REVIEW: Girl with a Pearl Earring (Tracy Chevalier)
Author: Tracy Chevalier
My rating 3.5/5.
Premise: 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, until she becomes the Girl with a Pearl Earring.
This book was good if a little slow. Its quite short (248 pages) and not much happens in it - just a girl become a maid and you know she's going to become an artist's model in the end. I liked the strength of the main character, Griet. Whilst being a maid and having little status, she still develops from a timid maid who's pushed around, to a respected and dignified woman. The character portrayal in this book is excellent - I loathed the daughter Cornelia and was glad when Griet settled the score with her! Overall, a good book that creates a context for a beautiful painting, but not much story.