Just Finished Reading: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

Delft, Holland: 1664. After her father is blinded in a kiln accident Griet (played by Scarlett Johansson in the 2003 movie adaptation) is forced by her family into becoming a maid in the household of local artist Johannes Vermeer (played by Colin Firth). As she struggles to fit into her new, and strange, surroundings she begins to develop a relationship with the artist himself. At first tentatively and then with slowly building confidence both parties realise that Griet can contribute to Vermeer’s art – with the physical work of grinding paint, using her unique way of seeing things to suggest ideas and, finally, as a model. But when this becomes known, first in the house itself and then beyond its walls, those around her react in different and surprising ways – with anger, envy, jealousy and rage. But what is a girl to do when she is presented with the opportunity to be immortalised in oils?

At a mere 248 pages this is a delightful little book. Griet herself is a fascinating creation – confident in her abilities (in another age she would have been an artist too) and yet stifled by convention from expressing them, more than aware of her very limited possibilities for happiness because of the accident of her lowly birth, yet smart enough to see her way through a host of difficult social situations. Supported by a host of interesting and individual characters – from the great artist himself to his objectionable sponsor, from the artists constantly pregnant and deeply unhappy wife to the spitefully dangerous daughter of the house determined to do anything to have Griet expelled in shame, this is a novel full of the day-to-day drama that makes up the existence of the majority of humanity. Very evocative of time, place and the fragility of life it highlights the tightrope that women of that time needed to walk in order to get what they could out of life without pushing convention too far and thereby ending up with nothing but a disgraced reputation. Reading this is definitely a good way to spend a pleasant weekend far away from the cares of the 21^st century world and in the company of a girl coming of age and struggling to find her way in the world. Recommended.