Ms. Hen reviews Girl with a Pearl Earring

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Tracy Chevalier

Penguin Group

1999

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because it goes along with two others she has read recently, TULIP FEVER, and THE MINIATURIST. She is fascinated by this time period right now, because the Netherlands in the 17^th century was a lot like our society at this time, prosperous, but dysfunctional concurrently. She ordered this novel from the library.

Ms. Hen had seen the film years ago in the theater when it came out. She had heard that the book was excellent, but she never read it before now, partly because she had seen the film and she knew what happened, and also because she forgot. The book is a multi-layered story, and when she read it, it was difficult for her to remember what happened in the movie. Some pivotal things are different, but that does not make the film less beautiful. Ms. Hen watched the film again right after she finished the book, and there are a lot of aspects of the story missing, but a novel can be much longer than a book. Both are exceptional.

Griet is a young woman whose father has gone blind in the Delft china factory. She has to go to work as a maid in the famous artist’s Vermeer’s house. She leaves her sister alone with their parents. Griet is unhappy in the house because Katherina, the painter’s wife, does not like her. Griet wants more from her life than being a maid. She desires beauty.

The butcher’s son, young Pieter, pays attention to Griet, and she accepts. He searches for the church where her family worships and goes there. Her mother is excited because a butcher’s son can provide the family with meat, which the family lacks because there isn’t enough money. Griet shops at the butcher’s for the Vermeer family, and is choosy about the meat, even though Vermeer’s family does not have that much money either because he paints so slowly. Though she is being courted by Pieter, she yearns for Vermeer.

Katherina and her husband have a lot of children. They are Catholic and Griet is a Protestant. Griet’s father remarked about his Catholic coworkers that they were lively and seemed like they liked to have a good time. Griet does not like the paintings of the Crucifixion in the house.

Ms. Hen thinks Griet is a bold character. This novel is an imagining of how the painting might have come into being, but there is no proof. The author wrote in the forward that she did a lot of research for this novel by simply looking at paintings. She wrote that there isn’t a lot written about daily life, but she could learn about it by studying the artwork of the time. Whether or not there is truth to how the painting came to being, this is a realistic interpretation.

Ms. Hen loved this novel. She thinks is goes along perfectly with the other novels she has read about this time period. This was a fascinating era in history because that country was successful, but it had numerous problems. Art flourishes in prosperity, but it can come with a price.