Imaginative first novel offers new take on Dracula legend
In 1972, a sixteen-year-old girl discovers a book in her father’s library. It is completely blank except for a picture of a menacing dragon in the middle which fills the entire page with the word Drakulya. The book is also hiding something else, letters which are addressed, “To my dear and unfortunate successor:”
This is the beginning of Elizabeth Kostova’s first novel “The Historian.” It is the story of several historians and others in related professions who are driven to search the history of Dracula after finding an ancient mysterious book.
The greatest attribute of “The Historian” is its function as historical fiction. The Dracula depicted within the novel is quite believable, because he is drawn straight from history.
Kostova ties the background in with the “pop culture” view of Count Dracula and vampirism to make a complex villain. She also adds another historical dimension by setting most of the action in Cold War Europe.
Unfortunately, “The Historian” falls short in several aspects. First, it is definitely not short. The novel nears 700 pages and the disrupted the storyline makes it seem much longer.
The basic plot is very interesting and would be very enjoyable except for the fact that the story line is so fragmented it is hard to decipher all the information Kostova uses.
In the novel, the first character introduced is the daughter, but the better part of the book is the father’s story. The daughter becomes more of a distraction than a main focus, because most of the story progression is actually made by the father.
Because Kostova continues to use the daughter as a means to convey the story, most of the crucial facts are imparted to the reader in the form of a letter. This leads to a tremendous amount of letters and difficult reading.
Dracula also becomes a source of frustration because his character and motive are not thoroughly described or resolved. For some reason, he is trying to attract historians to search for his tomb.
Near the end of the book this is somewhat explained by his desire to have his library “catalogued” so that he can switch tombs, but this reasoning falls short. Why would he wait almost 500 years to tempt some poor historian to come sort out his books? And why does he have a book collection anyway?
Despite the book’s weaknesses, Kostova has managed to weave together an imaginative story. It is refreshing to have an author create a new approach to the classic villain.
Overall, “The Historian” is really about history. This becomes Kostova’s strength as the historical aspects of the book are surprisingly the most chilling.
Prince Vlad Dracula became known as Vlad the Impaler because of his astounding cruelty. Though the descriptions given within the “The Historian” are brief they become haunting throughout the novel.
If something truly distressing is what you seek for your Halloween entertainment, just read about the real thing. History certainly can be terrifying.
Elise Rasmussen is a book critic at the Utah Statesman. Questions or comments can be sent to her at eliseras@cc.usu.edu.