A Halloween Review: The Historian By Elizabeth Kostova

 A version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #132 (October, 2007)

In October ghosts and ghoulies usually troop about demanding candy in the voices of children, or haunt the airwaves in cartoon form.  But despite the commercial glitter and traditional fun, at heart Halloween connects to our deepest fears about the dark, about the sacred, and the profane.  Vampires have stood near the center of the holiday’s stranglehold on the modern imagination throughout the twentieth century, that bloodiest, most savage period in human history.  Indeed, history has revealed the deepest, ugliest wells of the human spirit and we have, in essence, personified that lust for blood and power in the mythical vampire.

One novelist has taken this juxtaposition of cause and effect to its logical point, placing the vampire within the history of religious and ethnic atrocity which so bloodily stains the century.  Elizabeth Kostova’s debut novel was a remarkable effort in the highest traditions of fantasy, employing the struggle against a fantastical monster of mythology and legend in its quest to understand issues of history and family.  But the fantasy is very low key; the magic is off-screen, obscure, and unexplained. 

Kostova’s novel follows three strands of events through history, as three generations of a family of historians struggle to unravel the mysteries surrounding Vlad Tepes, Dracula, and his remarkable ‘Dragon Books’.  One strand wends its way through the turbulent 1930s, the most detailed account plows through the 1950s, and the third account ties the threads together diffidently as it meanders through the 1970s.  The story is further connected in time to the first decade of the twenty-first century as the narrator recounts the tale.  The novel is full of mysteries, and the reader must explore them alongside the narrator as she uncovers evidence piece by piece, much as a rose unfurls slowly over time.

The cast of characters is remarkable for containing three historians who act like historians, Bartholomew Rossi, the narrator’s father, Paul, and the narrator herself each pursue the mystery of the Dragon Books with scholarly precision, there are no archaeological bullwhips here! Each displays, moreover, considerable unwillingness to acknowledge the supernatural nature of the mystery, the supernatural aspect is virtually unspoken for most of the novel.

As a historian myself, I appreciated these characters, I easily recognized their motivations. But I especially thrilled at their discoveries among the ancient sources and crumbling pages of manuscripts. Kostova has captured the thrill that historians get as the piece together these old riddles from obscure manuscripts, discovering lost secrets and uncovering sometimes intentionally hidden knowledge. The title of this novel is perfect. 

The style is very ‘European’ and thus quite appropriate to the subject, but it is also an homage to Stoker’s original Dracula.  As in Stoker’s work, much of the story is revealed through letters, journals, and other finds.  There is a cryptographic and riddling edge to the story, quite reminiscent of scholars struggling with ciphers and lost ‘Rosetta Stones’ but the hints and allusions tie together well so that the plot, when finally revealed, is quite seamless.  Moreover, like Stoker, Kostova uses Dracula himself quite sparingly, he appears in only a very few scenes, always mysteriously, and always to great effect.  His conversation with Rossi is a purposeful echo of the first meeting between the vampire and Jonathan Harker.  

More than Stoker, however, Kostova anchors the tale in the actual history of the Balkans, the fabled cockpit of Europe which has led to widespread bloodshed many times on the continent. I was especially impressed with how she handles the Iron curtain period, and the juxtaposition of Communist tyranny with more ancient evils. The result is chilling on multiple levels. 

For the game master, the story presents a text-book example of how to construct clues and hints that should lead the players from point A to point B while leaving them with an illusion of free will.  Moreover, it is an excellent example of the sort of shadowy, mystical warfare that might take place between an ancient lich or vampire, and the foes that might hunt him.  As a modern campaign example, it presents a pleasant alternative to the hormone drenched adolescent angst of the World of Darkness and most other modern gothic horror. 

I've read this work twice now, once the hard cover version, and once the Audible version narrated by Justine Eyre and Paul Michael. If you enjoy audiobooks, like i do, the audio version is very well done, and splitting the narrators according to who the POV character is makes for a very strong listening experience.

The novel is far from action-packed.  The excitement and drama come most often from the uncovered page or recently recovered folk-song, rather than machine gun bullets and flashing swords.  For some, this will be reason enough to leave it alone.  But if you find philosophical debate, and spiritual peril thrilling, and if you enjoy examining recent history through unusual prisms, then pick up the The Historian.  I’ll be very surprised if you can put it down again.

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.