The Dance of Geometry [Hardcover]

Brian Howell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 23, 2002

Brian Howell has masterfully interwoven three imagined episodes from the life of Johannes Vermeer. We observe the painter's own childhood and apprenticeship. We read a crime story involving an episode from the life of a modern-day ‘copyist', who is blackmailed into forging this masterpiece to save the woman he loves. We follow a French connoisseur who travels to Delft to visit Vermeer, only to find himself embroiled in a clandestine and deadly debate of the Painter's Guild about a new invention.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful, much better than the novels I've read recently on Vermeer... Congratulations, I think it's superb." -- artist David Hockney

The spell Howell casts in his first full legnth novel is enchanting...This is an enormously accomplished novel. -- Time Out, London

From the Publisher

Drawing copiously on contemporary sources and all extant Vermeer scholarship, Howell creates a work of breathtaking originality. Not only does this novel provide imaginative insight into the formation of an artist's ‘vision', charting his developing obsession with geometry and remoteness – but Howell illuminates the very act of seeing in a way that informs us about the creative process. The Dance of Geometry, written in prose that has the luminosity and tactile richness of Dutch masterpiece, is threaded into trio of interwoven motifs which, like the painter's famous perspective lines, all converge in dizzying virtuosity.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: Toby Press; illustrated edition edition (April 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1902881478
• ISBN-13: 978-1902881478
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,224,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The many facets of Vermeer, August 9, 2002

By 

momwith2kids (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dance of Geometry (Hardcover)

I thought D.O.G. was wonderful. I was surprised at how much Johannes Vermeer's life would interest me. Made up of three short stories, the first was written as a story told during the younger years of Vermeer's life. The second a journal entry of an acquaintance of Vermeer, and the third written by a Vermeer "copyist" in the present day. I didn't expect the novel to be constructed this way, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

The writing was beautiful in the way everything was described in terms of "geometry"; where things were placed in relation to one another, how light played on objects and rooms. It was as if the life described was written as Vermeer himself would have seen it.

I think the author very successfully kept the book together with these three very different stories. In one sense, the Vermeer technique was a thread that evolved throughout the novel. For example, one could see how it developed in the first story when Vermeer discovered the books on perspective and his arguments with his teachers about the importance of light, etc. (I chuckled at Vermeer's slow start in his education...his confusion in math--so common for many artists!) Then in "Shifting Surface..." the camera obscura becomes a huge factor in the story. I was especially fascinated by the controversy and damage such an invention would have caused at that time. Then of course, in "Reconstruction," the copyist describes in detail how the Vermeer painting is created.

The narration was intriguing in that it changed dramatically from one story to the next, but not enough to completely throw the reader off course. Whereas the first narration was a passive observation of events, the second was someone's journal, written in the first person. Third was narrated by a man in modern times, again in first person. I have my own ideas as to who the narrators might have been but the point I make is that I enjoy the fact that D.O.G. raises some of these questions and forces the reader to make his/her own interpretations.

Each story drew me in...I loved reading about Vermeer's young life, his close relationships with his father and sister. His desire for Catherina, and his sexual experience in Amsterdam (Who would've guessed that such an incident would happen in Amsterdam?!) "The Shifting Surface of Desire" was excellent. De Monconys? experience of walking through Van Ruijven's collection of Vermeer paintings was awesome. The descriptions alone made me want to re-visit the work myself. Of course, Borry's invention of the photographic negative was exciting and shocking in terms of the fear it caused in the Guild. Even "Reconstruction" drew me in. I was a little confused by the flashback-chronology...and needed to reread a bit to discern what Sophie's part was in the grand picture. One thing I liked in this story was how it would jump from John's narration, to Maritje's narration. At first I thought John was putting himself in her shoes, so that he could accurately copy the painting ("The Music Lesson"), but then I sort of forgot about John and it read like the "spirit" of Maritje, which lived on in the painting, throughout the years and the hands through which it passed. Very cool in the fact that it kept Monconys' story going from "Shifting Surface..." Also it was interesting how the actual reproduction of the painting was in relation to this growing love affair/mystery between John and Sophie. The "Reprise" at the end was a fitting way to end the novel about Vermeer, I won't go into detail here. Just read it.

One thing I have to add here is that I'm in awe of how much research and imagination it took to write something like this. It completely took me in and I felt as if the novel was written by a person who actually lived in Delft and knew Vermeer intimately. I guess that's one of the objectives of historical fiction, but I'm still amazed! Definitely a great read.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imagining Vermeer, June 10, 2002

By 

Elizabeth Glixman (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dance of Geometry (Hardcover)

Reading Brian Howell's new novel "The Dance of Geometry" took me on a journey in time to 17th century Holland. Through the author's skillful handling of dialogue, description, and explanation of artistic concepts of that period, I experienced the artistic, political, and social thoughts of a fascinating time for art and artists.

Howell integrates the known reality of the period with his imagination, demonstrating his gifts as a storyteller. He combines Vermeer's growth as an artist,his interest in the theories of perspective and space, his personal life, and his fascinating teachers with a plot that is brimming with intrigue and surprising events. A contemporary story about art forgery woven into this tale adds to the colorful mix.

Provocative questions of ethical artistry, the role of the artist, the illusions of the eye, and the power of human connection flow through this book like the clarifying yet remote light of a Vermeer painting.

For those who are unfamiliar with this period in history, there are several pages at the back of the book with explanations of the personalities, artistic terms, and words from Dutch life.

This is a masterful tale that has all the elements of great drama. It is fast paced and thought provoking. The characters are strong and invite our emotions, the plot takes unexpected turns, the setting is exotic, and the story is immersed in fact and fiction wavering between reality and illusion.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Face in the Mirror, January 30, 2003

By 

Jesse G Minkert (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dance of Geometry (Hardcover)

I didn't necessarily need to buy a larger book with a lot of pictures in order to read Brian Howell's The Dance of Geometry, but I did, and I'm glad. Throughout Dance are references to specific paintings by Seventeenth Century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. Howell's descriptive skills are up to the task of conjuring these images, but the images themselves are worth having at hand, for reference and, of course, for the pleasure of looking at them.

The paintings are the connecting fibers for the three major sections of Dance. The first, "Johannes," is a biographical fantasy of Vermeer's childhood. According to Howell, he was an obedient but dreamy child who registered the gaudy and raunchy life swirling around him in his father's inn, the streets and buildings of Delft, and especially the light that revealed it all to him. This section also serves to introduce another iconic object that fuses the novel's sections together: the camera obscura. This gadget was a scientist's fascinating toy, and became one of the painter's tools.

The second section, called "The Shifting Surface of Desire," is, despite a title suggesting lurid images of nudity, more of a scientific thriller. I don't wish to give away too much detail, but I can say that it postulates the emergence of a certain advance in technology two centuries prior to its historical emergence. That technology creates turmoil, political struggle, and murder. This is not the dreamy realm of the first section. Vermeer is a central figure, now at the height of his powers, deeply involved in his society. He plays a role in the terrible turn of events we watch unfold.

The third section, "Recontruction," leaps into the present. A man makes a "copy" of Vermeer's "The Music Lesson." This painting has acquired special significance in the course of the novel. The copyist has written what he calls a manual for producing a copy indistinguishable from the original. Mixed with his explanations of technique is the story of why he is making the copy. That story skips in and out of the narrative. It possesses its own sense of danger and intrigue, a sense of impending disaster and loss. Once again, I'm not the one to tell you what happens. For that you need to go to Brian Howell.

Howell has brought attention to the image of the woman's face in the mirror of "The Music Lesson." The face in the mirror turns slightly toward the man to the right, but the woman's head, of which we see the back, may or may not be turned. The face in the mirror seems vague, not clearly defined, even though we know that Vermeer is capable of defining a face very clearly indeed. She is an enigma, an ambiguous presence equal in mystery to the smile of the Mona Lisa. That face is what ultimately turns three sections widely separated in time and style into a single novel.