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Summary
History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening as seen through the eyes of the young woman who was the inspiration behind one of Vermeer’s finest paintings.
In seventeenth-century Delft, a strict social order reigns, dividing rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant, master and servant. When sixteen-year-old Griet goes to work as a maid in the home of the city’s most renowned painter, she is expected to know her place. But in the Vermeer household, dominated by his mercurial wife and her formidable mother, Griet soon catches the eye of the master. Captivated by Griet’s quite manner, intuitive spirit, and fascination with art, Vermeer begins to draw her into his world – a rarefied place of exotic color and dazzling light, shifting shadows, and unimaginable beauty.
As Griet becomes a virtual part of Vermeer’s work, their growing intimacy spreads tension and deception in the ordered household and even, as the scandal seeps out, ripples into the town beyond.
With its striking sense of period detail – vividly evoking a distant place and time – Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the tale of a young girl on the brink of womanhood, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius…even as she herself is immortalized on canvas.
-From Inside Flap of the Book
Review
An amazing story this was. I believe that this is the first slow book I have actually enjoyed. I am usually one up for action, and fighting, but this book had none of that. It was practically a harmless book. The only things which were kind of bad was that there was a scandal, and it was told that Griet made love in an alley way. Otherwise this book was about as harmless as it gets. It was a beautiful story and told so well. I loved how they described how Vermeer did his paintings. He would mix many colors together to get one color. There may be green, yellow, and blue mixed together to make white. It was a lovely things to imagine.
I believe that you will be able to visualize this story in your head. They describe everything so well. Even the smallest of details. This is historical fiction but the story would not make you think of history. Griet had long dark brown hair and it was described to be flowing waves. This book used such a small amount of words to describe such beautiful things.
This is a definite must read and it is an easy read being 233 pages (more or less, depending on the edition you are reading.) The book is easy and it was wonderful. I do hope that you will go and check this out from your local library and give it a try.
I hope you enjoy!
If you have read this book tell me what you think.
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