Although nearly everybody in the novel is a researcher of some kind, the 'historian' of the title is Dracula himself, who turns out to be, rather like Sesame Street's 'Count who loves to count', a committed bibliomanaic. Furthermore, he has developed a posthumous interest in hand-press printing, one of the story's more unaccountable additions to vampire lore. Stoker's tale is passionately involved with new technology and it may be that this feature of the original has been displaced on to Dracula himself, since printing was invented in his lifetime. The Historian study guide contains a biography of Elizabeth Kostova, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Elizabeth Kostova - Wikipedia

The novel ties together three separate narratives using letters and oral accounts: that of Paul's mentor in the 1930's, that of Paul in the 1950's, and that of the narrator herself in the 1970's. The tale is told primarily from the perspective of Paul's daughter, who is never named. ... Paul Wagenbreth, "'The Historian': In search of the real Dracula", The News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana) (23 June 2005). Access World News (subscription required). Retrieved 10 May 2009.While The Historian’s premise is simple, the plot is hopelessly convoluted. Like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this is an epistolary novel, with large chunks of it coming in the form of “letters” written by various characters. Afterwards, Rossi mysteriously disappears and along with the professor's daughter Helen, Paul begins to investigate. After hearing this story, the narrator is drawn into the mystery and begins investigating with her father as they travel through Europe in the 1970s. Paul later sends her home, but when she discovers he is actually on a journey to find her long-lost mother, she follows him. It is later made known that Helen Rossi was her mother. The 26-hour unabridged audio book, released by Books on Tape (a division of Random House), is narrated by Justine Eyre and Paul Michael. According to Booklist, they "do an incredible job voicing an array of characters with European accents ranging from Dutch, French, and German". Noting that the book is particularly suited for audio because it is told in letters, they praise Eyre's "earnest and innocent" tone in her voicing of the narrator and Michael's "clear characterizations". [60] Film [ edit ] The novel explores questions of good and evil and as Jessica Treadway states in The Chicago Tribune, it "is intriguing for its thorough examination of what constitutes evil and why it exists". For example, Dracula at one point asks Rossi: What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible that the Dracula of myth truly existed—and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends? Elizabeth Kostova's debut novel is an

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An anaemic Prince of Darkness", Hindustan Times (16 June 2005). Access World News (subscription required). Retrieved 9 May 2009. The characters are not helped by the leaden dialogue. Just about everything spoken is exposition. I don’t necessarily expect Aaron Sorkin-like exchanges, but still, it’d be nice to have one evocative conversation. Written in the epistolary form of diary entries, newsletters, public documents, etc., Part One of the story begins in 1972 Amsterdam. The unnamed female narrator unearths an old leather-bound book with the image of a dragon connected with Dracula on the cover. She asks her father Paul about the origins of the tome, which he explains is a handmade book he found in his desk as a graduate student in the 1950s. Paul gives the book to his teacher, Professor Bartholomew Rossi. Rossi is stunned, explaining that he also found a similar book while he was a grad student in the 1930s. This leads Rossi to study Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler, at great length. When Rossi uncovers the mythic lore surrounding Dracula and his relation to Vlad, he begins to study the book intensely. Rossi travels to Istanbul for his research, but he’s ultimately forced to end his investigation and return to his professorial duties. Rossi hands Paul his research papers and declares he believes Dracula is still alive. In any case, it seems that for an indefinite length of time, Dracula has spent his unlife researching torture and mass destruction, his biography, his spiritual prospects, and allied matters: 'As I knew I could not attain a heavenly paradise ... I became a historian.' An eyebrow-raising alternative. In addition to his studies, he encourages work on vampirism by gifts of a mysterious book, but then puts a stop to it by frightening the living daylights out of the researchers, which seems a touch counterproductive.

The Historian has been described as a combination of genres, including Gothic novel, adventure novel, detective fiction, travelogue, postmodern historical novel, epistolary epic, and historical thriller. Kostova was intent on writing a serious work of literature and saw herself as an inheritor of the Victorian style. Although based in part on Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Historian is not a horror novel, but rather an eerie tale. It is concerned with history's role in society and representation in books, as well as the nature of good and evil. As Kostova explains, "Dracula is a metaphor for the evil that is so hard to undo in history." [3] The evils brought about by religious conflict are a particular theme, and the novel explores the relationship between the Christian West and the Islamic East. Robyn Dorei, "Death becomes her", The Sun-Herald (September 11, 2005). Access World News (subscription required). Retrieved May 7, 2009. a b "Blood money", South China Morning Post (25 September 2005). LexisNexis (subscription required). Retrieved 7 May 2009. Anne Vandermey, Alum got her start in "U" writing program" (original), The Michigan Daily (April 16, 2006). Retrieved May 10, 2009. Archived copy.

The Historian (Audio Download): Elizabeth Kostova, Justine The Historian (Audio Download): Elizabeth Kostova, Justine

Rossi is the mentor of the narrator's father Paul, whose disappearance leads him to go on a search for Dracula. He embarks on this journey with Rossi's daughter Helen, with whom he later has a child with. He is later found in the midst of being transformed into a vampire, and is killed by Paul with a silver stake to prevent this unfortunate fate. PaulAm I destined for some kind of literary hell if I say I wish Dan Brown would rewrite this story with the spark and intensity of the Da Vinci Code? a b Sarah Murdoch, "Impaled on a serpentine plot", National Post (9 July 2005). LexisNexis (subscription required). Retrieved 7 May 2009. Ong Sor Fern, "Female appetites starved of ideas", The Straits Times (23 August 2005). LexisNexis (subscription required). Retrieved 7 May 2009. Anna Carey, "Mad about Vlad", The Irish Times (August 6, 2005). LexisNexis (subscription required). Retrieved May 7, 2009. But mostly she's interested in her book. In people reading it, talking about it and talking to her about it. "I do find it tiresome that people are more interested in the money than in the book because I didn't write it angling for an advance. But I think it's a natural interest: it's just so unusual to get that kind of money for a first book.

The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova | Goodreads The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova | Goodreads

There is a reason, she says, why people have latched onto historical thrillers recently. "We have experienced intense globalisation the last 10 years and we are aware as never before of history as a whole and of our place in it. We are aware of the world as a small and fragile place. I also think this is an age of great anxiety. The more I studied the middle ages for this book the more I thought we hadn't come that far in some ways." It is a fact that we historians are interested in what is partly a reflection of ourselves, perhaps a part of ourselves we would rather not examine except through the medium of scholarship; it is also true that as we steep ourselves in our interests, they become more and more a part of us.” So while she recognises that there will be great pressure for her second book, which she has already started, to be commercially successful, she does not find that pressure hard to resist. "To me it's not relevant whether my next book is a success or not," she says, matter-of-factly. "The pattern is that if an author does well the first time then people are usually disappointed by the next book. I'm totally prepared to put this aside mentally and write what I'm going to write. It will be whatever it is. I only hope that my next book will be better. It might not do better because Dracula is a subject which is appealing in itself to a lot of people. And that is part of what this is riding on. I just hope every book I write is a better piece of writing than the last." The Historian amounts to something profound, messy, and wondrously mathematical at times... We encounter obsession, possession, and the struggle against the brevity of life. It is an exploration of the eternal desire for intimacy. The innocent are as vulnerable as the woefully enlightened. They just do not know it yet. The second timeline is set in the 1950s. These portions are comprised of letters written by Paul to his daughter. They detail his pursuit – along with a companion named Helen – of both Dracula, and his mentor, Professor Bartholomew Rossi, who has gone missing.

The renown, she says, will be shortlived. "Culture moves so fast that this kind of thing goes away pretty fast. It's a flash in the pan." The money will last longer. She says she is grateful for it and will use it to buy the time she needs to concentrate on her work, although she hopes to return to teaching in the autumn. a b c d Jeff Guinn, "Tapping a vein", Fort Worth Star-Telegram (24 July 2005). Access World News (subscription required). Retrieved 10 May 2009. a b Anna Carey, "Mad about Vlad", The Irish Times (6 August 2005). LexisNexis (subscription required). Retrieved 7 May 2009. On top of that, there are vast stores of erudition on fifteenth century monasteries, the cultural divide betwixt Romanians and Transylvanians, the Walechian court, medieval church politics, central European folk songs, Bulgarian religious rituals based around old pagan traditions, historian cataloging and research methodology, and the overlapping history of Central Europe with its shifting rulers of Ottomans, the Orthodox church and its tiny fiefdoms, and the Soviet Union. For, thinking about it as an historian, the undead would have lived through an impressive array of eras.