The Miniaturist

Elizabeth Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, The Seventeenth Century Leave a Comment

The year is 1686 and Petronella Oortman has arrived in Amsterdam, the glittering utopia city with pomp and splendor. The protagonist called “Nella” has come to move in to her husband, Johannes Brandt’s home. She is a quiet country girl from a very old Dutch family with a good name, hailing originally from the smaller town, Assendelft.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Elizabeth Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, The Seventeenth Century Leave a Comment

We have all seen that mysterious painting, the one known as “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” the seventeenth-century masterpiece of Johannes “Jan” Vermeer. One can even go so far to say that “Girl with a Pearl Earring” is “the Dutch Mona Lisa,” as some have taken to calling it.