Ready Reference Treatise: Girl With a Pearl Earring

By Raja Sharma

The book was made into a movie in 2003 and then in the year 2008 it was adapted into a play.

According to the author, she had bought that painting when she was nineteen years old, and after that she kept it with her wherever she went for the following sixteen years. She admits that the ambiguous look on the face of the girl in the painting created a very long lasting impression on the author’s mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Aug 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370740277

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: Girl With a Pearl Earring

Copyright

Ready Reference Treatise: Girl With a Pearl Earring

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2016 Raja Sharma

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Chapter One: Introduction

Girl With a Pear Earring by Tracy Chevalier was first published in 1999. It is a historical novel. The story of the novel is set in 17th century Delft, Netherlands.

The story is said to have been inspired by a painting Girl With a Pearl Earring made by Johannes Vermeer, a Delft school painter. In this fictional account presented in the book, the author presents a fictional account of painter Vermeer, the model, and the painting called ‘Girl with the Earring.’

The book was made into a movie in 2003 and then in the year 2008 it was adapted into a play.

According to the author, she had bought that painting when she was nineteen years old, and after that she kept it with her wherever she went for the following sixteen years.

She admits that the ambiguous look on the face of the girl in the painting created a very long lasting impression on the author’s mind.

She explains that the girl’s face reflected several contradictions: she looked innocent and experienced at the same time, the face looked both joyous and tearful, and it reflected both longing and loss.

The author eventually decided to think of the story that lay behind the look on the face of the girl in the painting.

To gather more details about the novel, the author did a lot of research and read the history of the period. She began to study the paintings of Vermeer and his contemporaries. She spent many days in Delft, gathering more information about the painter and the painting.

Eventually, she completed the writing of the novel in eight months.

Chapter Two: Plot Overview.

The year is 1664. The place is Delft, Holland. Griet is a sixteen-year-old girl who lives there with her family. Her father happens to have lost his eyes in an accident. The family falls into very critical financial situation.

The family is eventually forced to find a job for Griet. She gets employed as a maid in painter Johannes Vermeer’s household.

Since most of the maids are often believed to steal things and spy on people and sleep with their employers, Griet’s reputation comes under doubt too. The narrator does not reveal how much of the reputation is really earned.

While working as a maid, Griet becomes friends with the family’s oldest daughter, Maertge. Cornelia is Vermeer’s one of younger daughters, but Griet is not on