The Historian

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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 and that he has lived on, century after century, pursuing his own unknowable ends 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. Read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova – kino-fada.fr This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers To view it, click here You know you ve been in school too long when you write a vampire novel in which Dracula s ultimate threat is to force his victims to catalog his extensive library of antique books On the other hand, after finishing The Historian, and its detailed Vlad the Impaler research, I m willing to consider that threat as akin to impalement If Kostova s references to Henry James did not reveal her as an admirer of his, then its sprawling prose, vague plot, and sexually confused characters would have Whi You know you ve been in school too long when yo...This has got to be one of the most disappointing books I ve read in a long time Although the descriptions of the various eastern European cities are often pretty and atmospheric, my frustration with this book won t let me mark it above one star.It starts out well very interesting and suspenseful for about the first 100 pages or so But as you read it, the book just getsandridiculous It s about 600 900 pages long which is way, way too long and I urge anyone reading this book t This has got to be one of the most disappointing books I ve read in a long time Although the descriptions of the various eastern European cities are often pretty and atmospheric, my frustration with this book won t let me mark it above one star.It starts out well very interesting and susp...January 3, 2014Dear Khanh of 2006,I am your older, wiser self Many things will happen in the years that have elapsed before you become the me of today You will fall in love You will break hearts You will get your heart broken karma s a bitch You will change jobs You will graduate from college.Most importantly, you will becomeintelligent, you will learn the art of advanced thinking because really, all college teaches you is how to get good grades by regurgitating textbooks When you January 3, 2014Dear Khanh of 2006,I am your older, wiser self Many things will happen in the years that have elapsed before you become the me of today You will fall in love You will break hearts You will get your heart broken karma s a bitch You will change jobs You will graduate from college.Most importantly, you will becomeintelligent, you will learn the art of advanced thinking because really, all college teaches you is how to get good grades by regurgitating textbooks When you are older, as you begin to read critically, you will learn to appreciate a good book, and you will be able to identify literary bullshit ...This novel is better than I had any anticipation of it being I d seen it among a friend s luggage then later saw it at the library Having just come off three weeks of nineteenth century novelists, I thought, Oh, something light would be a nice change After all, I thought Vampires The book is about vampires And not just any vampire, but the mack daddy himself, Dracula, the real Vlad the Impaler, who turns out to be the undead.Light reading Sure Six hundred and fifty pages of vampires that This novel is better than I had any anticipation of it being I d seen it among a friend s luggage then later saw it at the library Having just come off three weeks of nineteenth century novelists, I thought, Oh, something light would be a nice change After all, I thought Vampires The book is about vampires And not just any vampire, but the mack daddy himself, Dracula, the real Vlad the Impaler, who turns out to be the undead.Light reading Sure Six hundred and fifty pages of vampires that is less concerned with torn pulsing arteries than with the minutiae of historical research And much like Dracula, to which Kostova novel The Historian owes an incalculable debtso than many another vampire novel , the novel is constructed as a story within a story within a story.One of the novel s central conceits is how much of the story is told in the form of l...This is actually the second time I ve read this book For a first novel, it is outstanding I was completely engrossed in the story I really love history and the whole Dracula lore I thought it was a great mix of both It added a lot of suspense that made me read it with the lights on I think I read it in about four days, I just couldn t put it down I will say this though, if you are not really into history or researching, ...This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers To view it, click here Am 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 I think I read some review here on GoodReads that called this a book to be conquered You know, one where after a tim...Tentatively, my hand crept towards the mouse What dark and unholy specter could be contained in other people s reviews of Elizabeth Kostova s The Historian I was filled with passive voiced dread as the link was clicked by me I was horrified to read xdragonlady s reviewMy main problem with the book being that the author told the tale from so many different points of view, but that they were each told in first person without giving the reader any notice as to who was telling the tale I Tentatively, my hand crept towards the mouse What dark and unholy specter could be contained in other people s reviews of Elizabeth Kostova s The Historian I was filled with passive voiced dread as the link was clicked by me I was horrified to read xdragonlady s reviewMy main problem with the book being that the author told the tale from so many different points of view, but that they were each told in first person without giving the reader any notice as to who was telling the tale I don t understand why this book is on the bestseller s list I was aghast Could the novel I had just read really have been a confounding multi tiered multiple first person narrative with lack luster voices which the author clearly mistook for a clever attempt at recreating a sense of research With much ...This book is impossible to resist It has fairly leapt to the top shelf, where it s nestled down deep with my all time favourites I confess to being initially reluctant to delve into this story, I mean who really needs another campy, vampire tale Lucky for me I put these feelings aside long enough to read the first chapter after which there was no looking back Step into the pages and begin an eerie, haunted, hypnotic adventure thoroughly saturated in ancient history and wondrous, exotic, old This book is impossible to resist It has fairly leapt to the top shelf, where it s nestled down deep with my all time favourites I confess to being initially reluctant to delve into this story, I mean who really needs another campy, vampire tale Lucky for me I put these feelings aside long enough to read the first chapter after which there was no looking back Step into the pages and begin an eerie, haunted, hypnotic adventure thoroughly saturated in ancient history and wondrous, exotic, old European churches, monasteries and libraries that are positively brimming with ancient parchment and long, forgotten maps and books Kostova s historical tracking of the real Vlad Drakulya is flawless and she is able to describe with a chilling, atmospheric eye for detail, the many settings as well as the political climate in which this story unfolds A full speed ahead rich, historical thriller with enough gothic images, cultural folklore, ancient crypts and creaking stairs that it is su...I would have enjoyed being at the pitch meeting for Elizabeth Kostova s The Historian It had to have gone something like this Well, most people think Dracula isn t real, Kostova must have explained What this book supposes is that not only is he real, but he s still alive, and wreaking havoc on the world She must have paused here, expecting, perhaps, to be thrown from the room Allowed to remain, she plunged forward My main character is a historian All the action takes place in libraries, a I would have enjoyed being at the pitch meeting for Elizabeth Kostova s The Historian It had to have gone someth...This is my favorite book of ALL time from any genre At its core this is a book about Drakulya, about his history and his impact on those that knew him and those that have hunted the truth about him for centuries.The novel opens with an unnamed female voice informing the reader in the year 2008 that she s about to tell the story of what happened to her thirty years before The ...

The Historian
  • English
  • 23 June 2017
  • Kindle Edition
  • 704 pages
  • Elizabeth Kostova
  • The Historian