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Summary: Girl with a Pearl Earring
Review: Girl with a Pear Earring is a very exciting story about a young girl, Greit, who becomes a maid for the artist Vermeer when her father was hurt in an accident. Griet is a protestant and is going to work for a catholic family, which makes her uncomfortable at first because she is worried about the diffrent ways they do things. She doesnt fit in to well with the family. Corneila the oldest daughter is a brat, who doesnt like Griet, and throughout the novel gets her into trouble. Greit become closer and closer to her Master Vermeer, and ends up being almost an assistant to him. He allows her to do many things for him that he would never let other people do, even his on family. The family is jealous of Griet because she gets to do things they do not such as: clean the studio, go in the studio, and help make paint. Part of Griets chores is to go get meat from the butcher every day. While getting meat Griet and Pieter, the butchers son become quite fond of each other, and in the end they are married. This was a great novel, and while I was reading it, it took me into a diffrent time and place. The characters in the story were very realistic and vivid. This was a very intresting book, and I highly reccomend it.
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Summary: a fabulous read!!
Review: When I first bought Girl with a Pearl Earring, I thought it was going to be just another historical fiction book...nothing more. How wrong I was! When Griet, the protagonist, goes to work at Vermeer's house I wondered what was going to happen. I quickly found out. Besides getting herself into one awkward predicament after another, she meets a very original cast of characters. There's Vermeer's mother-in-law, Maria Thins, who is a very intimidating woman...or so she seems, Vermeer's wife, Catharina, who is pregnant most of the time, the butcher's son and of course, Vermeer himself. Vermeer is portrayed wonderfully. I thought that if I had ever met Vermeer he would act exactly as Tracy Chevalier had made him act. This book goes by faster than you will want it to. I guarantee that after you read this you will never look at a Vermeer painting in the same way again!
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Summary: Simple and elegant
Review: The best thing about this book is the way you must view the people through their simple, uncomplicated stoicism. The emotion comes through, then, like the view of an eclipse, that you can't look directly at to know. This one stayed with me.
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Summary: An Enigmatic Portrait of a Lady and a Painter
Review: Girl with a Pearl Earring is a wonderful story painted by Ms Chevalier. It is a page-turning story where a famous painting and its real-life Dutch artist is brought together with the fictional character Griet, who becomes the girl with a pearl earring.
Little is known about who exactly Vermeer was painting when he brought to life what is affectionately known as the "Dutch Mona Lisa", thus, Chevalier takes this wonderous opportunity to create a fictional story around how this painting came to life.
Griet enter's the household as a maid in order to help her own family after her father is injured. She slowly works her way up to becoming Vermeers assistant in the studio, and even adds her own artistic edge from time to time. Envenually, her intimacey with the painter grows, and she learns more about herself in a short time in an artists studio, then she would have learned laundering the families' linens and running errands for years.
A wonderful book--the last 100 pages of which you will not want to put down!
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Summary: Wonderful!
Review: Tracy Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring felt like falling into Alice's looking glass. Chevalier takes her readers into Vermeer's painting and brings the model to life. She turns a two-dimensional canvas into a living, breathing person and paints Griet a rich landscape of a life. A wonderful novel.
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Summary: Beautiful Writing
Review: "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is a heartbreakingly beautiful tale of a time and place few people know much about. Based on historical fact, what little of it there is anyway (the painting is real, the history behind it imagined, but well researched), this story of a young maid/muse in the house of legendary Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. It is a beautiful tale of love, jealousy and human nature. The characters are richly drawn and young girl, Griet, from whose perspective the story is told is a compelling and believable protagonist. As interesting as the book's gentle plot (there are no big "events," per se, but the book still manages to move along at a brisk pace), is the look at a culture little known to most Americans. "Girl with a Pearl Earring" reminds me of other sweet, detail-oriented books I've read, such as "Memoirs of a Geisha." Both transported me to another time and place which, before reading these novels, I knew little about but have learned to love, thanks to the author's writing prowess.
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Summary: awesome
Review: this book kept me reading every chance I got. I finished it in two days; I couldn't put it down. The use of language and description was fascinating. I would definitely recommend it. It was awesome!
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Summary: Stop hesitating. Worth your time.
Review: It took a year for me to buy this book, and I wish someone had told me to spend the time and money earlier. Chevalier maintains a voice throughout Girl with a Pearl Earring that builds a character, a time, and a life that is both that of a young poor maid in 17th century Holland and of her broader culture. It takes you into a world full of tensions as timeless as men and women, rich and poor, upstairs and downstairs, but without the violence, language and graphic sex expected in today's world. And all are driven by the unerring voice of Griet.
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Summary: Engrossing, Enjoyable Historical Fiction
Review: One of my dearest friends gave me this book to read with the assurance that I'd enjoy it and that it was "an easy read." I did and it was. I was quickly pulled into a historical period of which I know next to nothing -- 17th century Holland. Chevalier's descriptions are richly detailed, her characters seem real and engaging. The book pulled me in and kept me there. Story-wise the ending was somewhat unsatisfying but quite realistic.
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Summary: Ho Hum ...
Review: If I had paid full price for this novel I would have been mad...luckily I got a discount. I learned (once again!)..just because it's on the bestseller list doesn't mean it's a great book. In this case, a milktoast plot with boring characters, as well as the author's inability to write interesting descriptions make it a great read for some people. People who don't want to bother with pesky plots and tedious historical details could come to call this a masterpiece. I'm guessing that this period in history was interesting with things like the plague, religious conflict, and oppression of all kinds, but the author skims over these interesting points as if there is something more interesting just around the corner...trust me. There isn't. The author seems to have written this novel very quickly. It reads like a summary of a story. It has very short sentences. This can be dull. Get it?
I suppose that the life of a maid must have been difficult and tiring in the 17th century, but Griet seems to stay pleasant and intact very well through it all. The only thing she has to conquer is the fact that everyone hates her. She doesn't have a single female friend in the entire town! This is going on the 4th book that I've read recently, where the female character is beautiful, virtuous, hated, vicitmized and has no friends. Miraculously, these heroines remain positive with virtually no support system. I'm getting tired of this! How about some depth!? Please!
Don't bother with this one. It's about as interesting as 'The Bridges of Madison County'....another generic bestseller for the masses.
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