"Girl with a Pearl Earring"

Author: Tracey Chevalier
Genre: Historical/Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2001
Pages: 240
My Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Tracy Chevalier's inspiration for Girl with the Pearl Earring was a poster of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring. She bought the poster as a nineteen-year-old, and it hung wherever she lived for sixteen years. Chevalier notes that the "ambiguous look" on the girl's face left the "most lasting impression" on her. She describes the girl's expression "to be a mass of contradictions: innocent yet experienced, joyous yet tearful, full of longing and yet full of loss." She began to think that the girl had directed all these emotions at the painter, and began to think of the "story behind that look". Chevalier's research included reading the history of the period, studying the paintings of Vermeer and his peers, and spending several days in Delft. Pregnant at the time of researching and writing, she finished the work in eight months, because, as she admitted, she had a "biological deadline".

Review: I didn't see this movie, but the book was on my "must read" list for awhile. It was excellent. I love that the author took a painting and created a story around it. Someone needs to do that with the Mona Lisa. Chevalier transports the reader back in time to become an invisible character in her story. It ends all too soon.