Product Description

Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters addressed ominously to 'My dear and unfortunate successor'. Her discovery plunges 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 evil hidden in the depths of history. In those few quiet moments, she unwittingly assumes a quest she will discover is her birthright - a hunt for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the Dracula myth. Deciphering obscure signs and hidden texts, reading codes worked into the fabric of medieval monastic traditions, and evading terrifying adversaries, 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 captivating tale that blends fact and fantasy, history and the present with an assurance that is almost unbearably suspenseful - and utterly unforgettable.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7992 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Some stories can be told again in endlessly different ways. Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian combines a search for the historical Dracula with a profound sense that Stoker got some things right--that the late Mediaeval tyrant kills among us yet, undead and dangerous. From Stoker, she also takes a sense that the supernatural seems more real when embedded in documentary evidence.

Three generations search for Dracula's resting place, and their stories are nested within each other, so that we know that at least two quests ended badly. Kostova rations her thrills very carefully so that we jump out of our chair at quite slight surprises, especially when we have come to expect buckets of blood and loud bangs. She also has a profound and well-communicated sense of place and period, so that the book is equally at home in 1930s Rumania, Cold War Budapest and 1970s Oxford. Kostova is particularly good on the sights and sounds of remote country places and the taste of real peasant food--this sensuous realism does not always go with her other skill, the creation of imagined documents and folksongs that feel as real and true as what might be actual.

This is a quietly good book rather than a spectacular debut, with some uncomfortable twists in its tail; her heroine-narrators are, and perhaps remain, in the most serious of jeopardies. ---Roz Kaveney

Review
'A spirited update of Bram Stoker's classic, with a vastly ingenious plot in which Dracula has developed a mysterious penchant for librarians ... Kostova is a whiz at storytelling and narrative pace' Observer 'Told with a compelling intensity which will keep the reader hooked until the last Undead tomb door swings shut' Sunday Telegraph 'Filled with fascinating details of archaic vampire lore, the splendours of the Ottoman Empire and the beauty of Romania' TLS ‘This literary thriller is a page-turner with brains' Daily Mail ‘The Historian amounts to something profound... and wondrously mathematical at times, a genre novel by Bach ... We encounter obsession, possession, and the struggle against the brevity of life. It is an exploration of the eternal desire for intimacy...Kostova captures, beautifully, the turn on a dime from light to dark' The Times ‘The Historian is great fun... told with a compelling intensity which will keep the reader hooked until the last Undead tomb door swings shut' Sunday Telegraph ‘A gasp-inducing, breathtakingly dark mystery set in the present but wrapped around the folklore and history of Dracula…written in an exquisitely delicate and reserved style' Good Housekeeping ‘Filled with fascinating details of archaic vampire lore, the splendours of the Ottoman Empire and the beauty of the Romanian countryside' TLS ‘Dracula's back - and alive and well (or at least undead) in Elizabeth Kostova's compelling novel' InStyle ‘Hotly anticipated... This exploration of Dracula from a historical perspective is more cerebral cortex than punctured jugulars and reads all the better for it' Eve ‘A cross between Dracula and The Da Vinci Code' Observer ‘Kostova's research is exemplary... if you're drawn to the gothic in fiction, reading this on hot nights will induce a few shivers' Herald “Elizabeth Kostova is an accomplished debutante who has produced an intriguing and carefully crafted novel". THE HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW “She weaves myth, fact and adventure in this well-written, creepy time-slip novel that left me wanting to go back to Bram Stoker" NewBOOKS magazine ‘It's the impeccably researched and subtly chilling story of a young woman's search for the truth about her historian father, and his quest to find Vlad himself. It's so refreshing to read genuinely sinister and suspenseful literary horror which does not need to rely on shock tactics' Bookseller ‘Terrific reworking of the Dracula tale... It's gripping stuff and a lovely big read for summer' Bookseller ‘Captivating, cleverly written' New Books Magazine ‘The perfect summer read... Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel has the perfect mix of mystery and adventure and, based as it is around the legend of Dracula, a healthy dose of horror as well. If you take one book on holiday this year, make it the Historian' Waterstone's Books Quarterly The Historian is a marvelous book that draws the reader into an infectious vortex of mystery and discovery. It is beautifully written and full of real and believable characters, but what most impresses me is the way Elizabeth Kostova has taken an old and worn genre and made it entirely fresh and undeniably her own. This is great fiction. - David Liss

DAILY MAIL
'This literary mystery is a page-turner with brains'

Customer Reviews

A traditional gothic novel for the 21st century.
This book was a gift from a friend and I wasn't sure if it would live up to the great reviews. However it is a very intelligently written book and had a good blend of action, beautiful description which could come from a travel writer as well, as well as many classic story telling techniques and a lot of informative historical info. The story unfolds through a series of letters, written and spoken accounts. This is in the best tradition of the Gothic Novel and the stories within stories are easy to keep track of - so I didn't find this technique difficult to follow or understand the chronology of. I know some reviewers rubbished this way of writing but as it is a particular structural technique used in many classics I think it would appeal to people who have enjoyed the original Bram Stoker Classic Dracula as well as people who have studied a little literature or horror. If you like a straight chonological / 100% action read, then you might struggle with enjoyment of this structure. The content of the book is extremely varied and has something for everyone - there are scary vampires ( as well as a great Dracula) and vampire law, there is action, a surprisingly well written love story, there are amazing, atmospheric descriptions of places in Eastern and Southern Europe complete with really detailed and accurate historical referencing. I learned a lot about the history of medaeival as well as twentieth century Europe from reading this. In other places you can actually smell the food and hear the sounds described. For Dracular fans, his character is explored both as a historical figure and as the scary hollywood style vampire we've all come to know. Anyone who loves books, literature, travelling, libraries, history, gothic novels and vampire legends through the ages should really like this book. I found it a page turner because it contained a lot of interesting facts and the story was woven cleverly to keep you guessing. It loses pace a little at the end but luckily not enough to ruin the book. I really reccommend this because I felt it was a rewarding book to read rather than an easy vampire paperback which wouldn't really reflect the true depth of horror anyway.

Historical puzzle
Vampire fiction has definitely been on a downslide for many years. Most vamps are now either goofy, ugly bloodsuckers or sultry lace-and-velvet sophisticates. But in "The Historian," Elizabeth Kostova creates the smartest vampire novel in many years. It may drag at times, but it has a wealth of historical detail and creepy atmosphere.

It begins in 1972, with a young girl exploring her father's library. On a high shelf, she finds a strange book with a dragon on it, and a packet of old letters from 1930, that begin with, "My dear and unfortunate successor, it is with regret that I imagine you, whoever you are, reading this account I must put down here...". When she asks her father about it, he reluctantly tells her a strange story from decades before.

In his youth, her dad was an enthusiastic scholar. But all that changed when he learned from a mysteriously vanished teacher that an ancient tyrant was mysteriously still alive -- Vlad Tepes, the basis for the vampire Dracula. Now in the rational 20th century, gruesome deaths and ancient clues lead the young woman across the world. She must figure out whether Vlad Drakula is dead, or undead.

In a sense, "The Historian" really doesn't belong in the twenty-first (or even the twentieth) century. It's all set in the early 1970s, but it feels more like Kostova is writing in a 19th century setting, with the slow pace, verbal formality and intense detail typical of older books. In other words, don't expect fountains of gore or plenty of vampire cameos.

"The Historian" does have a tendency to drag, with Kostova focusing on some of the more mundane details of the heroine's life. There's much wandering from monasteries to mosques, dusty libraries to campuses. Some of it adds to the plot, and some of it doesn't. However, she does make up for this with some genuinely creepy atmosphere, and an understated sense of horror. The climactic encounter is a scene that could have been kitschy or goofy, but Kostova manages to make it into pure, quiet horror.

Moreover, "The Historian" balances out modern rationality with ancient superstition. Kostova has done her research; she includes various historical accounts of Vlad Tepes and his atrocities, as well as the Ottoman Empire and the rich cultures of the medieval Middle East. Rather than inventing a "vampire mythology," a la Anne Rice, she uses actual history as backstory. And to be honest, the real-life atrocities Vlad committed make Stoker's vampire seem almost tame.

With dusty books, yellowed letters, ancient hideaways and dark secrets, "The Historian" manages to be the smartest and most original vampire novel in years. Though the book has a tendency to ramble, Elizabeth Kostova melds history and myth in rare style.

impaled on 642 pages
I've marked this down to 3 stars despite the evident talent of this author because I finished this book feeling oddly dissatisfied. I think the main problem is the length of the novel, or rather the fact that Kostova overwrites nearly every scene. Clearly she has a fascination for the her subject, and for historical detail, and a love of descriptive writing, some of which is really very fine. And it was the quality of the writing & the evocation of the dracula quest that sucked me in as few books I have read recently have managed to do. But the cost of so much finely wrought prose is the lack of pace, which will make this book satisfying only to those who are prepared to make a considerable investment of time & energy. There are also a lot of hackneyed plot devices, coincidences, and what I felt were often false climaxes, that left me thinking "what's the big deal?" - although I guess the melodramatics can be seen as an attempt to create a feel of the gothic about it. The frequent change of narrator / narrative could have been done better, mainly because rossi, paul & daughter all seemed to sound very similar and at the beginning I frequently lost track of who was telling the story. But my main gripe is that this book seems to me to have missed an opportunity with regard to its subject matter: tracing Dracula back to his truly diabolical roots in the person of the total monster who was Vlad the Impaler could have been a truly terrifying experience. Unfortunately having finished the novel I can't see much that connects the historical object of the protagonists quest to his supposed undead legacy (Very different modus operandi) Despite all of the above if you've got the stomach for it I would recommend this to anyone who thinks they would enjoy a sweeping, literary & historical globe-trot involving a fascinating & gory subject, particularly if they have a love for old books & bookishness.