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irenevh 's review for:
Girl with a Pearl Earring
by Tracy Chevalier
3,75 stars
Rich in history and atmosphere, Girl with a Pearl earring paints a wonderful picture of golden Age Delft and the characters within it.
As someone who has studied in Delft, loves art history and who's favourite painting literally is "The girl with the pearl earring" it is surprising how long it took for me to finally get to this book. Maybe it was watching the first 20 or so minutes of the movie, which i turned off for it being too slow, that deterred me from reading it.
The book tells the story of Griet, a maid coming to work in the home of Johannes Vermeer. As we go in we don't know much about her, and there isn't an all that clear plot. All we can deduce is that at some point she will become the famous, and in our reality mysterious, girl with the pearl earring in the painting. Other than that expected story beat we are mostly just taken along as Griet lives her life in the Vermeer household and focus on her relationship with those around her.
The characters are either likeable or easy to detest when we have to, even if they sometimes make very strange choices. And it's also interesting to see real life historical figured pop up, such as Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, even if they didn't always play a very big role in the story.
The book isn't perfect, and I think putting it into the Romance Genre is doing it a big disservice. But I think the book does a great job of showing the kind of dependent life a maid in that time would have. And it presents an interesting possible story for a painting showing a girl we know absolutely nothing about, painted by an artist who despite his fame is still also somewhat shrouded in mystery. The book is very atmospheric and that is absolutely where it shines.
Rich in history and atmosphere, Girl with a Pearl earring paints a wonderful picture of golden Age Delft and the characters within it.
As someone who has studied in Delft, loves art history and who's favourite painting literally is "The girl with the pearl earring" it is surprising how long it took for me to finally get to this book. Maybe it was watching the first 20 or so minutes of the movie, which i turned off for it being too slow, that deterred me from reading it.
The book tells the story of Griet, a maid coming to work in the home of Johannes Vermeer. As we go in we don't know much about her, and there isn't an all that clear plot. All we can deduce is that at some point she will become the famous, and in our reality mysterious, girl with the pearl earring in the painting. Other than that expected story beat we are mostly just taken along as Griet lives her life in the Vermeer household and focus on her relationship with those around her.
The characters are either likeable or easy to detest when we have to, even if they sometimes make very strange choices. And it's also interesting to see real life historical figured pop up, such as Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, even if they didn't always play a very big role in the story.
The book isn't perfect, and I think putting it into the Romance Genre is doing it a big disservice. But I think the book does a great job of showing the kind of dependent life a maid in that time would have. And it presents an interesting possible story for a painting showing a girl we know absolutely nothing about, painted by an artist who despite his fame is still also somewhat shrouded in mystery. The book is very atmospheric and that is absolutely where it shines.