The Historian

[sawyl]

Here, somewhat late, are a few thoughts The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

The story, which unfolds through a combination of flashbacks and letters, opens with an unamed historian recalling a protected childhood in Amsterdam in the 1970s. Her father, Paul, a diplomat involved in detente negociations, is often absent, leading her to seek solace in his library. There she encounters a book, blank save for a single woodcut of a dragon marked with the name Drakulya and full of a series of letters addressed to, "My dear and unfortunate successor". Instead of confronting her father directly, she asks to be taken with him on his next assignment and he rather unexpectedly agrees. Sitting in a Slovenian cafe, she asks him about the book and he starts to relate his part of tale.

Whilst studying for his doctorate, Paul comes across a book left lying on his carrel in the library. The book is blank except for an engraving of a dragon. Initially assuming that the book has been left by mistake he ignores it but the book keeps on being returned to his desk. Intrigued, he decides to take the book to his mentor, the English historian Bartholomew Rossi. Rossi reveals that he too received a similar book when he was a student and that, in his younger years, he had investigated many of the legends surrounding Dracula but had eventually given up his research as fruitless. But recently he had decided to resume his studies, spurred on by the discovery that a new scholar at the university had recently started researching the same area.

After breaking off from his narrative, Paul and his daughter return to Amsterdam. Fascinated by her father's story and by the discovery that he has removed the dragon book from the library, the daughter begins her own investigations into the history of Vlad Tepes. Weeks pass without any further revelations but whilst visiting friends in Tuscany, Paul once again starts to unburden himself.

Paul is shocked when Rossi vanishes, mere minutes after their conversation about mysterious books. The police are called but nothing is found. Sure that the key to the disappearance lies in the Dracula myth, Paul opens a bundle of papers entrusted to him by Rossi at their last meeting and finds a series of letters addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor".

Pursuing some of the hints raised by Rossi's letters, Paul encounters a young Hungarian woman, Helen, in the university library. Discovering that she has a number of the books he requires, he tackles her and she admits that the purpose of her work is primarily to embarrass her father, Bartholomew Rossi, into engaging with his illegitimate daughter. On learning that Rossi has vanished, Helen impulsively joins forces with Paul and they travel to Turkey in pursuit of information.

Although I quite enjoyed The Historian, it didn't ultimately convince me. I found that the epistolary nature of the narrative wasn't as smooth as in Dracula, in which Stoker dispenses with framing episodes in favour of the conceit that the documents form an archive of events. The chase part of the plot, pursued through a series of academic investigations, was quite enjoyable — I like plots that take their time to unravel — but lacked the excitment of, say, Antonia Byatt's Possession even though, in the latter, there is considerably less at stake.

I also struggled with some of the characters. I found the narrator rather too ingenuous for the 1970s, but equally, I found it hard to believe that she'd almost immediately have hopped into bed with her travelling companion — although I can understand why, structurally, it may have been necessary in order to mirror parts of the plot that take place in the 50s. I'm not sure that I was quite convinced that Helen was as brilliant as she was supposed to be, but that might simply be because she wasn't Mina Harker.