conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is a description for a book titled Girl with a Pearl Earring about Shows, Money, Guarantee with the genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers & Suspense?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the first five paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Girl with a Pearl Earring
  Inevitably, to me at least, Vermeer's paintings always leapt out from the others. His work has an ethereal quality that is hard to pinpoint. His colours are intense, his focus tight, his subjects seem to be in worlds of their own that we only get a peek at without being invited in. Viewers spend a long time in front of his work, much longer than with others. They are trying to figure out the magic. But that's the thing about magic – it only works when you don't know the trick.
  Social media is awash with images of her. There are over 25,000 Instagram posts with the hashtag #girlwithapearlearring featuring drawings and paintings copying the painting, embroidery of the image, cats and dogs inserted in place of her face, and lots and lots of people dressed up like her... Back before social media became the place to communicate, readers used to write to me sending photos of themselves or their daughter or their friend, dressed up as the Girl. Doesn't my daughter look just like her? they said. No one does, however. Despite the universality of her appearance – her hair and eye colour unknown, her face turned so we can't see the shape of her nose – the Girl is decidedly herself.
  How Tracy controls the form is complex. It relates, once again to Vermeer himself and the gentle way in which the innocent maid, Griet, begins to understand his technique, which is unhurried and arduous. He moves people, objects and furniture around until he has found the combination that feels right to him. And Tracy does the same, giving us ever-changing alignments of the circumstances and the people who are going to shape Griet's destiny. When Vermeer begins to paint, he does surprising things, laying on dull backgrounds before beginning to sketch in the figures. He explains to Griet that the colour white is almost never 'pure', but brought to purity, and brought to its crucial role in a painting (eventually the earring itself) by the presence of other tones within it.
  My mother did not tell me they were coming. Afterwards she said she did not want me to appear nervous. I was surprised, for I thought she knew me well. Strangers would think I was calm. I did not cry as a baby. Only my mother would note the tightness along my jaw, the widening of my already wide eyes.
  My mother's voice – a cooking pot, a flagon – approached from the front room. They were coming to the kitchen. I pushed the leeks I had been chopping into place, then set the knife on the table, wiped my hands on my apron, and pressed my lips together to smooth them.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is five more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: I was silent the rest of the way. I had not known that Tanneke could be so loyal and brave, despite all she said behind Catharina's back, or that Catharina had suffered such blows, or that Maria Thins could have such a son. I tried to imagine my own brother beating me in the street but could not.
  Pieter said no more – he could see my confusion. When he left me in front of the apothecary he simply touched my elbow and continued on his way. I had to stand for a moment looking into the dark green water of the canal before I shook my head to clear it and turned to the apothecary's door.
  One Sunday Pieter the son came to services at our church. He must have slipped in after my parents and me, and sat in the back, for I did not see him until afterwards when we were outside speaking to our neighbours. He was standing off to one side, watching me. When I caught sight of him I drew in my breath sharply. At least, I thought, he is Protestant. I had not been certain before. Since working in the house at Papists' Corner I was no longer certain of many things.
  She gave me a curious look, part surprise, part fear. 'Go to him,' she whispered, 'and bring him to us.'
  I looked down at his hands – they were clean, but there were still traces of blood around his nails. I thought of my master's hand over mine as he showed me how to grind bone, and shivered.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Reverse the sentences.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: I thought of my master's hand over mine as he showed me how to grind bone, and shivered..'
  I looked down at his hands – they were clean, but there were still traces of blood around his nails. 'Go to him,' she whispered, 'and bring him to us.
  She gave me a curious look, part surprise, part fear. Since working in the house at Papists' Corner I was no longer certain of many things. I had not been certain before. At least, I thought, he is Protestant. When I caught sight of him I drew in my breath sharply. He was standing off to one side, watching me. He must have slipped in after my parents and me, and sat in the back, for I did not see him until afterwards when we were outside speaking to our neighbours.
  One Sunday Pieter the son came to services at our church. I had to stand for a moment looking into the dark green water of the canal before I shook my head to clear it and turned to the apothecary's door. When he left me in front of the apothecary he simply touched my elbow and continued on his way.
  Pieter said no more – he could see my confusion. I tried to imagine my own brother beating me in the street but could not. I had not known that Tanneke could be so loyal and brave, despite all she said behind Catharina's back, or that Catharina had suffered such blows, or that Maria Thins could have such a son.I was silent the rest of the way
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the last five paragraphs? Start with the sentence 'When I got back to Market Square I stopped by the star in the centre and looked down at the pearls in my hand'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: When I got back to Market Square I stopped by the star in the centre and looked down at the pearls in my hand. I could not keep them. What would I do with them? I could not tell Pieter how I came to have them – it would mean explaining everything that had happened so long ago. I could not wear the earrings anyway – a butcher's wife did not wear such things, no more than a maid did.
  I walked around the star several times. Then I set out for a place I had heard of but never been to, tucked away in a back street behind the New Church. I would not have visited such a place ten years before.
  The man's trade was keeping secrets. I knew that he would ask me no questions, nor tell anyone that I had gone to him. After seeing so many goods come and go, he was no longer curious about the stories behind them. He held the earrings up to the light, bit them, took them outside to squint at them.
  There were five extra guilders I would not be able to explain. I separated five coins from the others and held them tight in my fist. I would hide them somewhere that Pieter and my sons would not look, some unexpected place that only I knew of.
  Pieter would be pleased with the rest of the coins, the debt now settled. I would not have cost him anything. A maid came free.