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''The Historian'' (ISBN 0316011770) is a 2005 Novel by Elizabeth Kostova about a Quest , reaching through the past five centuries, for the historical Dracula . While nominally a modern re-telling of the Dracula story, ''Historian'' delves deeply into the nature of History and its relevance to today's world. The novel (Kostova's first) appeared on the '' New York Times '' Bestseller list during the summer and fall of 2005. ''The Historian'' was named the 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year in the Adult Fiction category. OVERVIEW The book is presented as an unnamed first-person account written in the year 2008 . Ms. Kostova's explanation of the nameless narrator is a "literary experiment." The narrator, a Historian whose father, Paul, unwittingly ended up searching for the Vampiric Vlad Tepes . Although the narrator's adventures take place in 1972 , there are three distinct storylines narrated at once:
Much of the story is told through letters, excerpts from books and academic literature, and above all, the narrator's reconstructions of stories told to her by her father. Details of the plot and of Dracula's nature, motives, and history are slowly revealed The book has numerous settings all across Europe , which are complicated by Cold War tensions after World War II , when much of the action occurs. PLOTLINE With a permanent home in Amsterdam , the narrator and her diplomat father, Paul, travel together while he tells her about his mentor, Bartholomew Rossi, who disappeared during the 1950s, and how his search for him led to his encounter with a woman named Helen (the name of the narrator's long-lost mother). Before he can finish his story, however, he suddenly disappears. The narrator searches her father's room and finds letters written to her, explaining all of her father's, and Rossi's, mysterious story. These letters ultimately lead her to a Monastery in Pyrénées-Orientales , in the south of France. On her way there she reads letters of her father's madcap travels through Eastern Europe while looking for Rossi. He eventually found Rossi, and had to drive a Silver dagger through his Heart to prevent his full transformation into a vampire. Helen (gradually revealed to be the narrator's mother) is also in danger of becoming undead, as throughout the journey she is injected with vampiric venom twice (of the three required to become a vampire). The accounts written by Paul and Rossi reveal many events, developments and revelations. To name the most relevant:
When the narrator arrives at the monastary, she finds her father by a tomb there. In an ensuing struggle, individuals mentioned throughout the story mysteriously converge in a final attempt to defeat Dracula. BACKGROUND AND MOTIFS Like Bram Stoker 's ''Dracula'', ''Historian'' presents the story in the form of correspondence. Kostova regularly quotes from Stoker's original book, and intentionally includes the book and some of its more memorable passages and scenes within her novel. For example, the encounter between Rossi and Vlad Tepes is written exactly like Stoker's description of the initial meeting between Count Dracula and Jonathan Harker. Unlike in Stoker's book, the Dracula of ''Historian'' is developed from the historical, real-life Vlad III Tepes of Wallachia . The book only makes historical departures when necessary to explain his transition into a vampire. The central Theme of the book, as implied by the title and described in the introduction, is the ability of history to provide insights into how to deal with the present and future, as well as the danger of ignoring such insights. As Rossi remarks numerous times, history can often "reach forward" to grab people in the present; in the person of Dracula, this warning becomes quite literal. Within the novel, Dracula also becomes a symbol for mankind's destructive nature and capacity. It is revealed that Joseph Stalin admired Ivan The Terrible , who in turn admired Vlad Tepes. Throughout the entire narrative, the characters encounter sinister events that foreshadow the Twentieth Century 's bloodshed. For example, in 1930, Rossi and a guide in Transylvania accidentally encounter a group of Vigilantes . As the guide warns: ::''They are sweeping through the villages in this part of the country, picking up young men and converting them to hatred. They hate the Jews in particular, and want to rid the world of them. We Gypsies know that where Jews are killed, Gypsies are always murdered too. And then a lot of other people, usually.'' During his conversations with Rossi in the 1950s, Dracula expresses admiration for Adolf Hitler (he owns a first edition of '' Mein Kampf '') and Stalin (he owns a memo from the leader), and praises the United States for both developing and using the Nuclear Bomb . While he never explicitly explains his final goals, they appear to include inflicting damage on the entire Human Race . As he tells Rossi: ::''In my day, a prince was able to eliminate troublesome elements only one person at a time. You do this with an infinetely greater sweep.'' While no direct link between Dracula, his during the 1620s (during the Thirty Years' War ), he stayed in Florence during the excesses of the Medici family, and he appeared in Paris during the French Revolution . Additionally, and also described in the introduction, Dracula is presented as something of a Metaphor for the historic clash between the Western world and Islam (the real Dracula fought against Muslim invasions of Europe). Even centuries after his mortal existence, Dracula continues to hate Muslims everywhere - he still regards the fall of Constantinople to Muslims as the worst moment in history, and he rejoiced when the Ottoman Empire collapsed following World War I . Moreover, this struggle increases with time - in the fictional future set out in the novel, Terrorists successfully attack a Philadelphia federal building sometime in 2006 . Many of Dracula's motives remain unclear. ''Historian'' only includes a few brief conversations with him, although the following information comes out:
Although Stoker's book makes numerous appearances within ''The Historian'', it is never revealed if the events (as opposed to the historical background) of the 1897 novel had any basis in fact within the novel. MARKETING AND CRITICISM ''The Historian'' has been heavily marketed by its publisher, Time Warner , and much hype was given to it prior to its release. Moreover, Kostova was paid an advance of $2 million. Both the Marketing campaign and advance are unusual for an author's first book. Some critics have sarcastically nicknamed ''Historian'' "The Dracula Code" because of the hype surrounding it, as well as its similarities with Dan Brown 's '' The DaVinci Code '', claiming that the publishers are trying to capitalize on the "buzz" that surrounded Brown's novel. However, Kostova started writing the book ten years before it was published, making any comparisons between it and ''DaVinci Code'' completely coincidental, and any claims of Plagiarism questionable. Moreover, Kostova was awarded the Hopwood Award for the Novel-in-Progress while she was still working on it. FILM ADAPTATION A film based on the book is in development with the script to be written by '' Finding Neverland '' scribe David Magee. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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