From the Bookshelf of The Seasonal Reading Challenge…

The Historian

Elizabeth Kostova

Start date: March 1, 2010

Finish date: May 31, 2010

Discussion: GROUP READS

Why we're reading this: This book was selected as the Historical book for the Spring 2010 challenge.
[close] This book was selected as the Historical book for the Spring 2010 challenge.

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 114 topics — 4,645 comments total

GROUP READS

* Spring 2019 Group Reads
By Dlmrose , Moderator Emeritus · 1 post · 58 views

last updated Mar 01, 2019 03:37AM

Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II
By SRC Moderator , Moderator · 30 posts · 63 views

last updated Feb 26, 2019 01:10PM

showing 10 of 47 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jul 05, 2011 Katie rated it liked it

I chose this book because I had heard over and over how well written it is. It is also LONG and it was available as a library digital download - perfect for vacation. I had mixed feelings about it.

On one hand, I really loved that so much of the book really has to do with research and the process of research. I know how great it is to sit in a quiet room and have a piece of history in your hands. It's a big reason I do what I do.

The research itself, on the other hand, wasn't always interesting. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 06, 2010 Callista rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2010-books

Although this book could be considered a horror novel, it is much more than that. It combines the Gothic with the modern, the historical with the fantastical, the straightforward narrative with the epistolary. It brings aspects of history, literature, and art together seamlessly, while creating a family epic that sprawls from the early to mid 1900s all the way up to the present day. It could be considered a thriller, an epistolary novel, a historical epic, a fantasy -- you name it, the book has Although this book could be considered a horror novel, it is much more than that. It combines the Gothic with the modern, the historical with the fantastical, the straightforward narrative with the epistolary. It brings aspects of history, literature, and art together seamlessly, while creating a family epic that sprawls from the early to mid 1900s all the way up to the present day. It could be considered a thriller, an epistolary novel, a historical epic, a fantasy -- you name it, the book has elements of it.

At first, I was rather hesitant to read this book, because I heard it was about Dracula and I had not yet read Bram Stoker's famous novel. However, when my sister gave it to me for Christmas, I just had to crack it open -- and I was sucked in from the very first page. I understand why some people would not like it, because it does have a lot of history, and it does take nearly 750 pages to get to Dracula (hopefully that's not spoiling anything), but I almost found that I liked the journey better than the end result.

From the beginning, I was drawn to the unnamed narrator, because she reminds me of myself in certain ways. She is young, intelligent, with a close relationship with her father. She loves reading and is too curious for her own good -- which leads her to discover the mysterious book with the letters in it that would forever change her life. She hears -- or reads -- about her father's journey so many years ago, and in the process learns about his adviser's life.

The book does not go by quickly. It is one of those mysteries that slowly unfurls, revealing one strand after another, twisting them around and tying them all into knots until you are begging to know what happens but you just know that you have over 500 pages left to read and you can't just peek at the back of the book. In some books, I find that it doesn't spoil too much to skip to the last few pages and read them before I finish, but in this book, I just had to be patient, watching it unfurl, reading with careful eyes, making sure not to miss anything that could explain the mystery of Dracula and those mysterious books.

As said, this book has a story-within-a-story-within-a-story, which is a particular style used in novels that I enjoy especially. I enjoy reading about the way lives entangle together, and how the past can affect the future. I love reading about the lives of one person and how the lives of someone years older than them from decades long past can affect their own futures. It also contains letters, lots and lots of letters, which I found absolutely fascinating. Surely if the book had just been a straightforward narrative I would not have enjoyed the book as much as I did, but the way the book was put together was masterful. Absolutely masterful.

That said, there were a few small gripes about this book, although on a whole I thought it was a marvelous retelling of Dracula's legend that almost felt real. I did feel as though the book went by a little too slowly; Kostova could have cut back on a few more pages. I also wanted to hear more about Dracula himself -- the entire book was about him, sure, and I learned a lot about him in a roundabout way -- but I wished that the book had explored more of his goal. I felt that he was introduced too late in the novel, and that things could have progressed more quickly and the book would have been yet more gripping.

Those are only the few gripes I can think of. On a whole, I found that this book was exactly the sort of book I like: the long, sprawling epic novel spread out across countries and continents, bringing up themes of life, death, love, perseverance, history, and the power of words. I have heard this book compared to The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, but this book is nothing like that. While Dan Brown is fluff reading, with no big overarching theme of humanity as a whole -- just a cheap thriller -- Kostova gives us a ride of our lives, if only we are patient enough to strap ourselves in for the long haul ahead.

In addition, this book made me look at vampires in a whole new light. While previously my only experiences with vampires have been through the world of Twilight, this book showed a new -- traditional -- side of the vampire, and I have to say that I like the idea of a bloodthirsty monster yearning for my blood better than the sparkly, brooding, angsty vampire who just wants to suck on animals and fall in love with normal human girls. I'm not saying I don't like Twilight anymore, because it is my guilty pleasure, but I just like the more traditional vampire better.

You know what that means: pretty soon I will have to be banging on my brother's door, banging for him to let me borrow Dracula. I need to delve more deeply into the vampire, thanks to Elizabeth Kostova.

I think it goes without saying that this book is highly recommended. It is probably my favorite read so far. ...more

Like · see review

Oct 06, 2009 Nicole rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own, 2010, book-club, cigurl, utbg

Although this is perhaps one of the LONGEST books I have ever read, the story was extremely interesting. I'm simply amazed at all the research the author had to have done to pull off such a cohesive product. Basically the Historian is a story about a girl and her father (and mother to some extent). One day the girl begs the father to take her with him as he travels on business and he begins to tell her a story of his and her mother's search for Dracula (and a missing advisor/parent). Throughout ...more

Like · see review

Dec 09, 2009 Angie rated it did not like it

Shelves: couldn-t-finish-it

So many details are given in this story that it's hard to follow. Got halfway through the book with maybe one exciting moment?? Just not exciting enough to push through this rather lengthy novel for such a boring storyline. ...more

Like · see review