*** This book is now out of print and these are the last of the brand new copies available. Once stocks run out it may be difficult to pick up a new copy.
Booktopia Comments: This edition is a Limited Edition with new material and illustrations. A really solid hardcover book that is excellent to hold and the perfect gift or for yourself.
One of the best-loved paintings in the world is a mystery. Who is the model and why has she been painted? What is she thinking as she stares out at us? Are her wide eyes and enigmatic half-smile innocent or seductive? And why is she wearing a pearl earring?
In seventeenth-century Delft, life is orderly. Rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant, master and servant, all know their place.
So when Griet becomes a maid in the household of painter Johannes Vermeer, she thinks she knows her role: housework, laundry and the care of his six children. She even feels able to handle his shrewd mother-in-law, his restless wife and their jealous servant.
What no one expects is that Griet's quiet manner, quick perceptions and fascination with her master's paintings will draw her inexorably into his world. Their growing intimacy spreads tension and deception in the ordered household and even - as the scandal seeps out - ripples in the town.