Sophia C. reviewed on 6/23/2010 + 289 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

Deborah Moggach's Tulip Fever is set during an interesting historical moment: 1636 Amsterdam. Ten years after the Dutch purchased Manhattan island, while Harvard College was being formed an ocean away, Amsterdam was in the midst of a tulip speculation bubble. Unfortunately, Tulip Fever mainly concerns itself with a melodramatic love story. When wealthy, heirless merchant Cornelis Sandvoort aimed at immortality by commissioning Jan van Loos to paint a portrait of himself and his young wife Sophia, little did he know he was inviting cuckoldry. Sophia and Jan fall in love and, along with Sophia's pregnant-out-of-wedlock maid Maria, devise a daring plan to be together. Unfortunately Love is offered as the only (insufficient) explanatory motivation of the main characters. The narration is a bit uneven, as each chapter focuses on a particular character or event such as "the painting" or "after the storm;" it is unclear why Sophia is the only first person narrator. This style leaves tulipomania as a mere background for a story which is being told rather than shown to the reader. Nonetheless, the ending is suspenseful as the plan is about to succeed or fail. However, those who enjoy historical romance or are interested in historical art fiction--Jan van Loo is an actual historical painter--might like Tulip Fever.

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