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How long does it take to read Girl with a Pearl Earring?

Tracy Chevalier

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier takes about 4 hours 58 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 4 hours 58 minutes

A weekend read

First published 1999. 271 pages, about 74,525 words.

10 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 8 hours 17 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 4 hours 58 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 3 hours 6 minutes

The page count is the median across 47 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

This book "centres on Vermeer's prosperous household in Delft in the 1660s. The appointment of the quiet, perceptive heroine of the novel, the servant Griet, gradually throws the household into turmoil as Vermeer and Griet become increasingly intimate, an increasingly tense situation that culminates in her working for Vermeer as his assistant, and ultimately sitting for him as a model. Chevalier deliberately cultivates a limpid, painstakingly observed style in homage to Vermeer, and the complex domestic tensions of the Vermeer household are vividly evoked, from the jealous, vain, young wife to the wise, taciturn mother-in-law. At times the relationship between servant and master seems a little anachronistic, but Girl with a Pearl Earring does contain a final delicious twist in its tail."--Product description.

Subjects: Artists' models, Artists' models in fiction, Social life and customs, Fiction, Vermeer, Johannes, in fiction, Women household employees in fiction

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