Tracy Chevalier

[Evapohler]

She is my new favorite author. I started with Girl with Pearl Earring, then The Virgin Blue, then Falling Angels, then Remarkable Creatures, and finally The Lady and the Unicorn and have loved all. I love the way she takes a historical character or moment and brings it to life!

What do you think?

[Fran]

I agree with you Evapohler, I read Remarkable Creatures last week and really enjoyed it. As you say, she has a way of thaking historical characters and making them readable and enjoyable. I read a good few of her book & loved all of them but it would be very, very difficault to surpass Girl With a Pearl Earring

[Evapohler]

A Girl with Pear Earring was brilliant, but I think I like Falling Angels just slightly better. I don't know, because they're all so good! Virgin Blue was my least fav.

[Butterbescotch]

I haven't read the "A Girl with A Pearl Earring" but I have read some good reviews about it last several months. Is it the story of a servant who falls in love with his master, who happens to be a painter?

I think I'm going to see the movie first before deciding to read the book.

[Fran]

I haven't read the "A Girl with A Pearl Earring" but I have read some good reviews about it last several months. Is it the story of a servant who falls in love with his master, who happens to be a painter?

I think I'm going to see the movie first before deciding to read the book.

Not just a painter Butterbescotch ... but the one and only Vermeer
It's a really lovely book ... you should read it & better than the movie although as adaptations go the movie isn't bad.

[Evapohler]

Butterbe,

Chevalier takes Vermeer's painting, "A Girl with Pearl Earring," and creates this awesome fictional story showing how Vermeer might have come about painting that particular work. To me, the novel brings so much more life to the painting. It's incredible.

It's uplifting and tragic at the same time, in my opinion.

[Techforums123]

Tracy Chevalier is, without doubt, best known for her hugely successful novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring (1999), which ingeniously combines historical fact with imagination to tell the story behind the painting of the same name by the 17th-century Dutch genre painter, Jan Vermeer. Vermeer was an inspired choice as a subject because he is so enigmatic: very few biographical details are known about him, which allows plenty of scope for invention, and his paintings, though seemingly about everyday subjects, often have a mysterious, even poignant quality. It is difficult to look upon one of his works without both wondering at his technical skill and wanting to know more about the men and, more commonly, the women, who populate it. In the painting 'The Kitchen Maid' for example, one cannot help but speculate about what the maid is thinking as she hears the splash of the milk in the bowl; in the 'Lady in Blue reading a Letter' we ask ourselves if the letter is perhaps from an absent lover, our thoughts fueled by a number of hints put in by Vermeer -

[Evapohler]

Very nice post! I wish Chevalier would write stories about the paintings you described.

[primrose777]

I loved the Girl With the Pearl Earring, It is the only book of Tracy Chevalier I have read so far but enjoyed it so much I researched all the books she has written, made a list and will gradually work my way through them. I have Falling Angels now and will start it soon. I have heard great reviews of it.

-- 16 Feb 2013, 05:48 --

Nine months later and I have finished "Falling Angels". ( It did not take me nine months to read mind you )
I loved this book, I have read only "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" so far and though I enjoyed it I think I orefer Falling Angels,\.
The format surprised me at first, the story told through short chapters narrated by the individual characters, but i was soon drawn in and found myself in Victorian times and the lives within.
I enjoy Tracy Chevaliers writing very much and she is fast becoming one of my favorite authors.
I acquired Burning Bright today, I hope to have it read way before nine months

-- 16 Feb 2013, 05:48 --

Nine months later and I have finished "Falling Angels". ( It did not take me nine months to read mind you )
I loved this book, I have read only "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" so far and though I enjoyed it I think I orefer Falling Angels,\.
The format surprised me at first, the story told through short chapters narrated by the individual characters, but i was soon drawn in and found myself in Victorian times and the lives within.
I enjoy Tracy Chevaliers writing very much and she is fast becoming one of my favorite authors.
I acquired Burning Bright today, I hope to have it read way before nine months