Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
Historical puzzle, 5 Jan 2006
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.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
A disappointment, 7 Jul 2006
Normally I'm a bit wary of books that carry the words INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER on their covers, but because I like gothic horror and Dracula I decided to give it a try.
The book consists of three parts, and the first part is brilliant. The sense of brooding menace, the intangible presence of Dracula, the psychological realism of the characters and clever atmospheric details were admirable.
Then something goes horribly wrong. In part 2 Kostova suddenly starts dropping every cliché imaginable, from the unlikely lovers to the dumbing down of the 'brilliant' historians who need hundreds of pages to figure out simple, all too simple clues to Dracula's riddle.
Part 3 further drops the creative narrative of part 1 for yet more melodramatic and uninspired prose, eventually petering out in an extremely unlikely and disappointing finale. Unfortunate, since Kostova initially proves to handle her quill very well.
The Historian is too long and uninspired and eventually collapses under its own pretentiousness. If Kostova (or her editor) would have simply cut away parts 2 and 3, The Historian would be a brilliant novel of mystery and imagination. I recommend part one heartily, but skim or skip the rest of the book altogether so as not to spoil this feast.
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32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
Dreadful , 3 Aug 2006
I chose this book because the description on the back cover sounded intriguing. I have read DRACULA by Bram Stoker, and other early vampire novels, so I thought a new take on Dracula's story would be interesting. How wrong I was.
The book starts quite well - some parts are bordering on scary. However, the novel quickly descends into utter rubbish.
There could have been a great deal of editing to this book - this may have helped. I found myself frustrated that the plot seems to slow down almost to a complete standstill. Kostova has tried to write the book from different narrative perspectives, yet she fails to keep your interest in the seperate characters. Just as one narrative starts to grab your attention, she quickly drops that story and takes up another character's story.
Something else that really irritated me about this book were the cliches, and the dreadful writing in parts. There is actually a line that says, "His smile was a meadow of flowers." This is a male character commenting upon another male, yet it is cheesy and sounds as though it has been found in the depths of Mills and Boon. You also have the irritating occurrence of a love relationship developing between the two characters who are hunting for Dracula. And it is that cliched type of relationship where, at the beginning, they can't really stand each other, yet as they search together they find themselves falling for each other - oh, please, surely readers are above this knd of drivel!
The other big problem, for me, was that all the suspense and all the fear she managed to create in the first 100 pages or so, just disappears - this is not a horror book, it is not remotely scary. I very rarely give up on books I start to read, but this one defeated me. I lost the will to live with it. I just didn't care what happened; reading it actually made me go to sleep after a few pages. How this author won an award for a work in progress beats me.
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