The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth KostovaEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-01
ISBN: 0316067946
Number of pages: 909
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Book Reviews of The Historian
Book Review: DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU EXPECT
Summary: 5 Stars
I was surprised that this book had such wildly different ratings and reviews--before I read it. Then I could see that a reader would either greatly enjoy it, or hate it, depending on what their expectations were when they picked it up. From what the published reviews say, you would expect another DA VINCI CODE, and certainly you would expect a 'page-turner'. You might also expect a vampire thriller, like those Anne Rice used to write. It's not in the least like that.
If you liked THE NAME OF THE ROSE, this is probably the book for you. The main thrills (when they come) are those of the literary sort. The book has a very slow buildup. Description is the author's great strength. I personally loved the descriptions of various colleges and countries in Europe, unfolding slowly as the tension slowly built, but it might not be for everyone. I also loved the historical detail, about the Eastern Roman Empire and the fall of Constantinople, and about the various Eastern European countries, such as Bulgaria, and their interesting heritages. All of this was very accurate (unlike the DA VINCI CODE). But it is not going to be for everyone.
You have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit for certain aspects of the book. I personally could believe that a man could live 500 years more easily than I could believe in all the coincidences in the book, that happened at exactly the right moments. That the person sitting next to you in the library (or cafe) should always turn out to be the person who had the next piece of the puzzle, either in the form of a letter or a journal, or their personal reminiscences seemed highly unlikely and was sometimes a bit annoying. I also found that the characters were not very 'round'--none of them convinced me that they were real people (except, oddly enough for Dracula). They were beautifully described in physical terms. I could see them. But none of them had convincing motivations for what they did. People did everything from fall in love (very quickly, in all cases) to travel miles and miles all over Europe, for no real reason except that the plot demanded it. To state just one particularly glaring example, I find it very hard to believe that a graduate student would go through all the trouble that the hero did, simply to search for the professor that was his advisor. I had advisors as a graduate student that I respected and liked. But I didn't LOVE them. Certainly not enough to chase a trail all over Communist-era Europe, digging up crypts in old monasteries, etc. etc.
So why do I give the book five stars? Because with all its flaws I couldn't put it down. I didn't believe in any of the people, but the clues interested me and I wanted to know what would happen next. I love books and this a book for a person who loves books and history, very definitely. There is a different take on Dracula, which is fascinating. The paradox of the (extremely) evil ruler, more like such twentieth century tyrants as Stalin, Mao and Hitler than the princes of his time, who yet protected his people from vicious invaders was fascinating, and very well done. When Dracula himself showed up, he was very powerfully drawn, very different from Bram Stoker and very interesting to read about. Besides being great at description, the author is great at evoking atmosphere. Also, as a puzzle, the plot was flawless. EAch piece fit into the next piece and it was fascinating to see it happen. I respected the great amount of work.
I do have to say though, that although the pacing is great throughout the book, it fell apart at the very end. The denouement happened much too quickly, after all the buildup. The epilogue redeemed it somewhat, but this was still a problem.
On a personal level, I also thought that that book was excellent at showing the nature of evil (while never being so crass as to give detailed descriptions of it) but not very good at showing reasons to fight against evil. There was no corresponding sense of good. The main characters (I am reluctant to say heroes and heroines) had nothing to battle Dracula with except a sense of 'decency' and some loyalty to their friends, family (or college advisors!). At stressful moments, they would grab hold of crosses (after having been careful to tell the reader that they didn't actually believe in God), or of Koranic verses (which, in this post-modern work, are equally effective). And it just didn't seem like enough. In Stoker's work, there was a God who was capable of facing down the ultimate evil. In this book all you have is good luck and good friends and good research. It didn't seem like enough to tip the balance in your favor to me, but maybe other readers won't care about that.
Summary of The Historian
Breathtakingly suspenseful and beautifully written, The Historian is the story of a young woman plunged into a labyrinth where the secrets of her family's past connect to an inconceivable evil: the dark fifteenth-century reign of Vlad the Impaler and a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive through the ages. The search for the truth becomes an adventure of monumental proportions, taking us from monasteries and dusty libraries to the capitals of Eastern Europe - in a feat of storytelling so rich, so hypnotic, so exciting that it has enthralled readers around the world."Never was a ghost story so casually erudite, nor a historical travelogue such gripping entertainment." ---New York Magazine
"Impossible to resist. . . . Kostova blends fact and fantasy to remind us that the original Dracula legend is rooted in monstrous acts of unblinking evil." ---Miami Herald
"A richly told story about family and the dark side of human nature. . . . This cry of the heart will appeal to readers beyond those who are drawn by a fascaination with the legend of Dracula." ---Chicago Tribune
"Genuinely terrifying." ---Boston Globe
"Nearly impossible to put down once you crack the spine. . . . It won't take you long to get to the end." ---Houston Chronicle
If your pulse flutters at the thought of castle ruins and descents into crypts by moonlight, you will savor every creepy page of Elizabeth Kostova's long but beautifully structured thriller The Historian. The story opens in Amsterdam in 1972, when a teenage girl discovers a medieval book and a cache of yellowed letters in her diplomat father's library. The pages of the book are empty except for a woodcut of a dragon. The letters are addressed to: "My dear and unfortunate successor." When the girl confronts her father, he reluctantly confesses an unsettling story: his involvement, twenty years earlier, in a search for his graduate school mentor, who disappeared from his office only moments after confiding to Paul his certainty that Dracula--Vlad the Impaler, an inventively cruel ruler of Wallachia in the mid-15th century--was still alive. The story turns out to concern our narrator directly because Paul's collaborator in the search was a fellow student named Helen Rossi (the unacknowledged daughter of his mentor) and our narrator's long-dead mother, about whom she knows almost nothing. And then her father, leaving just a note, disappears also.
As well as numerous settings, both in and out of the East Bloc, Kostova has three basic story lines to keep straight--one from 1930, when Professor Bartolomew Rossi begins his dangerous research into Dracula, one from 1950, when Professor Rossi's student Paul takes up the scent, and the main narrative from 1972. The criss-crossing story lines mirror the political advances, retreats, triumphs, and losses that shaped Dracula's beleaguered homeland--sometimes with the Byzantines on top, sometimes the Ottomans, sometimes the rag-tag local tribes, or the Orthodox church, and sometimes a fresh conqueror like the Soviet Union.
Although the book is appropriately suspenseful and a delight to read--even the minor characters are distinctive and vividly seen--its most powerful moments are those that describe real horrors. Our narrator recalls that after reading descriptions of Vlad burning young boys or impaling "a large family," she tried to forget the words: "For all his attention to my historical education, my father had neglected to tell me this: history's terrible moments were real. I understand now, decades later, that he could never have told me. Only history itself can convince you of such a truth." The reader, although given a satisfying ending, gets a strong enough dose of European history to temper the usual comforts of the closing words. --Regina Marler
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