Selected Product:
| Girl in Hyacinth Blue (Paperback)
Paperback
Author: Susan Vreeland
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Release Date: 2000-10-01
ISBN-10: 014029628X
ISBN-13: 9780140296280
List Price: $13.00
Average Customer Rating:
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
There are only 35 known Vermeers extant in the world today. In Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Susan Vreeland posits the existence of a 36th. The story begins at a private boys' academy in Pennsylvania where, in the wake of a faculty member's unexpected death, math teacher Cornelius Engelbrecht makes a surprising revelation to one of his colleagues. He has, he claims, an authentic Vermeer painting, "a most extraordinary painting in which a young girl wearing a short blue smock over a rust-colored skirt sat in profile at a table by an open window." His colleague, an art teacher, is skeptical and though the technique and subject matter are persuasively Vermeer-like, Engelbrecht can offer no hard evidence--no appraisal, no papers--to support his claim. He says only that his father, "who always had a quick eye for fine art, picked it up, let us say, at an advantageous moment." Eventually it is revealed that Engelbrecht's father was a Nazi in charge of rounding up Dutch Jews for deportation and that the picture was looted from one doomed family's home: That's when I saw that painting, behind his head. All blues and yellows and reddish brown, as translucent as lacquer. It had to be a Dutch master. Just then a private found a little kid covered with tablecloths behind some dishes in a sideboard cabinet. We'd almost missed him.
I loved this book
| Customer Rating: | | This was the latest selection of the book club I belong to. I have to say it's my favorite book so far (we've been together for 4 years). It has depth, sincerity and is beautifully written. |
A Gentle, Lovely Tale
| Customer Rating: | Have you ever picked up an old, old article and wondered about the story behind it? Have you looked at beautiful art and wondered about that? Girl in Hyacinth Blue is a novel which traces the fictional provenance of a painting by Vermeer backwards from it's current owner to the time the artist was inspired to paint it.
The style reminds me of a group of storytellers sitting around a table, each picking up where the other leaves off, and each telling a very different, sometimes very dramatic rendering of an object's journey through time. Yet all are tied together by a fascination and a reverance for the skill of the artist and the subject of his work.
A young girl sees,"The face of the girl in the painting almost glowed, her blue eyes, cheeks, the corners of her mouth all bright and glossy, the light coming right at her across the space between them. She seemed more real than the people in the room."
And so this precious painting comes into their home for a short intelude before their lives are ended and the spoils go to the victor. Much, much earlier, the carefully wrapped painting is discovered in a boat along with a newborn child during a flood. "Sell the painting. Feed the child," are the words written on the back of an art document.
And so we are drawn back to the very moment of inspiration. This is a gentle, lovely tale of how a thing of beauty can affect the lives of many.
by Judith Helburn
for StorycircleBookReviews
www.storycirclebookreviews.org
reviewing books by, for, and about women
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Sweet and Poignant
| Customer Rating: | Is it a Vermeer or isn't it?
That is the thread that holds these eight short stories together.
Susan Vreeland takes us on a journey back in time that starts with the current owner of a beautiful painting thought to be one of the lost paintings of the Dutch artist Vermeer.
As we approach each sub-story we travel back a little further in time to each previous owner of the painting and how owning it has affected their lives. Set mostly in Holland and The Netherlands the Dutch names for places can be a bit difficult to pronounce but do not detract from the overall power of this small book.
Each individual story line is easy to follow. My only question would be what ultimately happens to the current owner of the painting (who is afraid to show it to the world since his father obtained it through his position with the German police during WW II).
I highly recommend this book.
Marion Marchetto
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Short and sweet
| Customer Rating: | Girl in Hyacinth Blue is a series of vignettes chronicling the reverse history of a fictional Vermeer painting of the same name. Vreeland's colorful portraits of Dutch life, from the wealthy to the poorest peasants, spanning several hundred years, are fascinating. I wouldn't have minded delving further into each of the tales, and the only other thing that could have improved the book was if the painting, which plays a silent, starring role in each of the stories, really existed.
GiHB was enjoyable, but was a small disappointment after Vreeland's breathtaking Luncheon of the Boating Party. |
Beautifully Written
| Customer Rating: | | While this book was written beautifully; her research evident in all the stories, I didn't care for it. I was expecting another "Girl With A Pearl Earring." Even though it was brilliant the way all the stories led from one to the next, I would have preferred one long story. Vreeland is an excellent writer, I don't have complaints in that department, nor in any departmnt; it just wasn't my cup of tea. What it did do, however, is make me more curious about Vermeer's work. I plan to look up his paintings and enjoy his beautiful talent. |
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