Girl with a Pearl earring, with a charm as discreet as a jewel
I love reading, but it's not always a honeymoon. I have things to do, I get preoccupied, I get swept away like a train sometimes and I don't even want to catch my breath. Well this book managed to hook me and keep me on the platform.
If you have seen the movie in which the most beautiful woman in the world (Scarlett Johansson) plays, you know the story. There's not much to say about it, there's hardly anything going on. A 17-year-old girl is hired as a servant by the painter Vermeer, who takes her as a model. The end. And yet, such a breathtaking book is rare.
The young girl, Griet, is extremely shy, as was customary at the time. Throughout the book, she says almost nothing, yet her masters are suspicious of her, for they sense that she will bring trouble. For her beauty? For her character that shows behind all her masks? I didn't quite get it. In this novel, everything is in the small details.
The relationship between the painter and the maid is built extremely quietly. As I said, it's all in the details: Griet starts to get a little disturbed by being around him. He shows her a little more attention than necessary. Nothing specific. Then Griet feels a certain warmth in her chest and stomach. The painter starts to paint her. But he will never go further in his demonstrations of affection than a small caress on the cheek. And it is one of the most erotic moments I have read in a long time.
I missed a bus stop because of this book. I have watched and watched again the original portrait, which I am now totally enamored of. I am also a little more dreamy, more sensitive to the little details: a ray of sunlight, a rebellious lock of hair, the expressions, the tones of voice.
This book gave me exactly what I'm looking for in a book. It's a real jewel, that we devour too quickly for our taste and that tints all our days. The kind of book that makes our days more beautiful because we know we will find it again in the evening.
Tracy Chevalier
14,36 $
