Girl With a Pearl Earring

I found myself picking up a relative’s copy of Tracy Chevalier’s novel during a stay at their house, I decided to just go for it. Usually I like to know a little more about a book than just the synopsis, but I had nothing to read and a good few days to spend as I pleased, so I dove straight into it.

I was fairly familiar with Chevalier’s style, as I read another of her novels a couple of years ago, but it was nothing compared to Girl With a Pearl Earring. I’ve read a lot of complaints that the narration is boring and flat, but I didn’t find that at all.

Griet, the protagonist, takes us through the years she spent working as a maid for the Vermeer household. Her voice always carries itself wonderfully through the novel, whatever is happening at the time. For a lot of the book she’s simply carrying out her work, washing clothes and looking after the many children of the house, but even that is captivating to read.

Then in the chapters leading up to the famous painting scene, as the tension builds very slowly and delicately, it becomes almost impossible to put down. I found myself glued to the sofa for a good two hours because I had to finish it.

The ending felt slightly disappointing to me, personally, just because I found that she wrapped everything up very quickly like she was trying to finish it as fast as she could. But that’s a small price to pay for an otherwise fantastic novel. If you haven’t read it I highly recommend that you do. The best thing I’ve read so far this summer by far.

More Information

Wikipedia page
Goodreads page