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Amazon.co.uk Review
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.
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
Review
Reading this is like stepping into the world of an exquisite Dutch painting. The setting is 17th-century Holland; the subject - love, art, beauty, transcience and betrayal. Tender, gripping and beautifully written, it's two love stories intertwined - one sweet and one that turns slowly and terribly sour. When beautiful Sophia begins an affair with the portrait painter her husband has hired, she and her servant, Maria, resort to desperate measures to protect themselves and their livelihoods - but they pay a price. With the gorgeous detail and immaculate proportion of a Dutch still life, Moggach evokes a world of stark beauty and lovesick folly, set against the backdrop of Amsterdam during the height of tulip fever. By turns poignant, thrilling and absurdly funny, this is Moggach at her best. Review by Liz Jensen who is author of 'Ark Baby'. (Kirkus UK)
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