Tulip Fever [Paperback]

The Amsterdam of the early 17th century has been forever immortalised by the serene, precise domestic realism of the canvases of Vermeer and Rembrandt, and has been studied with meticulous care by Simon Schama in his marvellous book The Embarrassment of Riches. What Schama identified at the heart of the opulent display of conspicuous consumption in Dutch still-life painting was an anxiety about wealth and commodification which ran throughout 17th-century life in the Low Countries, an argument beautifully complemented by Ann Pavord's marvellous book on The Tulip.

Deborah Moggach's novel Tulip Fever gives both Schama and Pavord's studies a compelling fictional twist. Set in 1630s Amsterdam, it begins with a typical Renaissance love triangle: a wealthy, elderly merchant, Cornelis Sandvoort, his beautiful but frustrated young wife Sophia and the painter who enters their life, Jan van Loos. Commissioned to paint the happy couple's portrait, Jan becomes embroiled in a series of emotional and financial speculations which are to change the character's lives forever. Interspersed with 16 beautifully reproduced Dutch paintings, Tulip Fever is a delightfully conceived story which offers a new dimension to what really goes on within the apparently placid domestic interiors of such canvases. --Jerry Brotton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

" Beautifully written, a verbal kaleidoscope that flicks rapidly through vivid sensual experience."
--"The Independent on Sunday"
" Spirited and ingenious...Clever, spry, and sad in equal measure."
--"The Telegraph"
" Moggach reproduces the coded language of 17th-century Dutch art with subtle artfulness. At the same time, she tells a truly thrilling love story."
--"The Financial Times"
" Moggach's writing is as vivid as a splash of Vermeer's lemon yellow."
--"The Times"
" A gorgeous novel: both funny and tragic, full of sharply drawn characters and equally sharp insight into the transforming power of love--which can be as destructive as it is addictive."
--"The Mail"

"From the Hardcover edition."

From the bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel this is 'a scintillating story of lust, deception and retribution' (Independent on Sunday)

Seventeenth-century Amsterdam is a city in the grip of tulip mania, basking in the wealth it has generated. Sophia's husband Cornelis, an ageing merchant, is among those grown rich from this exotic new flower. To celebrate, he commissions a talented young artist to paint him with his young bride. But as the portrait grows, so does the passion between Sophia and the painter; and as ambitions, desires and dreams breed an intricate deception, their reckless gamble propels their lives towards a thrilling and tragic conclusion.

Deborah Moggach is the author of many successful novels including the bestseller The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Her screenplays include The Diary of Anne Frank and the film of Pride and Prejudice, which was nominated for a BAFTA. She lives in North London.