I would have been happier had I been able to give this a higher rating because I really wanted to. Alas, it fell short.

Rating:
Summary: Good but not enough
Review: I bought this book after catching a few words on the biograghy of this famouse painter Vermeer. I wanted to learn more on this whole pearl earring thing. This book was so good I didnt want to finish it and that is why I give it a 4 out of 5. It ended too quickly as if the author gave up or ran out of ideas. It was a good read, but not enough to make me happy.