If you enjoyed The Girl with the Pearl Earring, The Black Tulip, A Light of her Own, The Company Daughters, or The Signature of All Things, you’ll enjoy Tulip Fever. Set in Amsterdam of the 1630s at the height of “tulip fever” where crazed traders and growers speculate on tulip bulbs, the book gives a marvelous sense of time and place.
The story is told from three points of view: Cornelis, the wealthy but old husband; Sophia, his young wife, who Cornelis adores; and Jan van Loos, the painter Cornelis hires to paint a double portrait of him and his wife. Sophia and Jan fall in love at first sight. Their attempts to be together result a great deception which is followed by a slow spiral of consequences involving all three main characters with a surprising denouement.
This is a morality play of sorts, warning against lust, infidelity, and greed. It also highlights the role of women in the seventeenth century and the limitations of their lives. Each chapter begins with a maxim or a quotation pertaining to that chapter, including thoughts on art by Leonardo da Vinci.
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Tulip Fever (Dial Press, April 10, 2001) is available through:
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You can read my review of a similar book, A Light of her Own by Carrie Callaghan, here.
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