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View Larger Picture of The Historian  by Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian

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The Historian
by Authors: Elizabeth Kostova

Hardcover
Description: 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

Average Customer Rating:

Could have been a contender, but...BORING!!!

I wanted to buy this book for a long time considering early hype. When I got a chance to buy a paperback version overseas, I thought it would be a good read on the plane. It put me right to sleep!
I have to agree with the others - there is too much boring details and none of the detail really have anything to do with the plot or characters. I am so depserate to finish the book (hoping it gets better), that I skip every other page.
And another thing - this book tries to get you to feel the fear of the vampire lore - but it falls way too short - the author does a very poor job of suspense and building any fear. For instance, one part of the story has a the main character looking for Bram Stoker's Dracula in the Librarry - only to be followed by a mysterious character. Like come on! Just because someone is looking up the book! Does Dracula or his evil minions follow people tat simply take out Bram Stoker's Dracula? Ridiculous!! A really dumb book - not worth the read.

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Historical fiction meets Vampire lore

This is an extremely interesting book. I thought that the characters were both compelling and likeable with excellent character depth and diversity. The historical premise behind the story was interesting and enlightening.

However there were a number of reasons why I did not feel that I could give this book five stars.

I am sorry to say that this book can on occasion drag, which is most unfortunate as I am an avid fan of the historical dark fiction genre. There was simply too much detail concerning the architectural and historical aspects of the various places Kostova takes us too. This meant that at times the book was dry and hard to read.

This is in direct contrast to another historical vampire novel which I have just read, Nolene-Patricia Dougan's "Vrolok". I think Kostova's work would be deserving of five stars if only she had of kept the historical details accurate but light and interesting as Dougan has. If I am to recommend a historical vampire fiction to anyone it will not be the Historian but rather Vrolok.

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Had Potential

I really wanted this to be a good book. The premis behind it was good, the characters likeable. A good story about Dracula. But, the writing was awful.

This book is loaded with so much unnecessary detail it bores the reader to death before the story even begins. The author should have written a travel book detailing the history of each city in Europe if she wanted to describe Europe in such detail. All the detail about the architecure and history of all the places the characters visited had nothing to do with the story. The editors must have demanded a minimum of 600 pages in order to publish the book.

I even tried to listen to the audio version as it is abridged. Apparently not abridged enough. I couldn't take that either.

All in all the story had potnetial, but all the useless detail and attempts at suspense were just awful and ruined the book. The book could have been a comfortable 250 or 300 pages and been a little better. Maybe she'll try again and do a little better next time. I won't read to find out, but that won't stop her.

Don't waste your money buying this one. Try the library if you like and read it for free. If you must buy a Dracula story, go with the original Bram Stoker version!

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