The Historian

Today my blog is going to be about one of my favorite all time books:it’s not new it was written and published in 2005: it is called The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova : This book fascinate’s it blends history and folklore of Vlad Tepes and his fictional counterpart Count Dracula. Kostova’s father would tell her stories as a child of Dracula (not sure if I would have done that with my child lol) Later in her life she decided to turn her father’s stories into a novel, which took her 10 years to write. She sold it to a publisher for 2 million dollars.

The book combines different genres, gothic, adventure, detective fiction, travelogue, post modern historical thriller: even though it is based in part on Bram Stoker’s Dracula it’s not a horror novel, but an eerie tale of good and evil, Dracula is a metaphor for evil, the evil brought about by religious conflict, the relationship between Christian west and Islamic east.

The story weaves back thru time with three different narratives -1930s 1950s 1970s. The story of Paul a professor and his 16 yr old daughter and their quest to find Vlad’s tomb. The epilogue which takes place in 2008 shows the daughter who is the narrator attends a conference of medievalists in Philly and stops at a library with extensive material related to Dracula. She accidentally leaves her notes and a librarian rushes out with her notes and book with a dragon printed in the center, revealing that Dracula is still alive.

The novel is so involved in history and it’s role in society and about the love of books - the knowledge and comfort they offer the characters in the book-Dracula is a bibliophile.

So if you can pick a copy up and enjoy there’s a little something in it for everyone in my opinion.