[.ca] Girl With A Pearl Earring Movie Tie In Edition (ISBN 0452284937)

From Amazon.com:
With precisely 35 canvases to his credit, the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer represents one of the great enigmas of 17th-century art. The meager facts of his biography have been gleaned from a handful of legal documents. Yet Vermeer's extraordinary paintings of domestic life, with their subtle play of light and texture, have come to define the Dutch golden age. His portrait of the anonymous Girl with a Pearl Earring has exerted a particular fascination for centuries--and it is this magnetic painting that lies at the heart of Tracy Chevalier's second novel of the same title. Girl with a Pearl Earring centers on Vermeer's prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel's quietly perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old narrator becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant--and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model. Chevalier vividly evokes the complex domestic tensions of the household, ruled over by the painter's jealous, eternally pregnant wife and his taciturn mother-in-law. At times the relationship between servant and master seems a little anachronistic. Still, Girl with a Pearl Earring does contain a final delicious twist. Throughout, Chevalier cultivates a limpid, painstakingly observed style, whose exactitude is an effective homage to the painter himself. Even Griet's most humdrum duties take on a high if unobtrusive gloss: I came to love grinding the things he brought from the apothecary--bones, white lead, madder, massicot--to see how bright and pure I could get the colors. I learned that the finer the materials were ground, the deeper the color. From rough, dull grains madder became a fine bright red powder and, mixed with linseed oil, a sparkling paint. Making it and the other colors was magical. In assembling such quotidian particulars, the author acknowledges her debt to Simon Schama's classic study The Embarrassment of Riches. Her novel also joins a crop of recent, painterly fictions, including Deborah Moggach's Tulip Fever and Susan Vreeland's Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Can novelists extract much more from the Dutch golden age? The question is an open one--but in the meantime, Girl with a Pearl Earring remains a fascinating piece of speculative historical fiction, and an appealingly new take on an old master. --Jerry Brotton

Wonderful:
A very good read for a rainy day. The odd thing about this book that I found was that, after you read a book you are supposed to be able to analyze its characters and know them a bit. i discovered that I could not. There is almost no character development in this book and barely any plot. Yet, I found it an immensly enjoyable book that I recommend to anybody.

great book:
This novel tells the story of a young Dutch girl during the 17th century. The 16 year old daughter of a tile painter becomes a maid in the household of Johannes Vermeer to help support her family. Each day she must tend to the laundry and keep up with the housework for a condescending mistress and uncivil maids. She finds enjoyment only when she cleans her master's studio where she witnesses the creative process of his work and where she is also drawn into his private world. Their growing intimacy spreads disruption and jealousy within the household. This is an absorbing story, utterly convincing, you will get an image of what Vermeer may have been like. The novel is full of emotions making it a most engaging read, I loved it.

flows in smooth strokes!:
i have never seen the film, so my mind was completely open to the literaries, this book was one of the most pleasant and smoothly worded books i have read for a long time. the descriptives were beautiful, the period elegantly evoked, and the artistic brushstrokes flowed wonderfully, thoroughly enjoyed this, read in about three days whilst chillin in the glorious summer sunshine!

Great book but poorly read:
I just finished listening to the novel on CD read by Jenna Lamia. Avoid it. The reader tries to put on accents for every different character and fails horribly. Her accent for Vermeer is most ridiculous of all and it takes away from the novel terribly. The only well created accent is Griet's; that's not a compliment considering the many characters in this excellent novel. Read the book but avoid this particular CD version.

Girl with something to say:
I don't usually tend to veer too far off the beaten path when it comes to books. Tending to stick with bestsellers like "Life of Pi" or "Bark of the Dogwood" my choices almost always keep me safe and warm. Well, not always safe, but you get the idea. So I was hesitant to take on "Girl" for fear of it being too "outisde." What I found instead was a riveting piece of work--art really--that melds historical fact with excellent fiction. Kudos to Tracy Chevalier for this remarkable achievement! Also recommended: THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD.