The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth KostovaEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-09-01
ISBN: 0316070637
Number of pages: 720
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of The Historian
Book Review: "To You, Perceptive Reader, I Bequeath My History..."
Summary: 3 Stars
This is going to be a tricky book to review, particularly since I've never seen reviews for a book on Amazon.com so evenly divided as they are for Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel "The Historian." The people who love it seem to really love it, and those that don't...*really* don't. I think it all comes down to what your expectations are, for unlike easily categorized books, it's difficult to pin down "The Historian".
The story is told in first-person narrative by a young woman retrospectively chronicling her story from the year 2008. Her story takes her back to 1972 when, as a motherless sixteen year old, she finds a mysterious book with the print of a woodcut dragon in the centerfold and a cache of yellowing letters, both in the study of her diplomatist father. The first of the letters begins: "my dear and unfortunate successor..." On questioning her father, he begins to divulge the details of his past, which in turn leads to another train of events concerning his university supervisor.
Therefore we have three key narratives at work. Firstly, that of the young woman (and I must confess - I cannot recall what her name is, or if it was ever mentioned in the text) as she goes in search of her missing father in the 1970s, convinced that it all has something to do with her absent mother. Secondly, her father Paul has left behind several letters for her revealing events concerning his *own* search for Professor Rossi, a friend and mentor who disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the 1950s, joined by a beautiful woman called Helen who has her own reasons for helping him. Finally, we get Professor Rossi's original research into the historical figure of Vlad Tepes, (also known as Vlad the Impaler) ruler of Wallachia in the 15th century and inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula. As the deepest layer of narrative at work, Rossi's tale begins with the sinister dragon book that leads him to the conclusion that Prince Vlad is actually a vampire, and still at large in the world up until the present day.
(Worth mentioning at this stage is that Paul's story is central, though Rossi's is perhaps the most memorable and poignant. The fact that I *still* can't recall Paul's daughter's name is indicative of her story, though to be fair, her narrative has the lowest page count).
It is a complex but intriguing premise, in which memories within memories are presented by means of various letters and history books. As a storytelling conceit, it allows for suspense and reasonably fluid pacing, but under scrutiny it doesn't hold up well. For example, the letters that our protagonist receives from her father are presumed to have been written out in the course of a single night before he rushes off in a mad dash. Why then does Paul not only recall with perfect clarity but postulates at length about details such as the meals he ate, the clothes he wore and the frivolous sights he saw over twenty years ago?
Okay, I could possibly hand-wave this due to the framing device that the protagonist provides which hints that she's done some editing to the original manuscripts that she's inherited, and because the liberty allows for Kostova's rather lovely prose and vivid scene-setting, but there is a definite discord between the story that's being presented and what we're supposed to be reading. There are three major points of view at work, telling the three stories that go with them, and yet there is no distinct "voice" to each narrator. Rossi, Paul and Can't-Remember-Her-Name each have the exact same tone and inflection. That is, Kostova's. For these reasons and more, the way in which the plot is conveyed simply doesn't ring true.
But if the style is a little awkward, what about the actual plot? I think this is the most divisive element of the novel. Although the mystery itself is very intriguing, Kostova certainly takes her time reaching her solutions, and these solutions - for some - may be utterly disappointing. For my tastes and reading pleasure, I didn't mind the meandering pace. I found the characters interesting, the growing sense of dread palatable, the prose beautifully rendered, and the gradual accumulation of historical information as the scholars track Vlad's movements throughout history intriguing. There are some oddities: the astounding number of coincidences for example, or the ultimate motivation and designs of the immortal Vlad (I won't reveal them here save to say I'll admit that my initial response to Vlad's master-plan was to laugh), yet I was engrossed throughout at the steady unfolding of each characters' personal mystery and was genuinely moved by their plight.
However, I will say that I had an advantage in one particular regard: I was forewarned about several aspects of the novel before I started reading. I knew that it was slow-paced, that it had excessive amounts of detail, and that the inevitable confrontation was somewhat anti-climactic. As such, I had little in the way of expectation or hype. Knowing what to expect, especially in a novel like this one, may make all the difference as to how much you enjoy it (or whether you even want to pick it up at all).
So for anyone debating either a purchase or loan, I'd advise that you draw your attention to the title itself. It's pretty much a dead giveaway, for unless you are fantastically interested in history, then a book called "The Historian" probably isn't going to get your blood pumping. This is a book that takes its time, that enjoys indulging in sensory details, and that leaves several enigmas unsolved.
Surprisingly enough, despite the book's length I never felt that I was reading tracts of historical info-dumps in which Kostova was compelled to share with us every single tidbit of her research (in fact, quite the opposite: I actually don't feel as though I have any further insight into either Vlad the Impaler or Bram Stoker's Dracula). The research is integrated into the text extremely well, and I felt that even with the excessive detail into landscapes and other minor details, the flow of the story never dragged or became bogged down with anything that was *too* irrelevant and which didn't in some way lend to the atmosphere.
It is in creating this "atmosphere" that Kostova excels. From dark and opulent underground tombs, to the rich dark forests of Romania, perhaps this novel works best if described as a travelogue; one that is particularly unique considering it explores Eastern Europe as it existed in three different time periods. In many cases, our protagonists have to go through much political wrangling in order to make it across the borders, and the menacing eye of the governments involved feel just as dangerous as any vampire.
As for the vampire aspect itself, it's surprisingly low-key, though effective. Sure, it's a little silly when Paul and Helen start referring to one of the pursuers as "the evil librarian", but I was ultimately rather intrigued by Vlad's goals - and in fact, what the entire purpose of this treasure hunt was from the get-go. That an immensely powerful immortal can put so much effort (granted, some of it rather illogical) into something that seems rather trivial offsets his power rather than diminishes it.
So I enjoyed reading "The Historian." But then, I knew what I was getting into. I was ready for what the book was offering, and I appreciated it for its own sake. From an even more subjective point of view, I'm a fairly patient reader, and I don't mind an author who takes the time to describe the smell of the roses, so long as it's written well. Which here, it is. In trying to decide what rating to give "The Historian," I was torn between three and four stars (I would have gone with three and a half stars if I was able). However, I'm going to scale it back to three considering that there *are* several plot holes and odd inconsistencies, though I was sufficiently caught up in the mood and atmosphere pass it by during the actual reading. In hindsight however, I find myself asking: "but why would so-and-so do *that*?"
I realize this is an extremely wishy-washy review, but then, that's an accurate description of the book itself! A little bit of everything, and yet not entirely committing to any of the genres it taps into, "The Historian" has obviously proved to be a frustrating disappointment for many. However, for what it's worth, I enjoyed getting swept up in the rich language, the gradual unveiling of both character and mystery, and the somewhat voyeuristic sense of prying into personal letters that hold dark secrets.
Summary of The Historian
To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history....Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of-a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known-and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself-to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive. What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed-and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends? The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe. In city after city, in monasteries and archives, in letters and in secret conversations, the horrible truth emerges about Vlad the Impaler's dark reign-and about a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive down through the ages.Parsing obscure signs and hidden texts, reading codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic traditions-and evading the unknown adversaries who will go to any lengths to conceal and protect Vlad's ancient powers-one woman comes ever closer to the secret of her own past and a confrontation with the very definition of evil. Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel is an adventure of monumental proportions, a relentless tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present, with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful-and utterly unforgettable.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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