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 Post subject: Elizabeth Kostova ~ The Historian
PostPosted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 6:39 pm 
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Yesterday I started reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. From what I have read so far its a pretty good read.

It begins telling the story of a teenaged diplomat's daughter who finds a mysterious book and papers about Dracula in her father's library.

When she asks about it, it turns out that the father's PhD dissertation adviser (and leading historian) had also once mysteriously received such a book and checked up on Dracula when he was young. He came to believe from his research in Turkey that Dracula still lived.

The father slowly tells the historian's story, as well as his own.

In a way this book does remind me a bit of Dan Simmons's excellent vampire novel, Children of the Night in the way the authors did a lot of research on the historical Dracula, and interweave the history with their stories - and both show that the real world Dracula was much worse and more terrifying than any vampire mythos.

from Amazon:
Quote:Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
If your pulse flutters at the thought of castle ruins and descents into crypts by moonlight, you will savor every creepy page of Elizabeth Kostova's long but beautifully structured thriller The Historian. The story opens in Amsterdam in 1972, when a teenage girl discovers a medieval book and a cache of yellowed letters in her diplomat father's library. The pages of the book are empty except for a woodcut of a dragon. The letters are addressed to: "My dear and unfortunate successor." When the girl confronts her father, he reluctantly confesses an unsettling story: his involvement, twenty years earlier, in a search for his graduate school mentor, who disappeared from his office only moments after confiding to Paul his certainty that Dracula--Vlad the Impaler, an inventively cruel ruler of Wallachia in the mid-15th century--was still alive. The story turns out to concern our narrator directly because Paul's collaborator in the search was a fellow student named Helen Rossi (the unacknowledged daughter of his mentor) and our narrator's long-dead mother, about whom she knows almost nothing. And then her father, leaving just a note, disappears also.
As well as numerous settings, both in and out of the East Bloc, Kostova has three basic story lines to keep straight--one from 1930, when Professor Bartolomew Rossi begins his dangerous research into Dracula, one from 1950, when Professor Rossi's student Paul takes up the scent, and the main narrative from 1972. The criss-crossing story lines mirror the political advances, retreats, triumphs, and losses that shaped Dracula's beleaguered homeland--sometimes with the Byzantines on top, sometimes the Ottomans, sometimes the rag-tag local tribes, or the Orthodox church, and sometimes a fresh conqueror like the Soviet Union.

Although the book is appropriately suspenseful and a delight to read--even the minor characters are distinctive and vividly seen--its most powerful moments are those that describe real horrors. Our narrator recalls that after reading descriptions of Vlad burning young boys or impaling "a large family," she tried to forget the words: "For all his attention to my historical education, my father had neglected to tell me this: history's terrible moments were real. I understand now, decades later, that he could never have told me. Only history itself can convince you of such a truth." The reader, although given a satisfying ending, gets a strong enough dose of European history to temper the usual comforts of the closing words. --Regina Marler


From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Considering the recent rush of door-stopping historical novels, first-timer Kostova is getting a big launch—fortunately, a lot here lives up to the hype. In 1972, a 16-year-old American living in Amsterdam finds a mysterious book in her diplomat father's library. The book is ancient, blank except for a sinister woodcut of a dragon and the word "Drakulya," but it's the letters tucked inside, dated 1930 and addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," that really pique her curiosity. Her widowed father, Paul, reluctantly provides pieces of a chilling story; it seems this ominous little book has a way of forcing itself on its owners, with terrifying results. Paul's former adviser at Oxford, Professor Rossi, became obsessed with researching Dracula and was convinced that he remained alive. When Rossi disappeared, Paul continued his quest with the help of another scholar, Helen, who had her own reasons for seeking the truth. As Paul relates these stories to his daughter, she secretly begins her own research. Kostova builds suspense by revealing the threads of her story as the narrator discovers them: what she's told, what she reads in old letters and, of course, what she discovers directly when the legendary threat of Dracula looms. Along with all the fascinating historical information, there's also a mounting casualty count, and the big showdown amps up the drama by pulling at the heartstrings at the same time it revels in the gruesome. Exotic locales, tantalizing history, a family legacy and a love of the bloodthirsty: it's hard to imagine that readers won't be bitten, too.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Post subject: Re: Elizabeth Kostova ~ The Historian
PostPosted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 6:56 pm 
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I don't usually get into vampire books, but that sounds VERY cool duchy! *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>


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 Post subject: Re: Elizabeth Kostova ~ The Historian
PostPosted: Mon Dec 26, 2005 2:29 am 
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Thus far it is very enjoyable, and the author is doing a great job knitting together the three stories. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Elizabeth Kostova ~ The Historian
PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2005 2:06 pm 
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The only vampires I've ever read about were Gregory in The Dragon Waiting, Scriven in Donaldson's Penance and Lestat--not many, but pretty high standards!

Oh and some book by Bram Stoker...what was that guy's name again? <blood *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 12/27/05 7:08 am
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 Post subject: Re: Elizabeth Kostova ~ The Historian
PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2005 11:56 pm 
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Actually, this would be a great vampire book for people who do not care for standard vampire books. It is as much as a history quest as anything, and the tension slowly and masterfully builds. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Elizabeth Kostova ~ The Historian
PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:54 am 
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I still have to check out some of the Martin and Simmons vampire stories. *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>


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 Post subject: Elizabeth Kostova ~ The Historian
PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 4:08 am 
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Martin's Fevre Dream is quite wonderful. It combines a vampire story with river boats in the Old South and it explores slavery in many guises (humans owning other humans as slaves, most vampires seeing humans as "cattle", vampires being slaves to more powerful vampires...). It is also a rather deep and moving exploration of friendship.

Simmons's Children of the Night is also quite wonderful. It tells the story of an American doctor and researcher who adopts a little boy in Romania...and who discovers he has a quite interesting medical condition. It also interweaves lots of the history of the actual Dracula, and shows that as a real life person he was more monstrous and terrible than any myth of any vampire.

Kostova's book, which I finished this morning, is also quite wonderful. She has elegant language and pacing, and skillfully interweaves the story of three generations of historians on the trail of Dracula, primarily through historical documents and interviews. However -- if you are looking for fast paced advanture or buckets of blood-- this is not the book for you! It interweaves the story of the Balkans for hundreds of years, from the time of Dracula to the time between the world wars, to the Soviet occupation, to the present day. Like Simmons, Kostova demonstrates the extreme monstrous qualities of the real life Dracula. Lots of history, well presented, well drawn main characters, elegantly told -- but again, might not be everyone's cup of tea. <i></i>


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 Post subject: Re: Elizabeth Kostova ~ The Historian
PostPosted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:57 pm 
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Kostova's The historian, was another publishing surprise that most in the business did not see becoming as popular as it is.

I recently heard an interview with Ms Kostova, and the she recounted the following. During the time she wrote this book, she earned an MFA in creative writing from University of Michigan, and during that time sections of this book were workshopped with her fellow students and her instructors. She was apparently reluctant to let everyone know she was working on a vampire book during the workshop sessions, and that strikes me curiously since University of Michigan has a history of openess to genre lit. For example, Eric Rabkin, instructor at UM, was one of the first instructors in the country to teach an SF survey class in a univerisity setting. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
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 Post subject: Re: Elizabeth Kostova ~ The Historian
PostPosted: Sun Apr 30, 2006 4:52 pm 
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When I was an English major there some twenty years ago, the place was very much into very serious British lit. In the two years I was there, I do not think I read a single work in the English department that was not British, other than a few poems.

Now, I had a year of Great Books, and a wonderful class of Russian lit (in translation) but none of those classes was through the English department.

So if things are still so very Brit lit oriented, I could maybe see her being a bit reluctant to say what her novel was about.

That said, I found her novel to be very well written, unusual, intelligent, and nothing to be blushworthy about. ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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 Post subject: Re: Elizabeth Kostova ~ The Historian
PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2006 12:50 am 
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Another recommend for those who donnot like vampire books, Sunshine by Robin McKinley. If you cannot tell I really liked this book. taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
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 Post subject: Kostova's The Historian
PostPosted: Fri May 05, 2006 3:37 am 
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I loved McKinley's Sunshine as well. <i></i>


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 Post subject: Re: Kostova's The Historian
PostPosted: Fri Oct 06, 2006 6:49 pm 
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Hi, I'm new here, just found the site today. Thanks, Danlo.

I was given The Historian as a gift by a friend who didn't mind my penchant for morbidity and was being nice. I slightly liked the last 20 or so pages, but the rest was history sleuth stuff. I kept waiting for someone to bite someone. It didn't happen. So it's not really a vampire book IMHO. If you like the process that goes into investigation and discovery, you will like it. If you are looking for something in the horror genre, this is a very loose fit for that. Just my opinion, which ain't worth much. Go Panthers!!!!! <i></i>


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