Simon Schama’s book is unusually difficult to review, for it is a frustrating mixture of the very good and the surprisingly bad.

In ''The Embarrassment of Riches'' Simon Schama has not set out to rewrite Motley's ''Rise of the Dutch Republic''; it is rather Johan Huizinga's sketch of ''Dutch Civilization in the Seventeenth Century'' he has sought to comprehend and expand. Yet his erudite and engrossing study far transcends the interests of only Dutch, or art, historians. It is a fascinating panorama as busily animated and skillfully composed as scenes by Hendrick Avercamp or Jan Steen (whose ''Fat Kitchen'' and ''Thin Kitchen,'' along with scores of other pictures in the book by many artists, speak to Mr. Schama's argument).

This monumental book has one monumental shortcoming. Not unlike the golden Dutch that Schama so eloquently describes, it tends to undo by overdoing. Nevertheless ...