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The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova


5.8

based on 21 reviews
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based on 29 votes
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Official Publisher Site

Call it The Dracula Code. Kostova's debut novel follows a teenage girl in Amsterdam in 1972 as she uncovers clues in an ancient book and a bundle of letters that cause her to investigate the history of Vlad the Impaler, who was the source of the Dracula legend.

Little, Brown, 656 pages
06/14/2005
$25.95

ISBN: 0316011770

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Kirkus Reviews

Anne Rice, beware. There's a new Queen of the Night in town, and she's taking no prisoners.

Publishers Weekly

Exotic locales, tantalizing history, a family legacy and a love of the bloodthirsty: it's hard to imagine that readers won't be bitten, too.

Bookslut Colleen Mondor

This book is beyond good, it is beyond anything I have read in ages. It is the best horror/suspense novel I have read in forever and more than that, it manages to elevate a clichéd old character from the basement of literary parody to the heights of literary grandeur that he has long deserved. All hail Elizabeth Kostova, she has made Dracula truly terrifying, and more importantly, historically significant, yet again.

The Observer Jane Stevenson

Reads like a cross between Dracula and The Da Vinci Code.

Houston Chronicle Michael D. Clark

Nearly impossible to put down once you crack the spine.

Library Journal Patricia Altner

The writing is excellent, and the pace is brisk, although it sags a bit in the middle. [15 June 2005, p.58]

The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Nancy Baker

There's no doubt that this is an extremely accomplished first novel.

The New Yorker

Kostova's knowledge of occult arcana is impressive, and she packages her erudition in a graceful narrative that only occasionally lapses into melodrama.

Boston Globe Peter Bebergal

The figure of Dracula has returned in grand style: regal, evil, and well read beyond compare.

Salon Laura Miller

For the sophisticated reader it's a fine Bordeaux to Dan Brown's overcaffeinated Diet Coke.

San Francisco Chronicle June Sawyers

Anyone who loves to become involved in the lives of fictional characters will find much to savor in this intricately plotted, delicately written novel.

USA Today Carol Memmott

Before the sun sets, grab this book and take a long and satisfying drink.

Chicago Tribune Jessica Treadway

Kostova's thorough research and lively narrative will compel many in search of a good story, richly told and not soon forgotten. [12 June 2005]

Los Angeles Times Jon Fasman

Kostova handles the logistics of multiple story lines well, though unfortunately her narrators all speak in the same hyper-descriptive, overwrought prose. They're all somewhat disembodied — brains in jars, not quite fully realized. [5 June 2005]

Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese

There are a few too many junctures when you wonder if Kostova is going anywhere with her travelogue, and not quite enough when you feel the urgent menace of her cerebral, ruby-lipped Dracula.

Washington Post Michael Dirda

The Historian is artfully constructed and atmospheric, yet nothing that happens in it is really all that surprising.

The Independent Lesley McDowell

Ultimately, Kostova's addition to the postmodern take on historical fiction is just a little too respectful and surprisingly lacking in sensuality, given its subject matter.

TLS: The Times Literary Supplement Helen Gordon

Elizabeth Kostova's story is in some ways over-simplistic, its moral universe too black-and-white; despite this, The Historian remains an enjoyably rambling Gothic novel, one filled with fascinating details of archaic vampire lore, the splendours of the Ottoman Empire and the beauty of the Romanian countryside. [22 Jul 2005]

The New York Times Janet Maslin

The vampire's power to inflict misery pales beside that of the book's contorted narrative structure.

Christian Science Monitor Yvonne Zipp

Overlong and prone to curious lapses of logic - for example, none of the main vampire hunters believes in God, yet all rely on crosses for protection - the novel ranks somewhere above most horror offerings but below serious literature.

The New York Times Book Review Henry Alford

When, after many other allusions to historians and historicism, Kostova introduced a character whose last name is Hristova, I was tempted to run out to a pharmacy for some antihristomine.

The average user rating for this book is 5.8 (out of 10) based on 29 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad E gave it a1:
I didn't seem like anything really happened. Further, I didn't care about the characters in the least. There was something entirely synthetic about it, like it was written by a computer.

julian h gave it a0:
I thought this book was 704 pages of the most turgid prose with no dramatic tension. an implausible story which plumbed the depths or the rediculous when Turgut chances on our unromantic heroes in an Istanbul restaurant.

raquel gave it an8:
I found it quite intrigruing. i simply couldn't put the book down.

Frances B gave it a3:
For a book about history, "The Historian" does not have much of asense of history. The 1930s could be the 1950s could be the 1970s. It's a pity the author, during her 10 years of research, did not discover, for example, that in 1954 you could not fly from New York to Istanbul overnight since trans-Atlantic planes had to stop for refueling at places like Gander and Keflavik.

Douglas P gave it an8:
A mix of an engrossing sense of place and history with a restrained and enticing story makes this a very enjoyable read.

Ronald gave it a5:
I think the narrative can be gripping at times. I finished half of the book in one sitting. But there are so many loose ends and illogical twists. And the end of Vlad Tepes which we waited for how many hundreds of pages... come on, the author can do better.

Michael B gave it a5:
The author's characters know far too much about furniture, food, architecture, horticulture and practically everything else in every culture in Europe. There are far too many adverbs and adjectives, florid beyond the semantic hanging gardens of babylon, or perhaps babble on, as it drags on and on. I was hoping for more creativity with the Vampires, not the standard garlic, crosses and silver bullets. I was looking forward after reading all of the glowing reviews, but I am sorely disappointed.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova