Irmo Branch Library - Multimedia Book Club discussion

Happy New Year Everyone!

We hope you had a wonderful holiday season and enjoyed the past two months' conversations on, "A Christmas Carol." This month, we will be transitioning into the new year with a historical fiction novel written in 1999. Author, Tracy Chevalier wrote, "Girl with a Pearl Earring," creating a unique story about a young woman depicted in one of the world's most famous paintings by Johannes Vermeer circa 1665.
Mysterious and alluring, Chevalier fashions a young servant girl in the household of a passionate painter. With like minds, the pair forms a bond, creating scandal and chaos in a strict and organized surrounding. You can read the author's summary of the novel here: https://www.tchevalier.com/gwape/story/
Why did Vermeer paint solitary women in various settings? Why did he choose to paint this young woman? What story is her countenance telling? That's up to the readers to find out and decide.
Such a striking tale caught the attention of screenplay writer, Olivia Hetreed. Hetreed created a screenplay to pass on to director, Peter Webber. Webber turned the screenplay of "Girl with a Pearl Earring," into a three-time Academy Award nominated film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. For the month of January, let's dive into Chevalier's novel and the film adaptation to meet the, "Girl with a Pearl Earring."

The novel and film can be found on hoopladigital.com. Happy reading!

I'm circling back to this discussion now that I'm back and in the swing of things! I remember when this book and the subsequent film made an impression in the '00s. It's interesting to read/watch now, in light of how the world has changed in the past twenty years and can't help but wonder if it isn't a different book in the post-"Me Too" cultural landscape. I look forward to jumping into the discussion!

Here is a link to a short video about the painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring," with commentary about the original artwork: https://youtu.be/M-jLsoA1i_o
Check out more from this series:
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanitie...