Ciao - for people with opinions

Latest reviews Latest questions
Write a review Latest videos
Special offers
Home > Books > Fiction > Modern Fiction Books > G Modern Fiction Books > Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier

User Reviews

for Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier

Rating Summary based on 11 reviews

  • 5 Stars
    		9
  • 4 Stars
    		1
  • 3 Stars
    		1
  • 2 Stars
    		0
  • 1 Star
    		0

Detailed rating

  • Characters
  • How does it compare to other works by the same author?
  • How does it compare to similar books?
  • Readability
  • Story
  		• 4.5
  		• 2.7
  		• 4.2
  		• 4.4
  		• 4.1

Review attribute filters

Previous page Next page Page 1 of 2 | 1 to 10 out of 11 Review(s)
  • 66 of 66 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of silver40

    silver40

    5 Stars Vermeers betrayal of a poor girls love. 11/10/2003
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages A wonderful atmospheric and subtle novel

    Disadvantages Disadvantages You are sorry it ends after only 248 pages

    This atmospheric and evocative novel "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is full of insight and passion.I sympathised with the girl Griet and got angry at the suppression of intelligence and the unfairness of privilege; to be a poor young girl in Delft was to be taken advantage of and used for hard work and treated as a sex object. The unnecessary submissiveness of an intelligent and hard working girl made me seethe,I felt mad at the unfairness of class and ashamed at the use of favours by men using the unfair advantage of their gender. Tracy Chevalier has a very subtle touch and draws the reader into ... more
  • 82 of 82 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of Ophelia

    Ophelia

    5 Stars A Work of Art 17/12/2002
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Evocative, well written, powerful

    Disadvantages Disadvantages An uncomfortable read

    The cover of the novel is graced with a painting by Johannes Vermeer of a young girl sitting turned away from the front but turning her fresh face back towards the artist. The background to the painting is dark so all attention is focussed on the subject. She is plainly dressed, her hair demurely covered but her moistened, parted lips suggest a more mature wisdom to life. Her eyes glisten and the same bright light is reflected in the pearl earring dangling from her left lobe. Chevalier has obviously been fascinated by this portrait and has written a novel describing the girl in the painting ... more
  • 26 of 26 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of Bryn_Pearson

    Bryn_Pearson

    5 Stars A finely crafted novel 21/08/2003
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages brilliant detail

    Disadvantages Disadvantages none

    'Girl with a pearl earring' is a novel based on a painting of the same name, and it seems to make sense to start by talking about the art. On your way to this op, you should have seen the book cover. If you get chance, go back and have another look. The detail isn't so clear on this website, but it gives you an idea. A girl gazes over her shoulder, looking out at someone, perhaps at the artist who paints her. Her expression is enigmatic; perhaps fearful, perhaps seductive, certainly haunted, perhaps as though she about to say something. It is a young face, but one full of character and emotion ... more
  • 44 of 44 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of pixiedon

    pixiedon

    5 Stars Interesting girl 10/07/2003
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Vivid, involving

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Who is to say what is true

    ' Girl With A Pearl Earring' is told through the eyes of 16-year old Griet, the narrator. The reader sees her grow from a young girl who lives at home with her mother, father and younger sister into a woman with a family of her own. She goes from innocence and purity to experience throughout the course of the book. At the beginning of the book, Griet is chosen to work as maid for the artist Vermeer in his home in the Catholic quarter of Delft, 'Papists' corner'. Both the world of a maid and the Catholic lifestyle are startlingly new to Griet who was raised a Protestant. Griet's first ... more
  • 35 of 35 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of spobz

    spobz

    5 Stars what wouldn't we do for love 04/04/2003
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages a classic story of social strife and unrequited love

    Disadvantages Disadvantages unrequited love... Can it ever be good?

    Tracy Chevalier has written 2 other works, one of which was Fallen Angel, which I started to read, but when read any book, I need to feel passionate about some element of it, and unfortunately, there was nothing to interest me in that. But this one, lets me begin by saying that 'fictional' history is her forte. Set in Renaissance Holland, with enchanting, romantic and realistic descriptions, which luckily for me, do not take over what I feel to be the more important descriptive passages relating to emotions and characterisation, but do just enough to paint a pretty picture in my head of a ... more
  • 67 of 67 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of lazuli77

    lazuli77

    3 Stars Endurance 20/01/2005
    User doesn't recommend the product

    Advantages Advantages An insight into an artists and a women's life in the 17th century

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Slow, boring, characters are very flat

    I turned the last page on Tracy Chevalier’s book “The Girl with the Pearl Earring”, today, a good three weeks since I started reading it. The story itself only takes off after Griet, a 16 year old girl is forced to leave her parents home to serve at the Vermeer’s home. Following her father’s, a tile maker, accident with the kiln that left him blind, the family begins to struggle financially. Griet’s brother has left home to learn the craft of his dad’s profession and Agnes, her little sister is only 10 years old. There is no other option but to resign to life as a servant. Despite Griet’s ... more
  • 5 of 5 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of Aurea

    Aurea

    5 Stars Art and Sensualitty 14/05/2001
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages A good and charm story. You earn a lot about Art and other things

    Disadvantages Disadvantages none

    In Spain, Tracey Chevalier isn't so knowing as in England or USA and it is her first novel published in my country. I brougth her novel after read an interesting interview with her in a newpaper, and while I was reading it I knowing I was going to like her novel. The novel tells us the story of Griet, the girl that is in Veemer's paint "The Girl with the pearl earring". Tracey Chevalier, has wrote a wonderful story about this girl, triying to imagine who was and what was her relation with Veemer, and she does that perfect. The story is so nice, and you can lear a lot of things about the ... more
  • 12 of 12 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of lightower

    lightower

    5 Stars Once upon a time in Delf. 14/12/2004
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Beautiful, a piece of art, easy to read, lovely

    Disadvantages Disadvantages It has no disadvantages

    Hello everybody, this is my first review in this Ciao, I've been a member of the Spanish Ciao for more than one year and now I have decided to join this ciao too. Especially in order to learn English (I'm studying it here in the languages school), but also in order to meet people and friends. I want to begin with the last novel I've read, it's the wonderful "Girl with a pearl earring". It's a novel written by Tracy Chevalier, I haven't read other books of the author yet but I will do it when I have the opportunity. In this book we can find a mixture of art, literature and history that are ... more
  • 8 of 11 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of lauracallaghan83

    lauracallaghan83

    5 Stars Pearl-fect. 21/07/2004
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages A fantasticly rich and touching read that appeals to one's delicate senibilities.

    Disadvantages Disadvantages It starts quite slowly, and is not advisable for those looking for an action thriller!

    This novel is near perfect: delicate and deep characterisations, aching representations of human emotion, historical contextual accuracy, and evocative visual intensity. It calls out to those who need an outlet for their rampant sensibilities! And what an outlet. The story is drawn from the life of a young maid in the seventeenth century who worked for the painter Johannes Vermeer. Simply at a artistic historical level, one can't resist reading on; when you couple this with the depth of passion and exquisite detail in the novel, it leads to what can only be described as a magical read. I ... more
  • 6 of 10 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of froggyandgiraffe

    froggyandgiraffe

    5 Stars Girl With a Pearl Earring 26/05/2007
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages beautiful language, wonderful plot

    Disadvantages Disadvantages none

    This book tells the story of a young girl who goes to work as a maid for the Delft artist, Vermeer. It follows her story from young teenager through to adulthood and all the emotional journey that takes her there. She goes to work to earn money for the family as her father was blinded through an accident. The world that she now finds herself in as a maid for the great painter and art dealer is full of heart wrenching moments as well as prickling with sexual tension. It is the beautifully crafted language that Chevalier uses to express the simplest of moments that create the wonderful narrative ... more
Previous page Next page Page 1 of 2 | 1 to 10 out of 11 Review(s)

Compare prices

for Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier