The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova
To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history….Late one night, exploring her father’s library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to “My dear and unfortunate successor,” and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of, a labyrinth where the secrets of her father’s past and her mother’s mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history.
The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself–to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive. 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? The answers to these questions cross time and borders, as first the father and then the daughter search for clues, from dusty Ivy League libraries to Istanbul, Budapest, and the depths of Eastern Europe. In city after city, in monasteries and archives, in letters and in secret conversations, the horrible truth emerges about Vlad the Impaler’s dark reign and about a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive down through the ages.
As one of our most highly anticipated reads, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova has made several appearances on House of Cadmus—in our atmospheric reads, in our historical fiction mysteries, in our cozy, compelling recommended pairings for our Ancient Greek Autumn. This novel has been calling to me for years, a premise so intriguing it’s a wonder how I ever went so long without reading it once my eyes first landed on its cover. I can’t help but think that, though part of me wishes I’d read it sooner, perhaps I read it at exactly the right time, diving deep into its pages and unbelievable atmosphere just as the seasons transitioned from summer to autumn, the nights stretching longer as I traveled deeper into the world Kostova conjured.
Related: Must-Read Atmospheric Books for Autumn
Without a doubt, The Historian is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. From the first page, I was under its spell, lost in the nearly tangible sense of atmosphere and the almost decadent sense of storytelling. Written exclusively in the form of letters written as journal-like personal accounts, The Historian recounts the tale of several scholars’ somewhat unintentional searches for the true history of Vlad the Impaler, or Dracula, in a fantastically detailed and intimate manner. The letters act as a sort of loose framework, giving readers an understanding of the time, place, and character who wrote them while reading essentially like typical first-person prose—and fantastically written prose at that. The writing within this book flows, wrapping the reader up with its intelligent, immersive language, taking us from one POV to another seamlessly. The prose is fantastic, creating an atmosphere and tone that is absolute perfection; darkly intriguing, suspenseful, an atmosphere of forbidden knowledge, the smell of books in an unexpectedly dark corner of a university library, the flickering of candlelight, the constant fear in the back of your mind that no matter where you are, no matter what you do, you are being watched. Descriptions are lush and evocative, rich without being flowery. There is a directness to the writing that comes across as not bland or lacking, but suffused with the clarity and intimacy of a scholar’s keen attention to detail.
Related: Must-Read Historical Fiction Mysteries
The Historian unfolds in the most engaging, irresistibly captivating way. The letters—written by various characters including our main overall narrator, her father, Professor Rossi, and occasionally other characters—detail each person’s personal experiences in a masterclass of nonlinear storytelling. Our main narrator—a young woman who goes nameless and is writing directly to us—is the steady present-day thread throughout the story, revealing to us her own experiences that fade into her father relating his experiences, which dips into Rossi’s experiences and so on. We move in and out of each person’s account, the threads of the story woven complexly, the intensity and intrigue building constantly as we discover alongside our narrator the unbelievable history of her own father and how it entwines with that of one of history’s cruelest rulers, Vlad Dracula. Through desperate searches of archives and deep dives into rare historical documents hidden within the shelves of universities and foreign libraries, each storyline within The Historian begins to piece together the full picture of Vlad Dracula’s existence in a way that is intelligent, highly believable, and, perhaps most importantly, incredibly entertaining and satisfying. At no point during the gentle unfolding of this tale does The Historian experience a break in the building suspense or in the incredible richness of its intrigue.
Related: An Ancient Greek Autumn
With a subject matter so rich in history, atmosphere, and mystery, I could’ve happily read a thousand pages of The Historian. The premise was one that piqued my interest immediately, but the actual execution of the story from the first page to the last was phenomenal. The plot is utterly engrossing, a perfect balance struck between a sense of quiet storytelling–thoughtful and slower paced–with compelling discoveries and moments of action and excitement. The story takes its time unfolding, allowing readers the pleasure of experiencing the discovery of information and connecting of dots in a slow, but terribly exciting, manner that kept me on the edge of my seat. This novel is tense, mysterious, captivating. It built steadily, maintaining a quiet sense of urgency and suspense that intensified as the story progressed toward a climax that was nothing short of thrilling. Each new bit of information was received with an overwhelming rush of disbelief at just how incredible this story—the plot, the richness of the exploration of history and folklore, the atmosphere, the writing—was. Fictitious history was woven into real history seamlessly. Combined with exploration of history and the familiar atmosphere of libraries, universities, and the cultures and beliefs of Old World Europe, this historical pursuit of Vlad Dracula was absolutely convincing. A sweeping tale of how the search for knowledge of one of history’s greatest myths and mysteries became the desperate search for the truth about Dracula, The Historian sets itself apart as a masterclass in storytelling. It’s simply brilliant.
The Historian was a dream reading experience. Evocative and decadent, inspired by and based in history and folklore with a focus on books, this novel is everything I love. It’s a novel I wish I wrote, a novel whose pages I wish I could live in. An absolutely engrossing and stunning read, The Historian is a must-read for all fans of atmospheric, rich tales of the unexpected.
I remember thinking “I MUST read this book” back when it first came out, then promptly forgetting about it. Every once in a while I came across a reference to it and am reminded I MUST read it. But OK, now you’ve convinced me. I’m planning to focus on Big Books in 2022, and I’ve just put The Historian at the top of my reading list.
I’m so excited I convinced you to finally read it! I look forward to hearing what you think of it. I hope you love it as much as I do. What other big books are you planning to read next year?