Readings.com.au: Tracy Chevalier

Remarkable Creatures

Mary Anning, born in a poor family, lived in Lyme Regis and from an early age was fascinated by the fossils, then called snake stones and devil′s toenails, that could then by picked up on the beaches. She became far more interested when she realised that these could be sold to the gentry who had grown into avid collectors. She was supported by her family in her enterprise but was often ripped off by the buyers and derided by the scientists. One person came to her rescue: Elizabeth Philpot, daughter of a wealthy family who had settled in Dorset to escape the stultifying respectability of genteel London society.

The two women, of different ages and very different class and background, became unlikekly friends but the relationship was to take on stranger twists as the excitement of the fossil discoveries - Mary Anning finds the first compelte plesiosaur - turns to religious difficulties as the importance of these finds begins to spread.

Girl With A Pearl Earring

Using the famous painting by Vermeer as an inspiration, A Girl With a Pearl Earring is a brilliant historical novel about the corruption of innocence, Griet, the young daughter of a tilemaker in seventeeth century Holland, obtains her first job as a servant in Vermeer's household. Tracy Chevalier shows us through Griet's eyes, the complicated family, the society of the small town of Delft, and life with an obsessive genius. Griet loves being drawn into his artistic life and leaving her former drudgery, but the cost to her own survival may be high . . .

The Virgin Blue

Tracy Chevalier′s first novel tells the compelling story of two women‚ born four centuries apart‚ and the ancestral legacy that binds them.

Ella Turner does her best to fit in to the small‚ close−knit community of Lisle−sur−Tarn‚ where she has moved with her husband. She even changes her name back to Tournier‚ and knocks the rust off her high school French. In vain. Isolated and lonely‚ she is drawn to investigate her Tournier ancestry‚ which leads to her encounter with the town′s wolfish librarian‚ and a journey of self−discovery.

Isabelle du Moulin‚ known as Le Rousse due to her fiery red hair‚ is tormented and shunned in the village − suspected of witchcraft and reviled for her association with the Virgin Mary. Falling pregnant‚ she is forced to marry into the ruling family: the Tourniers. Tormentor becomes husband‚ and a shocking fate awaits her.

Plagued by the colour blue‚ Ella is haunted by parallels with the past‚ and by her recurring dream. Then one morning she wakes up to discover that her hair is turning inexplicably red...

The Lady And The Unicorn

The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries are a set of six medieval tapestries. Beautiful‚ intricate and expertly made‚ they are also mysterious in their origin and meaning.

Tapestries give an appearance of order and continuity‚ as if designed and made by one person‚ belying the complicated process required to create them. Weavers‚ patrons‚ designers‚ artists‚ merchants and apprentices were involved in their making‚ and behind them were the wives‚ daughters and servants who exercised influences over their men. Like the many strands of wool and silk woven together into one cloth‚ so these people came together in a complex dance to create the whole picture.

Jean le Viste‚ a newly wealthy member of the French court‚ commissions the tapestries to hang in his chateau. Nicolas‚ his chosen designer‚ meets le Viste′s wife Genevieve and his daughter Claude‚ both of whom take a keen interest in the tapestries. From Paris‚ Nicolas moves to a weaver′s workshop in Brussels in order to complete the commission.

The creation of the tapestries brings together people who would not otherwise meet − their lives become entangled‚ and so do their desires. As they fall in love‚ are shunned‚ take revenge‚ find unrequited love‚ turn to the church or to pagan ideals‚ the tapestries become to each an ideal vision of life − yet all discover that they are unable to make this ideal world their own.

Falling Angels

1901‚ the year of Queen Victoria′s death. The two graves stood next to each other‚ both beautifully decorated. One had a large urn − some might say ridiculously large − and the other‚ almost leaning over the first‚ an angel − some might say overly sentimental.

The two families visiting the cemetery to view their respective neighbouring graves were divided even more by social class than by taste. They would certainly never have become acquainted had not their two girls‚ meeting behind the tombstones‚ become best friends. And furthermore − and even more unsuitably − become involved in the life of the gravedigger′s son.

As the girls grow up‚ as the century wears on‚ as the new era and the new King change social customs‚ the lives and fortunes of the Colemans and the Waterhouses become more and more closely intertwined − neighbours in life as well as death.

Burning Bright

The last decade of the eighteenth century brought huge political upheaval to Britain. The execution of the King of France‚ the scenes of the jubilant revolutionaries dancing around the guillotine‚ the seizure of property‚ brought hope to some and fear to others. And it is in this period that Tracy Chevalier has set her remarkable new novel‚ ′Burning Bright′.

The Kellaways were chair−makers and had always lived in Dorset. Personal tragedy brought them to London‚ to work for the famous Astley′s Circus. The change to the tumultuous street−life of Lambeth was amazing to the whole family‚ but it was their son‚ Jem‚ always the quickest‚ the most questioning‚ who discovered not only his guide to London − and much else − in Maggie Butterfield and but also the extraordinary ways of their neighbour‚ William Blake.

The interweaving lives of the innocent country Kellaways‚ the experienced London Butterfields‚ the strange but passionate man of conscience‚ William Blake‚ meant that none of them were unchanged‚ and some paid a heavy price for their resistance or support in a time of high social unrest.

′Burning Bright′ is not only a brilliant portrait of a time of revolution in Britain but it is also Tracy Chevalier′s most powerful and moving novel‚ full of extraordinary characters‚ and remarkable insight into the qualities of innocence and experience.

Girl With A Pearl Earring: Illustrated Edition

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Burning Bright Audio

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Girl With A Pearl Earring Audio

This bestselling modern classic is now available on audio. An event not to be missed.

Girl With A Pearl Earring

Hailed as a masterpiece of restrained erotic tension, Girl With A Pearl Earring is an achingly beautiful tale of forbidden love and tormented talent. Set in cloistered 17th century Holland, Scarlett Johansson is Griet, an innocent young woman sent to work in the household of the mysterious painter, Dutch Master, Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth).

Despite his wife's protestations about their new maid, Vermeer begins to see intelligence and understanding flickering in her eyes and slowly, tentatively lets her in to his private world of oils, canvasses and concentration.

But the ramifications of this tender and intimate bond will be explosive when Vermeer asks his young muse to secretly pose for his latest painting.

Based on the international best seller by Tracy Chevalier, Girl With A Pearl Earring evocatively brings to life the story behind one of the most beguiling portraits in history and the inspiration, rapture and pain that went into creating it.