Title: The Historian
Author: Elizabeth Kostova
Published: Little, Brown and Co., 2005
Plot
History
grad student, Paul, is in the library one evening, surrounded by books, working
on his dissertation about merchants in Denmark, when he notices a book on his
table that he hadn't taken off the shelf. It's a very old, leather-bound book.
There are no words inside, only a picture of a ferocious dragon in the very
center of the tome. He thinks nothing of it, placing it on a rack of books for
the librarians to put away upon closing, but the next day, the same book
appears on his table again. Curiosity piqued, he takes it with him to a meeting
with his faculty advisor, Professor Rossi, who recognizes it immediately -
because he has one just like it. The professor then proceeds to tell his
student about his own search into the truth behind the legend of Dracula, a search
that took him to many countries, onto many dangerous paths and into harm's way
more than once. He warns Paul that delving deeper into the mystery makes you a
target of the vampire, that one of his minions will appear and threaten you -
usually by killing someone or something you love. Professor Rossi also confesses
that he’s been working on a book about the undead Wallachian prince. Paul leaves
his advisor's office that night, more aware of the sounds around him in the
darkness. Looking back at his professor's office window, he thinks he sees a
shadow cross the building, but tells himself that his mind is playing tricks on
him after the meeting. He turns away and heads for home.
The next day, as he makes his way to his professor's
office once more, he sees college officials and police filling the hallway. As
he approaches, he is recognized by the dean and brought into his advisor's
office. The office is in absolute
disarray and his advisor is nowhere to be found - what is found, is a rather
large, bloody smear across the ceiling. Turns out Paul was the last person to
see the missing professor. After a thorough questioning, the police decide he
had nothing to do with the disappearance and let him go. What else can he do,
but devote all his time and efforts into researching Dracula, who he now knows
is real and the cause of his beloved professor's abduction?
Years later, Paul is now a businessman. He does a lot of
traveling and sometimes takes his young daughter with him on trips around the
world. On one trip to a university in Europe his daughter (who, although she
has the role of narrator in the story, remains unnamed), happens upon her
father in the library's supernatural section, surrounded by books that have
nothing to do with his line of work. Curiosity gets the best of her and she
starts asking her father questions, which he reluctantly begins to answer. As
they travel, he tells her about his professor's disappearance and the long,
difficult search he put into finding him. He never comes right out and tells
her that Dracula exists, but as she hears the stories she begins to feel and
see a dark presence wherever they go. One morning she wakes up in the guest
house at the college to find a note from her father saying that he had to leave
and that she would be taken to the train station and put on a train home. Well,
after all she's learned, she can't just go home. After finding some of her
father's notes and some letters, she does indeed head to the train station, but
she buys a ticket that will take her to St. Mathieu’s, the monastery she
believes her father is headed toward. More and more of the history of Dracula,
along with the journey Paul took on his search for the vampire and his
professor, is revealed as the girl goes in search of her father.
The novel reaches its epic conclusion as Paul and some
friends he made along the way, finally find this legendary monster. But, will
they survive to tell the tale?
Review
*Seriously Massive
Spoilers! Continue at your own risk!*
I love books about the supernatural, especially vampires.
Yes, dear readers, there was a time when I, too, was a fan of the Twilight
series. But fear not, because I eventually realized that I was having a
momentary lapse of intelligence and moved on with my life, and onto bigger and
(infinitely) better books.
I also really enjoy the subject of history, even minoring
in it in college. History plus vampires - I just had to read this book.
And I really, really liked
it.....................................................until the end.
The novel really is incredible - the writing style is
fantastic (albeit some things were a bit predictable) and the journey of the
characters is pretty much epic. The novel is told through alternating
viewpoints – Paul verbally relating his story to his daughter and through his
journals and letters as she reads them while searching for him. After his
professor is abducted, Paul sets out on a mission to find him. A mission, which
takes him all over the world, to find the location where Vlad Dracul is
supposedly entombed. But knowledge like that is a heavily guarded secret which
will take months to crack. One discovery leads him to a brick wall - he can't
figure out what to do next. Enter a new character who just so happens to have a
document or another clue that can lead to another document or clue (the
predictable bit which happens quite often). This book really is a delight for
historians - the ancient texts and cities overflowing with bloody history would
make any history lover just about explode with happiness. The element of the
supernatural also makes me all kinds of happy. The dark mystery that is Dracula
is an ever present power throughout the book, which is only added to by the
appearance of one of his minions every few chapters. The vampire knows that
people are onto him and, hey, he wants to keep living, so he sends out
followers - people who would do anything to be turned by him and some who may
have already been bitten, who are kind of "infected" by vampirism but
aren't turning into bats and sucking the blood of virgins yet. Every few
chapters, just as the main characters are on the verge of discovering a new
truth about Dracula, a minion appears to stop them. The first appearance was a
sickly looking, eavesdropping librarian, who they chased through a library
window, only to have him return several chapters later, looking much better
than when they had last seen him - splayed out on the street below the said
window. There are other, darker minions that inspire more fear in our
characters and the reader - a big, brutish, father-of-all bouncers kind of man
who appears out of the shadows to rip documents and books from the professor's
hands in a dim library basement in Istanbul.
The book has all the necessary elements to make it an
amazing read for lovers of both the supernatural and history and everyone in
between. And it delivers...until the end. Paul and his Dracula-mystery-solving
partner, Helen (also his soon to be wife and soon to be mother of the unnamed
narrator) do indeed find the original burial site of Vlad Tepes (remember, you
have to die before you can come back - same is true for Dracula) but they
didn't find the ancient vampire. Instead, when they lifted the lid of the
sarcophagus, they found the still living (just barely) Professor Rossi. Knowing
he doesn't have long, he tells them what happened after he was abducted: he
awoke to find himself lying in the very coffin in which they found him. After
several hours Dracula, himself, was the first sight Rossi laid his eyes on
after the darkness of the coffin. Dracula took him into a large room connected
to his burial site. In it, was the largest library the professor had ever seen
- thousands upon thousands of rare, ancient books and documents. Dracula wanted
the professor to categorize them all. (Honestly not sure how I feel about
Dracula having a huge library - I mean...I suppose it makes sense. Just a new
and rather random idea, I guess.) If he refused Dracula, well...he'd be
breakfast. So, he really only had one option. The professor soon breathes his
last and, as a precautionary measure, Paul and Helen must drive a stake into
his heart.
We join the unnamed narrator again, many years later,
after she had found her father at St. Mathieu’s, as they find themselves in an
underground labyrinth of a cemetery, located beneath the old church. There, the
final showdown between Dracula and his hunters takes place. Dracula enters the
room in the first line of the first full paragraph on page 624 and he's dead on
page by the end of the next to last paragraph on the same page.
And my love for the book went out the window at this
moment, dear readers.
After 623 pages of being with the characters as they
traveled to several countries, searching for countless ancient, hidden texts,
inspecting long forgotten churches, monasteries and mosques, surviving despite
dark forces being thrown at them at every turn; the villain, the father of all
vampires, Dracula, is killed within the span of three relatively short
paragraphs. This isn't some sparkling pansy excuse of a bloodsucker. This is
Dracula. The first vampire. Made a deal with the devil, himself. He can turn
himself into a wolf and freaking mist. He’s Vlad the flipping Impaler. There
have been numerous attempts made on his life and yet this dude has been around
for *thousands* of years. On a scale of 1 to 10, his badass levels are at a
5,000. Dracula isn't going down because of one, barely-aimed bullet. It's going
to take a hell of a lot more effort and cunning than that to kill the original
creature of the night. After the 642 pages I devoured, after all the characters
had been through, after the mystery of Dracula slowly unveiled itself, proving
him to be an even more formidable enemy than you could have ever imagined, the
quick death was a huge let-down and such a complete and utter disappointment.
When I finished that chapter, dear readers, I looked back on all of it and
asked myself what the point of it all was; how much time had I wasted getting
to that moment? After all that work, all that build-up, it was over with the
snap of two fingers. I just...don't have the words to fully express my
disappointment.
It's fricking Dracula. I expect more.
That being said, the epilogue leaves us feeling as if it’s
possible Dracula survived. There’s a tiny glimmer of hope, as the narrator
receives a blank, leather-bound book many, many years after the events at St.
Mathieu’s. However, at the bottom of page 624 we are told that he crumbles to
dust after a measly gunshot wound. It just doesn’t make sense, fellow book
nerds. Not at all. If I come across another title by Elizabeth Kostova, I'll
pick it up and give her another shot (no pun intended). I think she's a good
writer, it’s just that this particular ending left something to be desired.
Maybe next time I'll be a bit more impressed.
But...at least Dracula didn't sparkle.
