Tracy Chevalier · 1999 · exile

Tracy Chevalier's 1999 novel, imagined from a painting whose sitter nobody has ever identified. A tile-painter's daughter is sent into service in Vermeer's household when her father is blinded, given the studio to clean, and slowly drawn into the making of a picture that will cost her the position.

1. 1
   Griet's house

   The Protestant quarter of Delft in 1664, and a tile-painter blinded in a kiln explosion - which is why his sixteen-year-old daughter is sent out to service in a household on the other side of town.

2. 2
   Papists' Corner

   The Catholic quarter, and the house on the Oude Langendijk belonging to Maria Thins - where Griet becomes a maid, and is given one duty nobody else has: cleaning the studio without moving anything.

3. 3
   The Meat Hall

   The Vleeshal on the Voldersgracht, where Griet is sent for the household's meat and where Pieter the butcher's son starts finding reasons to serve her himself.

4. 4
   The Market Square

   The Nieuwe Kerk and the square, and the small distances that matter enormously - Delft is a few hundred paces across, and Griet crosses a religious frontier every morning to go to work.

5. 5
   Rotterdam

   Her brother Frans, apprenticed to a tile factory and hating it, and the walk out to see him - the one time the novel leaves Delft, and the one time Griet sees what the alternative to service looks like.

6. 6
   The Oude Kerk

   Where Vermeer is buried in 1675, and where the story ends: Griet called back to the house after eleven years to be given the earrings, and pawning them to clear her husband's debt to the family.