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Summary: Girl with a Pearl Earring
Review: A story based only on a painter and one of his portrait paintings, Girl with a Pearl Earring, captures you into a world that can only be described as remarkable. By remarkable, I do not mean a perfect world but a very realistic world. This story is about the life of a lower class girl in the 17th Century. The main character, Griet, is in a way, forced to work as a maid for a famous artist when her father loses his eyesight and loses his job as a tile painter. The story spins a wild tale of an emotional affair that occurs between the famous painter, Vermeer and Griet. The author, Tracy Chevalier, wrote this book from Griet's point of view, which shows her interpretation of what is happening around her. As a fairly unimaginative person, I believe this book creates its own world in each one of the readers and everyone has their own understanding of it. I really think that when people read this book, they can immediately picture the whole story. I've read this book many times and again; every time I feel as if I was there throughout the story and that I really know the characters in it. New details seem to protrude and make the story even more prominent with each time I read it. Griet seems like a pretty innocent girl and quite naïve which made me think of what I would be in her situation and makes me wonder if I would be like her. The ending was the opposite of what I wanted or expected to happen. Throughout the whole story, I felt hope for Griet to get what she wanted, which mostly she didn't get but she was flexible and went with whatever came her way. She did not seem like a very emotionally strong person with feelings but she seems like she has many deep thoughts that are unexpressed. Overall, the book is extremely touching - not the actual writing of the book because it's slightly vague when it came to Griet's feelings but it's depressing when you realize that Griet felt that she had to end up in that position and she felt she needed to give up whatever she could.
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Summary: So beautiful
Review: This book is so beautifully written and paced. There's not a glitch in the entire thing. The concept is original, the dialogue believable, and the settings are hypnotic. Like Secret Life of Bees or McCrae's Bark of the Dogwood, you'll want to savor this one. Highly recommended for those who like to enjoy books like a good cup of coffee. Also recommended: Secret Life of Bees, Life of Pi, Bark of the Dogwood
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Summary: Skin deep
Review: After all the hype, this is disappointing. Lawrence Johnson's review below (dated February 8) says it all. If this book aspires to anything, it is sexual coming-of-age for the heroine. Anticipation and tension lend an erotic air, but the story never really lifts off. The bits about art and Vermeer's life may be gleaned from artbooks or biographies. It's like superior Mills & Boon romance, with its stereotypes: the downtrodden heroine, the sexy, enigmatic master, quasi-evil patrons, jealous wives/mothers/daughters. Unfortunately the narrative is limited to the single perspective of the self-satisfied Griet. But other viewpoints, such as that of her suitor, the sexy but smelly young butcher Pieter, or her antagonist, the vindictive Cornelia, would have given more light and shade.
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Summary: Stunning
Review: Just as some paintings leave you stunned and awed by their beauty, so does this book Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. I couldn't put it down. It is a beautiful story, one you will not regret having read.
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Summary: Excellent and the Best Chevalier Novel
Review: If you have read Tracy Chevalier before then start with this novel. It is her best work. The Virgin Blue is good but not as good as this book is. Wow - creating a whole story out of just looking at a painting. I can imagine how Tracy's kids bedtime stories must be - amazing is what I am thinking. Tell me a story mom and then here comes this elaborate tale.
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Summary: The Insight
Review: This book is a slow but tense novel to read. Tracy Chevalier gets the inspiration from the famous artist Vermeer for the book's title "Girl with a Pearl Earrings." Adding a fictional character, Griet, Chevalier creates scenes between the upper and lower class in the 17th century.
Griet who belongs to the lower classes of the society is a special girl with no education. She has sufferer many of the tragedies common in the 17th century. The differences between the Catholics and Protestants, the life of the rich and poor in Delft comes to life in this novel. A maid does not have the right to speak or express her thoughts, forcing Griet to be a subtle, quiet yet fully aware of her living environment. Nevertheless, she has something that no other normal people have- an artistic eyes. I would say this is a gift from God, but she was also caught into a misfortune due to her talent.
The author uses different aspects to illustrate the importance of a maid in a household, a community, and her own family. When Griet goes into service in the house of the famous painter Johannes Vermeer, she does not realize how her life will change. Her feeling towards her own family is going to change and an awkward relationship is going to develop between herself and her master and the members of his family.
Chevalier describes the story with such rich words and vivid expressions that makes the readers feel the whole thing is based a real story. I¡¦m impressed by the way Chevalier can take hold of so many different characters within one book. She totally grabs my attention so that I want to know more about each character in the novel. The best part of the book is the use of Griet as the narrator, which enables the readers to understand the thoughts and feelings of a young maid in the 17th century. When I read this novel, I couldn¡¦t stop wondering how did the author came up with all these unique characters that seems so profound and intriguing.
I strongly recommend those who enjoy classical and dramatic stories to read this book - ¡§ Girl with a Pearl Earring¡¨! Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.
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Summary: Missed opportunity
Review: Girl with a Pearl Earring is a pale rendition of the life of a simpleton maid in 17th Century Holland. It is a linear slice that offers little insight in the trials and tedium of tending to a struggling artist's household and studio. You will not explore the rich values of class distinction, religious casts, beoming of age, respect or creative genius. While these elements are present, they are reduced to clichés and left to the reader to surmise. Chevalier's syntax and rhythm did not lend itself to the images, fears and angst that she was ushering us through.
Chevalier is narrating from a safe and comfortable position, she never managed to transcend her main character. I am baffled that the book enjoyed such a wide following.
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Summary: A maid's life in 17th Century Holland
Review: The audio cassette version of Girl With a Pearl Earring: The fictional story behind Vermeer's famous painting revolves around sixteen-year old Griet, who becomes a maid in the artist's home to help her struggling family. She is a quiet, intelligent girl, fully aware of her rather helpless situation: She must do the hardest work from morning til night without sympathy or kindness in the cold house. She does, however, greatly admire the elusive Vermeer, and to her shock and secret joy, he asks her one day to be his model for a painting. She must also contend with the unwanted attentions of Vermeer's wealthy patron, and is unsure of her feelings for the amorous young butcher. Since the uneducated Griet is the story's narrator, author Chevalier has written in a very simple, uncluttered style: There are virtually no compound sentences, few adjectives, and even fewer words describing emotions. This is because Griet's lot in life is to serve; it makes no difference how she feels about people, events, or tasks, so she doesn't dwell on them. Griet never refers to Vermeer by name; he is always "The Master," or simply "Him." While a bit of an affectation on the part of the author, it reflects Griet's view of him as bigger than life; godlike. She never puts into words her feelings for him, nor does he for her; indeed people at that time kept their thoughts to themselves. We learn little about Vermeer, except that he took scant notice of his homelife, which was rife with conflict between the mistress, servants, and children. The book is a leisurely-paced picture of life in 17th century Delft. The last chapter was the most intense and was indeed a satisfying end to Griet's story. Narrator Ruth Ann Phimister's voice is low and sounds too mature to be speaking the words of a sixteen-year old. However, she does convey Griet's pluckiness as well as her constant fatigue. While we don't learn about Vermeer, the story does gives us a glimpse into Dutch society in 1665. It is a quiet story.
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Summary: Her Best Work
Review: I've read all of Chevalier's books, and this is by far her best work. It's a real page turner - I finished it in one night!
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Summary: You Wouldn't Want to Have Been Born in the 17th Century
Review: Most of the interest in this book focuses on Vermeer, that mysterious painter about whom we know so little. But he is by far not the principal subject of this book. The book (as all who have seen the film know), is about the trials and frustrations of an uneducated but exceptionally gifted 16-year-old girl who was born into a time and station of life for which she was not suited. Her intelligence is portrayed at first by her observations about people's behavior and how she can control it (Vermeer's daughters, his mother-in-law and her maid), and only later by her sensitivity to artistic color and composition. Her frustration seems to me the main theme of the book. Although I am by no means an expert, I have read a fair amount about life in northern Europe in the 17th century, and Tracy Chevalier captures this exceptionally well. The closedness of the society in which the servant girl who winds up having to wear a pearl earring lives is excruciatingly portrayed, and her ambivalence about her role is almost too painful to read. The ending is exactly appropriate (it was not conveyed well in the film).
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