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Book reviews done by tompkins and m0m0.
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thompkin's book review
In the book, Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, a daughter
of a local tile painter from Delft, Holland becomes a maid after an accident that leaves her father blind and unable to work.
So, young Griet then becomes a maid for the house of Vermeer. Everyday she works for her condescending mistress, Catharina
alongside with another maid, Tanneke. But despite these challenges, Griet works for meager wages in order to support her family.
Only when she cleans her master's art studio does she find enjoyment in her work. She starts learning to see the world through
an artists eyes. Griet's moods adds depth to this story of self-discovery and art.
My thoughts...
This book was a look back to the way a maid lived during this time in history.
It brings out the little things that we take for granted today, such as family. When Griet leaves, her father gives her a
tile, which later on in the story gets broken by a cruel master. The broken tile, for Griet, was a symbol on how her
life was falling apart. Love and unity was a expressed in this novel; even though serving a family is hard,
Griet was willing to work from dawn till dusk to support her family. In the end, even her critical decision was done
in favor of her family. With this and much more, Chevalier's novel touched based on emotions and gives the
reader a sense of appreciation of not only art but life as well.
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m0m0's book review
The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy
Chevalier was a book that was inspired by a painting named “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” by a Jan Vermeer
who was a painter of the Baroque Era. The girl in the painting is revealed to be the main character of Chevalier’s story.
Not only this painting, but tons of other paintings by Vermeer were discussed about in this book in a story-telling fashion.
This book does not only attempt to explain the stories and meaning behind the paintings of Vermeer but also speculate to what
kind of life he had once led.
I found this book to be quite the interesting
read since it derives it stories from paintings from the past and which barely has any type of info behind it. It’s
like an art analysis essay, except instead of being the spectators of the painting, we are
what is painted. I feel in a way that by analyzing a painting by trying to be that person in the painting helps us better
understand and relate to it. Not only that, but it makes the painting more interesting and intriguing. It’s like they
say, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
This book offers an idea of what’s going
on behind the scenes and help people notice things about art that they haven’t noticed before. Like when I first analyzed
the painting of the girl with the pearl earring, I thought it looked like any other normal portrait of a person, but when
I read the book, I began to find some things strange in the picture. If one were to compare this painting to Vermeer’s
other paintings, they would find that the headdress of the girl with the pearl earring is strange. Usually, in that Vermeer’s
time, the maids wore some type of bonnet that covered their hair, and women of status wouldn’t even wear a hat. This
woman didn’t wear either of that, but some other headdress. Questions then pop up about what does this mean, why does
she wear it, what is her true status. This is what I truly like about this book. How it makes you think about not only the
story but about the paintings it’s based on.
Overall, I think The Girl with the Pearl Earring was pretty entertaining.
It gives the readers an insight to the social life of the Baroque Era and ideas to meanings of the painting. The storytelling
is pretty great and stays true to the character. It’s realistic in how the main character’s role in society. Even
though it’s quite mellow and pretty much straight to the point, so I don’t recommend this book for people looking
for amazing plot twists or unexpected events. It’s all pretty linear and all who’s interested in either the painting
or society of Baroque should read it.
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webmaster: lino
pages done by lino, m0m0 and thompkins
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