Tulip Fever
Table of Contents
It is the people who live on top, restfully and staidly; underneath it is their
shadows which move . . . I should not wonder if the surface of the grachts still
reflected the shadows of people from bygone centuries, men in broad ruffs and
women in mob caps . . . The towns appear to be standing, not on the earth,
but on their own reflections; these highly respectable streets appear to emerge
from bottomless depths of dreams . . .
KAREL
APEK,
Letters from Holland, 1933
Yes, I knew well the world of poverty and ugliness, but I painted the skin, the
glittering surface, the appearance of things: the silky ladies, and gentlemen in
irreproachable black. I admired how fiercely they fought for a life slightly longer
than the one for which they were destined. They protected themselves with
fashion, tailors’ accessories, a fancy ruffle, ingenious cuffs . . . any detail that
would allow them to last a little longer before they—and we as well—are
engulfed by the black background.
Z. HERBERT,
Still Life with a Bridle
Our task is not to solve enigmas, but to be aware of them, to bow our heads
before them and also to prepare the eyes for never-ending delight and wonder. If
you absolutely require discoveries, however, I will tell you that I am proud to
have succeeded in combining a certain particularly intensive cobalt with a
luminous lemon like yellow, as well as recording the reflection of southern light
that strikes through thick glass on to a grey wall . . . Allow us to continue our
archaic procedure, to tell the world words of reconciliation and to speak of joy
from recovered harmony, of the eternal desire for reciprocated love.
LETTER ATTRIBUTED TO
JAN VERMEER
Tulip Fever
“The plot is as neatly and intricately constructed as a timepiece . . . this well-designed novel speaks poignantly of the uncertainties, losses and sorrows that menace even the best-ordered lives.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Mesmerizing . . . Moggach builds suspense, leaving the reader dreading the outcome yet unable to put it down.”
—The Denver Post
“No one reading this book will ever look at a painting by Vermeer or Rembrandt in quite the same way. What secrets hide behind those respectable facades.”
—Library Journal
“Elegantly absorbing . . . the sensuality that permeates the book—its vivid, fleshy detail—grounds the fable in experience. At the same time, its elaborate philosophical ruminations transform a tale of an ordinary doomed triangle in just the way that the Dutch painters elevated bald reality into something transcendent.”
—New York Newsday
“Moggach has really done her historical homework—and her depiction of 17th-century Holland is enthralling.”
—New York Post
“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.”
—Daily Mail
(London)
“Artfully styled with the delicacy of a Vermeer.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Moggach’s lush and sensuously written novel will appeal to romantics as well as fans of historical novels.”
—Booklist
“Beautifully written, a verbal kaleidoscope that flicks rapidly through vivid sensual experience.”
—The Independent on Sunday
“This is popular fiction created at a high pitch of craft and rapid readability.”
—Publishers Weekly
“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
(London)
“Moggach’s writing is as vivid as a splash of Vermeer’s lemon yellow.”
—The Times
(London)
Acknowledgments
For their comments and help, my thanks to Manouk van der Meulen, Russell Hoban, Wolfgang Ansorge, Judy Cooke, Geraldine Cooke, Patricia Brent, Periwinkle Unwin, Victoria Salmon, Jacques Giele, Lee Langley, Sarah Garland, Alex Hough, Anne Rothenstein, Judy Taylor, Charlotte Ackroyd, Geraldine Willson-Fraser, Lottie Moggach, Tom Moggach, and Csaba Pasztor. The many books I found useful and illuminating included Simon Schama’s
The Embarrassment of Riches
, Paul Zumthor’s
Daily Life in Rembrandt’s Holland
, Mariet Westerman’s
A
Worldly Art
, Wayne E. Franit’s
Paragons of Virtue
, Bob Haak’s
The
Golden Age
, R. H. Fuchs’s
Dutch Painting
, Michael North’s
Art and
Commerce in the Dutch Golden Age
, Paul Taylor’s
Dutch Flower Painting
1600–1750 and Z. Herbert’s Still Life with a Bridle.
Most of all, my thanks to the Dutch artists themselves, through whose paintings we step into a lost world, and find ourselves at home.
1
Sophia
Trust not to appearances.