Vermeer's famous painting, The Girl with a Pearl Earring, allows Tracy Chevalier to imagine a special relationship between the painter and Griet, a young and pretty servant committed to the family's service. Unfortunately, proximity could make one think that the young servant served as a model for the painter of the painting, arousing Vermeer's wife's jealousy and causing a scandal in the Delft of the 17th century.
Well, it captured the painter's universe and the Dutch society of his time; I agree with this story despite everything. The one who nicknamed the "Sphinx of Delft," as his biography long remained obscure, and who painted only thirty-four pictures, some of which have become among the most famous in the history of painting, deserved better than this romance. However, Griet is not Tess d'Urberville, and Tracy Chevalier is not Thomas Hardy.

This was a very light historical fiction and I honestly seemed to enjoy it very well.

This is the story about Griet, a teenage girl who is hired as a maid to work at Johannes Vermeer’s house; attending to all his necessities and his family’s.

That’s basically it. Through the days, she develops even more complex relationships with not only her boss but with his entire family. And not only that but her life changes in unexpected ways.

You could say this is the story of a portrait.

—————

I, for some reason, felt like this was somehow cozy. It was a very light and super fast historical read that you could literally read in a day (I know I read it in 2 days, be quiet).

I enjoyed the main character enough, I feel like she was very decent and she knew hot to establish her own boundaries. She was strong and surely knew how to cope with everyone’s shit and actually deal with it unlike other protagonists.

Some may call it unnatural, but I feel like it wasn’t, not entirely. It’s set on a whole different country and a whole different century (the 16th one to be more specific).

The other characters were alright. Though I did feel a bit uncomfortable with a few interactions or thoughts regarding Vermeer.

I guess you could say there’s romance but it was just there. Wasn’t too huge or really interesting, but I kinda expected for it to be that way because of how the book is written, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. You can just tell sometimes how things are gonna be.

Imagined story of Vermeer's model. Vividly evocative of time and place. Outwardly, little happens in terms of plot, but really everything (and everyone) changes. Captivating, simple, but hidden depths. I'm glad I read it before the film came out - even though the film is good.

3.75/5 ⭐

Enjoyable, not a fancy review here. I'm no age player, power player etc so I deducted a few points off the final rating. Still, I think it's a good book with a good story.

I went into this book hoping for an interesting read, nothing more. I have a BA in art history, and have studied art of the Dutch Golden Age in depth. However, I was not looking for a book to be accurate, or even very much about Vermeer. I just wanted a good story. This book isn’t even palatable.

Griet, the narrator, is completely insufferable. She is full of contradictions, and not in the complex character way one would expect in a well written book—instead, she seems a collection of rather unrelated personality traits that barely hold together under the pressure of this novel. Griet manages to be completely naive and annoyingly worldly at the same time. She is somehow very humble, yet is about as arrogant and condescending as can be. She somehow is both modest and religious, yet remains in a state of sexual arousal for a married man for years on end. She is an unskilled, uneducated maid, but somehow has a better artistic eye than one of the most skilled artists to ever paint, and has to help him arrange his paintings. Her telling of the story seems so dramatic and over-wrought that it is hard to focus on anything but poor Griet and her drama most of the time.

Even if Griet weren’t a complete turn-off, the rest of the novel would be. Other characters (with the sole exception of Maria Thins) are equally as confused and poorly written. Most characters seem to be thinly disguised motivations or plot devices, and at times I started to wonder if something much more philosophical was going on. Symbolism is laid on to an almost farcical extent—spinning knives, for example—and the build-up of plot moves from painfully slow to unsatisfying brisk. The climax seems completely rushed, and is somehow boring in both its blandness and predictability. The final portion of the story, set ten years later, seems to exist more as a bizarre plot twist and Mary Sue…I mean Griet getting even with everybody than as an integral part of the story. While the world it took place in seemed rather meticulously researched, it was presented in such a way that you almost felt the author was smacking you across the face with it—for example, a handful of articles of clothing were really well researched, but those were the only clothing mentioned and each was brought up a half dozen times in detail. Griet’s bonnet is accurate and wonderfully described. Nearly every woman would have worn a bonnet in 17th century Delft, but not once is anyone else’s headgear mentioned—excepting one passing reference to a pair of hats, and a comment on a man wearing a hat (as a way of identification). Yet since Griet’s bonnet was both an important symbol and plot device, we heard more about it than we could ever want.

This book read like something an immature, first-time writer would create in an early draft—it has the elements of a good work, but lacks refinement, consistency, or a more advanced sense of style. I would expect this of a teenage girl who had watched the movie Secretary a dozen times, not by a (at least by reputation) talented author like Tracy Chevalier. I’ve seen the defense of many of these criticisms that Chevalier was leaving things intentionally vague given the lack of information about Vermeer’s life, but I don’t buy that. I've also seen that Chevalier was trying to create something other than a typical romance story of an artist falling in love with his muse/master of the house taking advantage of a maid. In the end, however, that is exactly what she wrote, and if she had just gone about it in the traditional way, it might have actually been interesting. I think this is a poorly written romance novel that uses a fig leaf of art history for publicity.

In short—don’t read it. Read just about anything historical fiction instead. Pick a title at random, it is bound to be better.

I loved this. I don't say that often enough about a book. I was impressed with the writing, completely invested in the story and pleased with the ending. It's not easy to tick all those boxes, especially in a relatively short story. What more can I say.

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n  I have read this book so many times. And even after re-reading this book so many times, it is and will always remain one of my favourite books, a story that is evergreen and has such an emotional story worth retelling.n

Tracy Chevalier has been inspired by the artwork of Johannes Vermeer, and his most famous painting, the Girl with a Pearl Earring, that she decided to write a story of what she believes might have happened behind that painting. For me, when looking at paintings, this is one of the things that cross my mind – what is the actual story behind it, what was the relationship between the painter and the people on the painting, what were they all thinking and what did their lives look like… In this book, we are able to enter this world, where we see a story of what might have happened here, and this story is a wonderful experience.

This is a story about Griet’s life. Griet lives in a house with her poor family, a blind dad who worked all his life to gather a bit of money for them, and a mother that always fought for the family. With their money running low, Griet has to go and work as a maid in the house of Vermeer, who is a famous painter. Even though quite young, Griet quickly knows her tasks, to iron, to cook, to grab groceries from the market, and the most important bit – to stay out of everyone’s way and do her job.

In the house, things are not easy. Griet is not treated with respect, her family is worried about her, the plague kills her sister and the butcher’s boy wants to marry her. Griet doesn’t feel anything for this boy, but having meat on the table every day for her and her family is too big of an advantage to be just thrown away. I personally never liked the butcher boy, because he knew very well what his advantage was, and he kept reminding Griet how she depends on him to feed her family.


n  ‘’Her words surprised me, but when I looked in her eyes and saw there the hunger for meat that a butcher’s son could provide, I understood why she had set aside her pride.’’n

But Griet has a secret crush on Mr. Vermeer, and a great admiration for his work. And Mr. Vermeer notices Griet’s curiosity and gives her tasks around the studio, which in the end, results in him painting her. Griet gets to be involved in his world, learning what he does, and working for him in secret, while his wife is bearing another child of his. Even though Griet secretly feels like she is betraying the wife, she can’t help but feel joj when Vermeer pays attention to her.

n  ‘’ The clothes soaking in the kitchen went cold, the water grey. Tanneke clattered in the kitchen, the girls shouted outside, and we behind closed door sat and looked at each other. And he painted.’’n

Now, in the 21st century, it is normal for ladies to pose, and be painted, but in that time, it was a disgrace for a maid to be painted. Men didn’t have the respect towards women as they do now (some of them). And when Griet finds herself being painted, she knows the consequences, but as a maid, she has no voice to object. She knows this quite well.

n  In the end, the story is very powerful and heartwarming. While we read about how Griet sees and thinks, we will start to love her, watch her grow, and learn so much. I am forever grateful I have found this book.n

I have read the 20th Anniversary Edition of this amazing book, which was kindly sent to me by the publishers, The Borough Press, and Love Reading UK, in exchange for my honest review.

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My favorite reading genre's are historical fiction, art and art history, and romance; well, this book has all of these elements which made it a treat for me. I have read most of Tracy Chevalier's work so I appreciate her ability to craft a good story. After his death Vermeer and even his paintings fell into obscurity for two centuries, so Chevalier had a free hand to paint the fictional picture of the artist and the story surrounding the painting, The Girl With a Pearl Earring. She did so beautifully and with respect, to the muse, the artist, and the painting. The only romance in the novel was hinted at, but sometimes that makes it even more endearing. When you look at the face in the painting, it is easy to imagine it is a look of love that she is returning to the painter.

I've seen many mixed reviews about this book over the years. Like many people, I admire Vermeer's (few) works and enjoy reading historical fiction, so it was just a question of time before I settled down with the novel. I'd seen the movie adaptation years ago and found it excellent. Some readers fault this novel for lacking depth. I didn't set high expectations, and looked forward to getting an insiders view into the masters household and studio.

Greet is a young protestant girl who must find work as a maid after her father is blinded and cannot continue to support the family as a guild member in the tile works. She has a fine eye for capturing detail, colour and light, something which Vermeer catches in her from the way she's arranged a plate of chopped vegetables in preparation for a stew. Going to work as a maid is unpleasant to Greet, but doing so in a Catholic family where there are paintings of crucifixions and religious subjects is all the more jarring to her. And of course there are the women of the house to contend with. While master sees potential in Greet as a studio assistant, eventually helping him mix colours and sort his things with a delicate touch, the painters wife isn't happy about having a pretty young maid in the household, and Greet must do her household duties and double as an assistant in secret, as Vermeer wishes to avoid explanations. According to this version of events, the circumstances in which the portrait is commissioned and comes to be created are the cause of much trouble in the household and in Greet's personal life. I appreciated the observation of detail as seen through an artist’s eye, in this case, Greet's, as she took in the world around her with her wide eyes, from dusty streets along the canal to meat market stalls, and of course, Vermeer's works and studio.

Superbă carte! O recomaaaand! Mă simt mega fericită că am citit-o.

Girl With a Pearl Earring is such a beautifully written book with a compelling story. I find the story about young Griet working for Johannes Vermeer fascinating. How Tracy Chevalier used the painting of Girl with a Pearl Earring to weave such a fantastic story. Griet is just an ordinary girl, needing to work after her father had an accident and how her life changed after she came to the Vermeer household. it's not an easy position, it's only Johannes Vermeer that she's not having a problem with. And, I love that it doesn't turn out to be a cheesy forbidden love story. It goes deeper than that. I just love this book.

I CAN'T SHOUT "MEH!" LOUD ENOUGH!!!

The popular fame obtained by this book and its subsequent movie version starring Scarlett Johansson...

*two hours later*

(Sorry, I was daydreaming)...had me expecting a tumultuous romance, a grab-ya and hold-ya reading experience. But this...I don't know what this was, but it wasn't exciting in the least.

Girl With a Pearl Earring is about a maid, who becomes a model, who gets her picture painted and attracts the notice of a few men. The painter is famous, so that's interesting. His patron is rich, of course, and expects to get what he wants, so there's your villain...kind of.

Really, our protagonist's main enemy is jealousy. But that enemy's effectiveness is quashed by another force: money. And that leaves us with a less dramatically, emotionally affecting book.

I read through to the end, expecting something bigger to happen the whole way, but even though it never did, I did still manage to get through it all, so there's something to be said for that.

In the end, however, this book has to say about as much as does a picture of a beautiful woman. Not much.


In related news...
My overly sensitive and irrational wife would like me to take down my Johansson picture collage homage from the ceiling over our bed. But as I've explained, ScarJo needs the support of her #1 fan!