Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: I found this book to be incredibly enjoyable. The way that Tracy Chevalier brings the art work of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer to life is amazing. Not only to you get to see the paintings vividly in your head but you also can understand the feelings of the characters. Griet is a young girl that is torn two ways, one of which she knows is wrong. She knows that there is a connection between her master and herself but at the same time realizes that nothing can ever happen between them. Then ther is her butcher boyfriend who, though he is a great man, is not what Griet wants in life. You watch her struggle as she works for the Vermeer family living only for the time in His study. It is a thrilling story about the hard truth of the 17th Century.
I absolutly loved this book and would recommend it to anyone. I have never before had a book that gave me such amazing visual images.
Rating:
Summary: What a read!
Review: "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is a brilliant work of historical fiction. Vermeer's works always seem to draw me to them, and this particular painting has been one of my favorites. Unlike any of the others, except for approx. two others, it isn't painted in front of a window and other stills. And even these two other paintings don't carry the mystery that this one carries. Tracy Chevalier digs deep into the ambiguity surrounding this work of art to create an incredibly believable story about Griet, the girl with a pearl earring. The supporting characters can be divided into two groups: likeable and detestable. Frankly, I came close to developing an ulcer due to the behavior of one of the girls in the novel, which merely displays the good job Chevalier did with characterization. To close, the historical authenticity is commendable, especially in the area of class structure and its rigidity, as well as Griet's descriptions of making the paint (the different types of materials used, grinding them, etc). Chevalier leaves the reader with a vivid picture of 17th century life in Holland, which can make for a bit of a depressing book, what with how realistic it is, but really! What book of lasting literary value isn't, in some ways, depressing? So go ahead- read it!
Rating:
Summary: Definitely Worth It!
Review: At first I wasn't sure about this book, I mean, who wants to read about 17th century Holland?? I'm glad I picked it up because it was a great book! One thing that I love in a book is the author's ability to paint a picture, so to speak, in my head. This was definitely the case here. You can even picture the exotic mixture of colors that the painter uses. It's a wonderful book!
Rating:
Summary: Such a pleasant, unique novel. Refreshing & unique!
Review: Girl with a Pearl Earring -- by Tracy Chevalier - Such a fantastic story. I couldn't put it down. Compares to: "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" by Susan Vreeland, "The Lady and the Unicorn" by Tracy Chevalier, "Memoriors of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden, "I Know This Much is True" by Wally Lamb, "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood: A Novel" by Rebecca Wells; "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb, and "When It Rains" by Marjorie Spoto and "The Davinci Code" by Dan Brown.. A Must Read.
Rating: 
Summary: Pulp fiction
Review: I can not understand all the hallaballoo about this work. I kept waiting for the story to unfold. OK, the principal character is 16, but must the writing style be of a 16 year old. If this book had not been give the promotional spin it recieved, it would have been relagated to the fiction section of the local supermarket.
Perhaps it would make a good Hollywood movie.
Rating:
Summary: Contrived
Review: I didn't like it at all. I was able to finish it but I credit that to an extremely boring day at work. It never ceases to amaze me that people will grasp onto a book like this and sing its praises. This is not "literature". It is a trite story written for 6th graders. There is no mystery, nothing left for the imagination, nothing to build toward. From the moment you meet the main characters you realize where you're being led and how it will all turn out. I closed the book and am left with nothing a few characters that will leave my memory as soon as I begin my next book. How disappointing!
Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ!
Review: I started reading this book and I could NOT put it down. Tracy Chevalier has a way of writing the point of view of a young lady in this book that you'd actually think that it happened in real life. I like how it is written from the point of view of the young lady 'Griet'. I love the way its written. Its easy to understand and the book just sinks you into it and you want to know more. I cant wait to buy and read her other books. An A+++++ on my scale! You must read this!
Rating:
Summary: Best sleep aid on the market
Review: Johannes Vermeer's most famous painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring, has touched and mystified audiences since it was completed in 1665 in Delft, Holland. It depicts a beautiful, if simple, young woman in three-quarter profile wearing an unusual headdress and a large pearl teardrop earring. The girl's wide eyes and slightly parted lips suggest a startling and
innocent sensuality. Unfortunately, Tracy Chevalier's novel of the same title (Plume Printing, 2001) captures none of the elegance nor timelessness of the original Vermeer.
The plot is similar to a school creative writing assignment to concoct a story based on a still-life picture. Chevalier imagines the painting's young subject as 16-year-old Griet - the daughter of a painter whose family is thrown into poverty by his sudden blindness. In desperation, the family sends Griet to work as a housemaid in the home of Johannes Vermeer. Griet there encounters about 170 pages' worth of discomforts - from fearing the family's Catholic faith to finding virtually everyone in the household unpleasant. Vermeer's wife, Catherina, envies her; his mother-in-law, Maria Thins, intimidates her; and his tiresome daughters pester her. Longsuffering Griet tolerates these irritations in silence out of devotion to her master who, for no comprehensible reason, enlists Griet to help him with his art. She buys his supplies, mixes his paints, and begins advising him on ways to improve his work. All the while she is falling into a sort of canine awe of him. Eventually he is moved to paint her wearing his wife's earrings - presumably because he finds Griet more attractive and engaging than the shrew to whom he is married, though we know from the outset this move is destined to end very badly.
Sounds dull? It is. This novel has to be one of the better sleep aids on the over-the-counter market. The real low point comes when Griet spends three pages describing her dusting routine.
What it lacks in plot it lacks further in character. The story is told in first-person by Griet. This was Chevalier's first mistake. We spend 220 pages painfully aware that we are inside the head of someone who doesn't think much. Griet simply isn't fleshed-out enough to go through any changes as a result of her experience and therefore engender any interest or sympathy.
The prose itself is, at best, uninspiring and, at worst, distracting. Chevalier makes no attempt to use language that will give us the feel of 17th century Holland. Her modern turns of phrase give Griet the voice of a simple-minded Midwestern girl from present-day America. The short sentences and limited vocabulary suggest she was striving for an elegant simplicity and wound up with something like the writing of a 7-year-old.
Fond as she is of reminding us that she is illiterate, Griet demonstrates a sudden and sophisticated knowledge of modern art theory, altering Vermeer's subjects while he's not looking and instructing her master in colors, shape, and light.
Chevalier herself holds a Masters degree in creative writing and cited only two references used to research the book - one on Dutch history and one on Vermeer. This may account for some of the novel's shortcomings. It would appear she set off armed with only three bits of knowledge - that 17th century Dutch Protestants didn't like Catholics, that most of them were
illiterate, and the painting itself - which she proceeds to belabor at every turn. It's clear by the end that Griet's sexual awakening and Vermeer's unspoken passion are symbolized in the earring itself. But the earring is obviously manipulated to Mean Something that it loses its power to move the reader.
The premise itself is interesting and could have made for a delightful story. While many art historians believe Vermeer's subject was likely one of his daughters, part of the painting's appeal is that no one really knows. Evidence suggests that it was not a commissioned portrait and the painting didn't surface until after Vermeer's death. The lovely girl with her pearl earring and wide-eyed innocence and sensual mouth have kept their secrets almost completely for 340 years. And the literary world would have been better off if Chevalier had left it that way. If you're tempted to pick up Girl with a Pearl Earring, spare yourself and view the painting instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not remarcable
Review: The idea is great, the story is good, but the writer lucks talent. I didn't like her way of writing, too simple and full of inconsistencies.
This is a very easy read, I finished it the same day. As I said, it is a good book, but far from being a masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Good read
Review: The novel Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier tells the story of a sixteen-year old Dutch girl named Griet who lives in Delft, Holland during the 17th Century. After financial difficulties in the home she is sent to work as a maid in the Catholic house of the painter Johannes Vermeer. Griet is a hard working employee whose main purpose is to clean Vermeer's art studio. She begins to capture the attention of Vermeer and is later employed as his assistant. She interacts with Vermeer's jealous wife, his cunning mother in law Maria Thins, as well as the couple's six children. Griet also catches the interest of the local butcher and tries to escape from the inappropriate advances made by Van Ruijven one of Vermeer's wealthy clients. Griet learns to find her way through the new and strange life that she has gained outside the familiar loving Protestant family that she grew up in. Chevalier wonderfully portrays Delft in the mid-seventeenth century. She writes of the canals, markets, and churches in the Netherlands in much detailed description while also recounting the endless drudgery of a maidservant's life. Chevalier's use of description in the novel shows the love that Griet begins to posses of the dull chores that she accomplishes. I came to love grinding the things he brought from the apothecary--bones, white llead, madder, massicot--to see how bright and pure I could get the colors. I learned that the finer the materials were ground the deeper the color. From rough, dull grains madder became a fine bright red powder and, mixed with linseed oil, a sparkling paint. Making it and the other colors was magical. This passage shows the interest that Griet has while she grinds items in the studio. The author shows this interest through the description of the process of making paint. You see the passion that Griet feels about her work in the studio. The only minus of the novel was that occasionally the pace of the book became a bit slow and monotonous at times. Although, I greatly enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and art. The novel is refreshing and very well written. It is a short but sweet read, which I highly recommend.
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