{"id":30,"date":"2010-08-30T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-30T11:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/2010\/08\/book-review-girl-with-a-pearl-earring.html"},"modified":"2013-04-26T17:00:32","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T21:00:32","slug":"book-review-girl-with-a-pearl-earring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/2010\/08\/book-review-girl-with-a-pearl-earring.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Review : Girl with a Pearl Earring"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Girl<\/a>\"\"Title : Girl with a pearl earring<\/b>
Author : Tracy Chevalier<\/b>
Genre : Historical fiction<\/b>
Pu\"\"blisher : Plume<\/b>
Pages : 256<\/b>
Rating : 4\/5<\/b><\/p>\n

The Girl with a Pearl Earring is Tracy Chevalier\u2019s second book. In it she tells of a painting by the famous Johannes Vermeer. The subject of the painting and the heroine of the novel is a maid in Vermeer\u2019s household. Forced into this job by penury at home, Griet must serve at the Vermeer homestead. There she develops emotional bonds, some of animosity, such as with Vermeer\u2019s jealous wife and spiteful daughter, and some of limited understanding, such as with Maria Thins, Vermeer\u2019s mother-in-law, whose home it is.<\/p>\n

It is made clear to us, the readers, that Griet has strong feelings for Vermeer, although she is actively being courted by the local butcher\u2019s son Pieter. While Griet\u2019s pragmatic family pressurizes her to accept Pieter\u2019s proposal (\u201cthe family of a butcher will never go hungry\u201d), our dreamy heroine has other ideas. Vermeer himself is a shadowy figure, lost in his artistic vision, appearing to be indifferent not only to Griet, but also oblivious to anyone\u2019s plight but his own.<\/p>\n

Vermeer does come to notice and like Griet however, even granting her \u201cpriviliges\u201d such as cleaning his studio and grinding his paints, jobs which cause much tension in the household, since even Vermeer\u2019s wife Catharina is not allowed to do them. However Griet must work her \u201cthing\u201d with the Master out on her own, especially when he decides to paint her. Will she, a lowly maid, be able to realize her heart\u2019s dream ?<\/p>\n

This was a very interesting, spare, light read. The plot is well-developed and Chevalier tells it with such simplicity and such nuance that one is drawn in. Unlike her second novel \u201cRemarkable Creatures\u201d<\/a> which draws it\u2019s drama from real events, \u201cGirl with a Pearl Earring\u201d has a wistfulness which comes from unmet expectations and hopes. Beautifully written and engagingly told, this novel displays Chevalier\u2019s skilled story-telling and great attention to detail.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d come across this book, when it first released, but had ignored it believing the subject to not be to my taste. I\u2019ve now read it only after I read and liked Chevalier\u2019s \u201cRemarkable Creatures\u201d, and consider myself richer for it. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Title : Girl with a pearl earringAuthor : Tracy ChevalierGenre : Historical fictionPublisher : PlumePages : 256Rating : 4\/5 The Girl with a Pearl Earring is Tracy Chevalier\u2019s second book. In it she tells of a painting by the famous Johannes Vermeer. The subject of the painting and the heroine of the novel is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_17000648_17000648":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71,3,44,97,24,4,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4_star_rating","category-books","category-historical","category-penguin_books","category-recommended","category-review","category-women"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"sow-carousel-default":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"amodini","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"Title : Girl with a pearl earringAuthor : Tracy ChevalierGenre : Historical fictionPublisher : PlumePages : 256Rating : 4\/5 The Girl with a Pearl Earring is Tracy Chevalier\u2019s second book. In it she tells of a painting by the famous Johannes Vermeer. The subject of the painting and the heroine of the novel is a…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2649,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/2649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/fiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}