Review of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
A Vampire Novel, an Academic Mystery and a Race Against Time
Aug 22, 2008
The Historian, which was published in 2005 by Little, Brown and Co, borrows deliberately from Bram Stoker's novel “Dracula”, published 1897. The story is told largely through letters, diaries and tales told in tantalising fragments by the narrator's father. Also like Dracula, the book introduces the reader to exotic and unknown lands, although in this case Eastern Europe is made mysterious and inaccessible by communism rather than by nineteenth century travelling conditions.
Plot and Narrative Strands in The Historian
The plot of The Historian centres around the sudden disappearance of Professor Bartholomew Rossi, a History lecturer at an American university. It is left to a graduate student and Rossi's illegitimate daughter to try and find him, a pursuit which takes them to Turkey, Hungary and, of course, Transylvania, Romania. Most of the action takes place in the 1950s, during the search for Rossi, but it interspersed with tales of Rossi's investigations into the legend of Dracula in the 1930s, and is narrated in the 1970s. Despite all the jumping about, the time-line is not confusing because different characters feature in the different periods of the story.
What makes the search for Rossi unusual is that in order to find out where he (or his body) might be, the two students have to continue his investigations into the legend of the vampire, and their clues about the whereabouts of their professor in the 1950s have to be found in texts from the fifteenth century. This leads to a great deal of visiting libraries and reading ancient texts, and although the interweaving story-lines usually keep things moving, sometimes the pace is lost and the novel begins to drag. Readers with an interest in history or textual analysis will probably have more patience, but anyone who is not a fan of old books may find the emphasis on dusty pieces of parchment a bit irritating.
Weaknesses of The Historian
Characterisation is another weak point. Helen, Rossi's daughter, is a well-drawn, strong character, and the two main narrators, father and daughter, are able to give a sensitive portrayal of their personalities, but many of the other characters who help the investigators are interchangeable. There are far too many knowledgeable and helpful professors with a great respect for old books, who just pop up whenever required. The ease with which everyone in the 1950s and 1970s believes the tale about a friend being kidnapped by Dracula is also a bit hard to swallow.
Despite these flaws, The Historian is a page turner. The pace is generally quick and the suspense is sustained until the very end. The portraits of communist Eastern Europe, and the difficulties associated with entering these lands, are fascinating. It seems now to be a world almost as alien as the fifteenth century when Vlad Dracula was alive. “The Historian” is a good suspenseful read in itself, but also works well as an update of the Dracula story and is a worthy addition to his legend.
