The Historian: Vampire Hunting Via Paper Trail

Review by Breanne Boland July 14, 2005 Issue

It’s lucky that The Historian mentions Bram Stoker’s Dracula pretty early on – it owes a lot to it. Like Stoker’s archetypal vampire novel, this book is comprised of interweaving tales and voices, and rather than just switching points of view, each one is introduced through another medium – letters, postcards, and scribbled recollections left to the next investigator of this dangerous tale.

Only one of these characters speaks from the present; we learn everyone else’s stories through their own recollections, each paragraph of their chapters enclosed in quotation marks. Our unnamed narrator is 16 when the story begins in 1972, but the story bounces all over the 20th century. Most of it comes from letters written to her by her father Paul. In them, he explains his pursuit of Dracula and his legend, a quest he takes up after stumbling upon a mysterious old book, blank except for a woodcut print of a twisted dragon, labeled “Drakulya.” And pursue he does – through centuries of history, through political and language barriers, and often against his better judgment.

The book feels exquisitely researched, an impression given by the enormous amount of history covered, and added to by the means in which it is presented. The main characters, as well as many of the secondary characters, are historians and academics, all people accustomed to methodically sifting through the past, carefully presenting their findings and the explanations they’ve pieced together. This story is no different than any of their other extrapolations from research. Often, author Elizabeth Kostova lets their findings speak for themselves by reproducing the records unearthed from libraries and archives.

Consequently, this is not Indiana Jones, or any of the more daring seekers of “history” that dot pop culture. The story they’re following is fascinating, but at their cores, the characters are researchers. They track down letters and lists and other scraps of the past. While there are impediments to doing this, sometimes dangerous ones, the draw of The Historian is not so much from chase scenes and peril biting at their heels as it is from the joy of putting a puzzle together. Is Dracula real? Do vampires actually exist? Is Dracula still alive – so to speak? Are the Eastern European villagers, those perennial bits of vamp bait, afraid because of superstition or because of a reality not often seen by most of the world?

The advantage of the medium this story is told in is that as it’s a book itself, it becomes that much scarier. Books are dangerous things here, as are letters and other paperbound records. A book brings scholars into this frightening mess; further reading and research endangers them more. While The Historian isn’t a thriller, exactly, the shared experience of reading as a means of further discovery does bring you closer to the horror of the characters.

The downside of the tale being told through documents and, as we’re often told, primary sources, is that the characters sometimes feel more distant because of it. Despite being the one who pulls the tale together, the young woman who serves as our first and last narrator is little more than a frame, the mortar holding together the recollections of the historians who came before her. While her father is better fleshed out through his stories and letters, it was jarring to have someone initially intoruduced as the main character remain so distant and secondary. It makes sense – it would make her the historian referred to in the title – but it made her chapters disappointing, for the most part, something to be endured until you get back to the action.

The Historian is well researched. It makes history I was mostly unfamiliar with interesting, and causes innocent libraries to look like deep, dark caves filled with forbidden knowledge. While a bit dense at times, the momentum kept up, as is appropriate for a book about a hunt for the undead. Despite this, I came away less than thrilled. It may be because I like my undead in the vein of Anne Rice and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the evil that lurks in the shadows can only stay hidden for so long before it stops being mysterious and starts being annoying. It does show itself eventually, but when your reaction to history’s ultimate vampire is “About damn time!” something has gone wrong.

It’s a worthy journey to take, and it’s commendable it takes a route you don’t often see in a story like this: unsettling rather than terrifying, evil that loiters rather than launching itself immediately at your jugular. It’s subtler than your average vampire novel, to the point that calling it a vampire novel feels a little misleading. It’s certainly worth reading, but it won’t be keeping you up late at night, turning page after page. It’s leisurely about getting to the heart of the story, and if you’re willing to be leisurely too, you and The Historian should get along just fine.

The Historian, Little, Brown, 642 pages, available at local booksellers, libraries, and online.

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