Hunting down Dracula...
Written: Aug 24 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: lots of detail about the historical Dracula, fantastic settings and more complex characters
Cons: slow pacing, changing points of view
The Bottom Line: The next Da Vinci Code? Eh...maybe not, but so what?
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| arianej's Full Review: Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian |
Unless you've been living under a rock, you're at least familiar with the success of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code and its best-selling blend of Biblical history, art, cryptography and conspiracy theory. Since then, there's been much speculation about what thriller this genre will yield next, and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian is said to be one of the leading contenders.
The Story
It begins when a young girl discovers an old book in her father's library while he is away on a diplomatic trip. The book is bound with faded leather and containing a woodcut print of a dragon holding a banner that reads, "Drakulya". Even more intriguing is the letter which accompanies it:
My dear and unfortunate successor:
It is with regret that I imagine you, whoever you are, reading the account I must put down here. The regret is partly for myself-- because I will surely be at least in trouble, maybe dead, or perhaps worse, if this is in your hands. But my regret is also for you, my yet-unknown friend, because only by someone who needs such vile information will this letter someday be read...
When she confronts her father, she learns that the story is bigger than she ever imagined, starting when her father Paul was a young graduate student at an American university. When the book comes to his hands under mysterious circumstances, he consults his friend and mentor, Professor Rossi, who reveals he has a similar book in his possession with the very same inscription. Rossi has a tale of his own to tell, but before he can share the whole story with his student, the professor disappears under the most sinister of circumstances...
Strengths
Most vampire fans know a little bit about the historical basis for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Vlad Tepes III was a 15th century Wallachian ruler, a fierce warrior in the battle against the Ottoman Turks. Known as Dracula, or "son of the dragon", Vlad had a reputation for perverse cruelty that earned him the nickname Vlad the Impaler. One account has him dining amidst his victims, who had been speared with long wooden stakes until their own body weight dragged them to a slow and agonizing death. Another account has him punishing ambassadors to his court for refusing to doff their turbans by nailing them to their heads. It should be noted that far from being despised as a murderer, Vlad Tepes was and is still revered in his own lands for his crusades against the Ottomans, some of whom resent Bram Stoker's appropriation of his name for the blood-sucking villain in his 1897 novel.
Kostova could not have chosen a better subject for her book. While nowhere near as controversial as the question of Jesus' descendants, Opus Dei or the Priory of Sion, Dracula and the vampire legend can't help but grab attention. Even though it's been over a century since Stoker's book was published, we've seen numerous book and film versions based on the legend from the classic Bela Lugosi portrayal to the sleeker, sexier vampires in Anne Rice or Laurell K. Hamilton's novels.
But don't expect the gorgeous undead to populate Kostova's novel! You won't find rock star vampires oozing with hypnotic sex appeal here, which may disappoint some readers-- but I find it rather refreshing. Dracula himself actually has a relatively small role in the book, which focuses far more on the historical puzzle of Vlad Tepes. The supernatural aspect of the story is more subdued than I expected and sometimes takes a backseat to rest of the action--Paul's search for Professor Rossi, the mysterious woman he meets, and story of Paul's daughter as she unravels the mystery that has entangled her father.
On the whole, Kostova's novel goes into more depth than TDVC does. It concentrates more on character development so that Paul is more than a man on a mission, he's a person with a history. Likewise, his daughter is fully fleshed out with a very distinctive voice as she describes her independent childhood, her relationship with her father, and a determination to discover his whereabouts when Paul himself disappears.
Kostova also goes into more detail in terms of her historical and geographical settings, particularly the descriptions of churches and various locations in eastern Europe. The Historian doesn't just deal with the 1950's-1970's in which the novel takes place. There is a great deal of information on 15th century Romania and Hungary as well as scenes which address that region's present-day political situations. Granted, all of this detail isn't directly relevant to the hunt for Dracula, but it does a great job of giving the audience a true feel for the many countries Paul (and Rossi before him) visited in their research.
Weaknesses
Considering that this novel involves Dracula and his vampire minions, mysterious disappearances and exotic destinations from Istanbul to Hungary to Bulgaria, it's surprisingly slow paced. From the minute the book is discovered in Paul's library by his daughter, I knew the events would lead to something big... but the author is in no rush. (Mild understatement.) The pacing was sometimes hindered by the fact that the point of view changes between Paul and his daughter, and as their paths diverge, it's Paul's story which dominates the novel. As much as I liked hearing the young woman's story, it did slow down the pace even further at times, something which the novel didn't necessarily need.
For such a lengthy tome, the book says surprisingly little and resolves even less at the end. This is partly due to Kostova's style, which adopts the literary device where the narrator purports to be telling a real tale. Specific place names and even names of characters are either not given, or pseudonyms are used instead. I didn't mind, and it did help to give the book a certain feel, as if this really was a confidential account written by someone who was uncertain of who would read it.
Recommendations
Overall, Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian offers more substance than TDVC. Ironically, if anything prevents it from having the same sweeping success, that may be it. The Historian weighs in at a hefty 656 pages with little physical action and a lot of scenes where main characters are bent over dusty books in a foreign library or describing past events.
But what Kostova did especially well was to build suspense-- and not a little amount of dread-- gradually by spinning out her tale as the characters criss crossed Europe in search of more clues and Dracula's final resting place. It was this suspense that kept me turning pages long after I should've gone to sleep, and I look forward to Elizabeth Kostova's next novel. For any fan of vampire lore, I think this is a must read. (Readers interested in a much lighter read on the Dracula legend might want to check out Allen C. Kupfer's The Journal of Professor Abraham Van Helsing.)
In many ways, I don't think a comparison to TDVC is appropriate at all, because it seems like a case of apples and oranges. Brown's TDVC was a fast-paced thriller, practically halfway to movie script form already with its dynamic pursuits and uncomplicated characters. The Historian draws out its suspense slowly, with more personal interaction between characters and a decidedly literary feel to the book. People who love history books and literary fiction might be drawn more to The Historian, which lacks many of TDVC's flaws of spotty scholarship, shallow characterization and improbable situations, but I'd be (pleasantly!) surprised if it had the same success.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
arianej
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Member: Ariane
Location: Ohio
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