Rating: 
Summary: Simply elegant
Review: This novel is an unusual achievement -- deeply powerful, yet told with brevity and simplicity. Griet's story takes the reader on an engrossing journey into history, flawlessly weaving a fictional account into the nuances of an artistic masterpiece. It is simple enough to be enjoyed by readers of all levels, yet sophisticated enough to haunt the imagination for days after the last chapter has been read.Yes, Griet's character can be frustrating at times -- it is difficult to observe such a bright and talented woman unquestioningly accept her subservient position in the world. My 21st-century mind railed against her servitude, her many disappointments, and the abuses she suffers (particularly her rivalry with Cornelia.) However, this was the world into which she was born. The descriptions of her day-to-day life, the markets, religious practices, and social customs opened my eyes to a part of history I'd never before explored. How sad that some reviewers missed the richness this novel achieves without high drama, flashiness or explicit sexuality. Ms. Chevalier elevates subtlety to an art form. Much like a fine painting, it is best appreciated by those with open mind, a vivid imagination, and a willingness to be transported to another place and time. I would highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: this is NOT a book about Vermeer!
Review: I hate to have to say this right off the bat, but this book is not a story about Vermeer. It is the story of a maid in his house and her relationships and struggles with the new world she has been forced into. It is also not a fast paced shoot-em-up of a novel. This should be fairly obvious from the dust jacket, but apparently not, given some of the recent reviews this novel has received. All ranting against the "it didn't go boom" crowd aside, this is an enjoyable and quick read about how Griet, a sixteen year old girl, forced through bad fortune to become a servant, survives and changes during her stay with the family of the famed painter Vermeer. After Griet's father loses his eyesight in a kiln accident, she must become a servant in order to help her family survive. She quickly finds herself thrown into a foreign world; she is beset with problems on all sides from an unfamiliar religion to a mistress who hates her, a master who demands much of her working time and energy and a patron who lusts after her. Her plight is best summed up by the words of the butcher's son: "You're getting caught where you should not be, Griet... Theirs is not your world." As I said, this is a quick read and is highly enjoyable and well written. The author, Chevalier, uses language beautifully and paints a deft portrait of life in the 16th century herself. It's an interesting story behind a famous painting. Give it a try!
Rating:
Summary: A pearl to me.
Review: Enjoyable. Eloquent. A thoroughly enjoyable read. Griet is a girl with values. Knows her place but does what is necessary for her family. Well-developed characters. Some you love to hate. Tracy Chevalier's description of everyday life back in the late 1600's is as clear as if she were there. Is this the true story behind Vermeer's painting of the same name? Whatever your age, it's an enjoyable novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Waiting for something important to happen
Review: The book is very well written. However, I went through the entire book waiting for something to happen. While most of the characters were very well developed, the character of the artist was not. I was hoping to get a better understanding of his position and feelings, but nothing. I actually felt the book was pretty boring. I am enjoying the Girl in Hyancith Blue much more.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing story!
Review: Tracy Chevalier eloquently conveys the richness and rustics of everyday life back in the mid-1600's to a piece of paper. This book sent shivers down my spine. Griet, is an amazing character, full of spunk and confidence, and is the subject of one of Vermeer's most celebrated paintings. This book truley is a gem, and whatever your age, its an amazing novel.
Rating:
Summary: quiet elegance
Review: This is a beautifully told story. It explores the complications and private motivations in the heart and home of the painter Vermeer. We are privy to the interior world of the artist through the eyes of a young maid. Her relationship with the painter and his capacity to "see" her and the world around him are a fascinating study in human perception. He uses a box to transpose the image of the girl and to allow him to experience the world in a different way and thereby paint with a different vision. The family around him is turning upside down while he hides under the cover of the black box. The placement of this gentle story on the best seller list is a reaffirmation of humanity's need for mystery. The slow revelation of the characters to the reader mirrors the experience of visually absorbing a great work of art. We stand and stare until we see what we perceive to be the true message behind the painting.
Rating:
Summary: Sophisticated yet highly readable
Review: I was very surprised to see a negative review of this book. The review suggested that this book lacked momentum. This book, indeed, is far more than a simple, unfolding plot. This is a book with rich characters and rich description of the Dutch society, culture and scenery of 17th century. While the very romantic story-line is subtle in many ways, it is the more meaningful for it and held me spellbound over the day and a half over which I read it. I read "Tulip Fever" (by Moggach) immediately afterwards, in the hopes that it would be a repeat of Chevalier's book. It's story-line and characters seemed so simplistic and formulaic in comparison to "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and left me very disappointed. "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is really a treasure.
Rating:
Summary: A simple treasure
Review: Have you ever looked at a portrait and wonder about the artist or the subject? Well, Girl With a Pearl Earring magically does this for you by telling the story of Griet and Vermeer. Griet is a very young girl sent to be a maid for Vermeer when her father lost his sight in an accident and could no longer provide for the family. Upon arriving at the Vermeer home Greit is instantly troubled by the family and especially Cornelia (one of many children in the household). She is torn between this man that she is drawn to and what she knows is right. Take a step inside a painting a read this book. You will not be sorry.
Rating: 
Summary: What's all the fuss
Review: I was dissapointed in this novel. From the hype I was expecting to be transported to 17th C. Holland, and to understand more about the great painter Vermer. Wrong. Nothing happens, no insight, no layers of meaning. Perhaps a good children's book--but really, what is the fuss!
Rating:
Summary: Slow Going, But Worth the Effort
Review: "Girl" doesn't exactly qualify as compelling fiction. It moves along at its own quiet pace, threatening stagnation at times. Chevalier's prosaic, spare style actually suits the subject matter quite well, however. It reflects Dutch society of the period, which was not about "flash," to put it mildly. The author does a superior job of depicting the straight-laced, mercantile society of late-Rennaissance Delft. She is also shrewd in her decision to focus on the barter system, the spring which provided movement to the social mechanism throughout Holland. Griet metes out small sexual favors to the butcher, Pieter, for instance, in exchange for information about her family, who have been quarantined due to an outbreak of the plague. Vermeer's mother-in-law, Maria Thins, acts as the artist's agent as well as the head of the household. She is interested primarily in the money a particular painting will bring in, rather the aesthetic result. There are some problem areas with the narrative. The chief being a matter of "willing suspension of disbelief." Griet, the narrator, at one point informs us that she can barely sign her name and that she is illiterate. At no point in the novel does she relate how she came by the ability to write her story down, and given the nature of her position later in life, it would beg credulity to see how she could have taught herself to read and write. This could easily be dismissed as artistic license, but Griet's own standards are so precise and exacting, that the flaw seems more glaring in context. One other minor negative is stylistic. Chevalier is at her best when she sticks to the straightforward prose that predominates here. Sometimes, however, she allows Griet a rhetorical flight into poetry land and the result borders on the risible, as when she mentions the smell?/sound? of a particular brick mortar. The editor just missed that one, apparently. On the whole, however, this novel is extremely well-written and Chevalier is particularly adept at delineating period and character.
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