Rating: 
Summary: Historical fiction not for romantics
Review: There are two types of people that shouldn't read this book; 1. Romantics who studied art history, and 2. People hoping for a historically detailed account of 17th Century Flanders. Romantics who love Vermeer's paintings will finish this book disillusioned and sad. Historians will get very little detail to satisfy their desire for a complete picture of this period. On the other hand, those hoping for a good novel with historical references and overtones, or perhaps a glimpse into the process of artists in Vermeer's time, will enjoy Girl with a Pearl Earring very much.GWAPE is mostly historical fiction about a beautiful teenage girl's years spent as a maid in the service of famous painter Vermeer's household. Griet is a hardworking, intelligent sort who has wonderful work ethics and really just wants to help out her parents, who have fallen on hard times. During her stay with this family she unexpectedly becomes an apprentice of sorts to the painter after he realizes she has some undeveloped talent (which a girl of her station would never realize, normally). Although the cover art hints at a juicy affair between the two, this is just a cheap marketing ploy. The real romance is between Griet and her discovery of art. It's not that author Tracy Chevalier didn't do her research. The parts of this book that talk of camera obscura, how paints were mixed, the hierarchy of a wealthy household and the social customs of that age speak of a great deal of research and indeed, insight. Without being any kind of expert myself I'd bet that Chevalier studied these things in great depth. It's just that life outside of the domestic sphere is sketched in only very sparingly. One does not get a very fulfilling view of Flanders through this book. The overstory about maid Griet and her "sensual awakening" to the art in light and the objects around her is beautifully done. I could not ask for a better description. What troubled me was that every other character in this tale was completely blind to anything but their own prejudices, petty concerns and agendas - including Vermeer himself! Each person sees Griet either as a commodity or a threat, based on stereotypes or their own insecurities. To Vermeer she is a "muse" to inspire him, even at the expense of exhausting her with too much work and endangering her position in the household. To his wife Catharina, Griet is a sneaky young upstart who coveted her man. To the children and servants Griet is a drudge without a life outside their house. To Veermeer's patron she is an easy victim for his advances. Even her own parents see her as nothing more than a means by which they could obtain meat and financial security through her engagement. Griet's feelings and precarious situation never enter anybody's mind save perhaps Vermeer's mother-in-law's. Her resulting loneliness and isolation gradually backs her into a corner where she has no other options but to play the game by rules she detests. Her reward is more slander and work.
I have no doubt that the scenario described in this book was a common problem for poor girls in this historical period. My objection is to its use as a device to manipulate the reader's sympathies. Do we need another story of yet one more victim of outdated patriarchal evils? Worse, Vermeer is forever ruined for me. While as an art student I could appreciate his paintings on a purely aesthetic level, now I can't help but think about poor Griet and Chevalier's speculations of the stories behind them. It leaves a bitter aftertaste. I can now only think of Vermeer as a self-centered boor who just happpened to be blessed with extraordinary gifts. Yes, GWAPE was well-written, enjoyable even. Though the last 100 pages I couldn't put it down. Yet, I will always be sorry now that I read it.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle
Rating: 
Summary: Simple beauty
Review: This is not the typical book I like to read, but it was recommended to me by my mom so I gave it a shot and found that I really enjoyed it! The heroine, Griet, is a well-developed character that you love and pity at the same time. I loved that true beauty was found in the simplicity of a servant.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book-a quick and delightful read
Review: What a lovely story surrounded by the story of the painter Vermeer and his enchanting Dutch "Mona Lisa". I found this story particularly enjoyable because of my love of all things Dutch. The author is able to perfectly blend a lovely fictional character coming-of-age with factual history from the life and town of Johannes Vermeer. The author did an amazing job exploring the rift between the catholics and protestants within the community.
Also, see the movie after you read the book...Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson portray Vermeer and Griet well, and the scenery of Delft, Netherlands is breathtaking.
Rating: 
Summary: A moment frozen & forever there...
Review: What an interesting idea for a novel: Tracy Chevalier has taken a painting of an unknown woman by a painter about whom we know almost nothing & written the story behind it's creation as seen thru the eyes of it's subject. "Girl With A Pearl Earring" is the result, & an impressive novel it is. However, it impresses in terms of craft, of technique. As I read it, I couldn't help comparing it to the marvelous "Memoirs of A Geisha" which also takes us into the mind of a young girl in a world very foreign to most readers. Where "Memoirs..." fully involved the reader both in descriptions of daily life in a vanished world & in the people populating it, "Girl With A Pearl Earring" exists more as a set piece. There are exquisite sketches of the dour, plodding life of the average Delft citizen in the 17th century, but they never breath. I never felt I understood why the main characters acted as they did, I never felt in sympathy with the dilemmas that formed the core of the book & the resolution felt forced somehow. Also, viewing the painting that inspired the book, I simply didn't feel this was a plausible "back-story". Vermeer's paintings are quiet, frozen moments of daily life that seem forever trapped in amber. "Girl With A Pearl Earring" gives a similar feel to the reader. If you prefer a quiet, contemplative book that is primarily focused on thought rather than action, you will probably enjoy this novel more than I did. I guess I'll just never appreciate literature....
Rating: 
Summary: Read better...and worse.
Review: What I must straightaway establish is that, while I may have given the book a relatively small rating, this is by no means an indicative of my thinking the book bad. It wasn't a bad book in the least, but I'm afraid it was simply too uninteresting to warrant any reaction, dislike included.
The premise, mind one, was fascinating. The great painter Vermeer's interactions with a common, plain little girl who's known nothing but hardship and yet who finds herself the object of interest in a world so uniquely different to her own and is even immortalized in what can be argued as his best painting. As someone with certain art studies, and having had this book recommended to me a good number of times, I was looking forward to the experience of its reading -- and yet this wonderful concept had such a poor execution that I was left with a bitter taste as well as questioning the reason for the book's hype.
Mrs Chevalier's main failing, I think, lies not in her prose (however flat, at times, and thoroughly inexpressive even in what are supposed to be most tense moments indeed) so much as in her characterization, or better put, lack thereof. Arriving at the painter's house as a sixteen year-old maid, young Griet is oh-so-tormented by every one of the masters of the keep. From the young wife Catharina, seemingly jealous of the girl (why, specifically since her husband at no point expresses an explicit romantic interest in the girl, nor she in him, we will never know) to her demonic children, an overly-vain cook/main/attendant, and then the elder mistress and Vermeer's in-law, Maria Thins, whom Greit tells us is intimidating, but whom we only see acting out as an old lady who tries to survive, and to keep her family alive.
This is another point that Mrs Chevalier over emphasizes to her disadvantage: Greit abuses her first-person perspective and tells us just how everyone is and acts, rather than the authoress herself showing us different characters' personalities through their actions. We reach the supposed "climax" of the story wherein, if Greit hadn't kindly announced me that she was in big trouble, I would never have quite understood there was a fuss to be had about anything to begin with.
Chevalier has obviously gone through a good deal of trouble to write her characters as complex individuals, but she doesn't manage to depict this exact complexity. She's at her most disappointing with the very Griet. After more than 200 pages, I had expected to be able to at least divine when the girl will have fallen in love with her master, but there's not even the slightest hint to as much, not a clue. One day, during her visits to her parents' house, her mother gives her "meaningful" looks and Griet understands that she knows she's fallen in love with the painter. From where has this love stemmed? When has it blossomed? And where in blazes was I, the reader, when that happened? I'll never quite know.
I've purposefully left the book's strengths at the end, for I feel it's best to at least leave those who'll bother to read this review with the idea that there is something good about the book. And there is, really.
To begin with, the prose is light, making the book easy to read, and therefore accessible to a variety of ages. It's not a demanding lecture, but a mildly entertaining one. The concept in itself, again, deserves a few praises, both for its originality and the author's bravery in providing her own theory concerning the painting's making in such an intricate historical society. While I hesitate to call her descriptions of how the painting was executed masterful, I'll have to admit that I myself am biased because of having gone through the ordeal -- yet I can definitely see how and why the process in itself, and the depicture the author provides us with in its concern would be very engaging to other readers.
I don't know whether this book is one I would recommend to other readers. As I've said before, it's not bad, but then again, neither is it good. I do think, however, that I'll again take the time to mention that Tracy Chevalier's "Fallen Angels" is by far a more remarkable reading experience, and I'd urge all readers to acquire it!
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