The Forger’s Spell

A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century

By: Edward Dolnick

Narrated by: Paul Heitsch

Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

As riveting as a World War II thriller, The Forger's Spell is the true story of Johannes Vermeer and the small-time Dutch painter who dared to impersonate him centuries later. For seven years a no-account painter named Han van Meegeren managed to pass off his paintings as those of one of the most beloved and admired artists who ever lived. As Edward Dolnick reveals, his true genius lay in psychological manipulation, and he came within inches of fooling the world. Instead, he landed in an Amsterdam court on trial for his life. The Forger's Spell is the gripping true tale of this almost perfect crime.

©2008 Edward Dolnick (P)2023 Tantor

Interesting story!

Having experienced the spell that genuine Vermeer paintings cast over all the viewers at the National Gallery of Art’s special exhibition during my visit in December 1995, I would be most interested in knowing what experts and people in general saw in the forgeries to bring out what sound like similar reactions to those paintings that we who saw the real works of Vermeer experienced.

I enjoyed the audiobook, although I would have liked to know more about the specifics of the sale to Goering. It had sounded as though it was going to be the main episode of the story, but when we finally got to it, the coverage was rather sketchy at best.

Fascinating read

Interesting story. Told and narrated well. Inspired me to look for other art fraud and heist books.

Disappointing rehash of others’ work

This book suffers from the usual faults of contemporary works involving Göring. Hyperbolic description and endless fat jokes replace any attempt at analysis of his motivations and interests. This book is unusually snarky in tone, which soon becomes annoying.

There are so many legit things to despise about Göring that history would be better served to treat him seriously for the real damage he did to Europe.

Dolnick relies on multiple secondary sources I’ve already read instead of primary sources, and contributes little by rehashing others’ work.

Many errors of easily checked historical facts point to a lack of gravitas, as does an over reliance upon dodgy reminiscences from Göring’s enemies.

Along the same line, multiple extraneous and irrelevant narratives about other forgers are used to pad out this flimsy book. I’ve already read a book about Myatt and Drew and don’t need to read their story here. What does a hack like Myatt have to do with this book’s thesis anyway?

Overall, there is such a lack of focus that no coherent narrative emerges.

Narration is ok. Heitsch captures the annoying tone of the author very well.

Rarely have I been so disappointed in a book about art, my favorite subject.