The Historian

De: Elizabeth Kostova

Narrado por: Justine Eyre, Paul Michael

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.

©2005 Elizabeth Kostova. All Rights Reserved. (P)2005 Books on Tape

Reseñas de la Crítica

• 2006 Book Sense Book of the Year, Adult Fiction

"A bloodthirsty delight....Both literary and scary, this one is guaranteed to keep one reading into the wee hours." (Booklist)
"Along with all the fascinating historical information, there's also a mounting casualty count, and the big showdown amps up the drama by pulling at the heartstrings at the same time it revels in the gruesome. 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." (Publishers Weekly)
"The Historian is artfully constructed and atmospheric." (Washington Post Book World)

Excellent narration, but...

I love historical fiction because it tends to make history come alive, but the history in this book is dead. I could never concentrate on the parts about the Ottomans doing this or that - it just didn't hold my attention, and never seemed to move the story forward.
I like the concept of a book written in letters, but it goes to far with letters inside of letters inside of letters, and the only present character appears too rarely.
The narration is fabulous - a male and a female voice with excellent ability to change accents - without this variation, I don't think I could have made it through the book, and I certainly couldn't have read it.

Amazing stoyteller

This novel took me places I have never been before - my imagination ran wild in the streets of Istanbul and hiked up hills to monasteries in France. What an incredible romp through Europe with a vampire on you heels!

Vampires for adults (Is that possible?)

What made the experience of listening to The Historian the most enjoyable?

It makes you feel like you are reading a historical novel. You find yourself in a Transylvania reverie wondering if vampires might be real. Didn't the historian just prove it? The narrators did an excellent job of gliding from one character to another without any annoying disturbances in the flow of the story. Because the story was written about an earlier time, before cell phones and computers, it was much easier for us to be seduced into picturing it a perfect era for Dracula, even if it was in the 20th century. Some of the other reviewers made me laugh because they felt like it had "unbelievable plot twists" and
coincidences. This is a story about vampires after all. If you want a an enjoyable fictional read, without all the blood, gore and sex of other vampire novels, this is the book for you. And yes, unbelievable things just might happen and for no particular reason other than to entertain us.

What other book might you compare The Historian to and why?

The Historian definitely has the flavor of Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley with the old world architecture and the Romanian woods and mountains.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Hearing the different dialects, especially when they are done well, really makes a story come to life.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I found the meeting with Helens mother very moving. It was a little bit of light in a book about darkness.

Any additional comments?

If you liked the original Dracula, you will love this book.

For a historian? Fun

A whole lot of this book takes place in libraries and old castles. So, I really could see how some would find it boring.

For me? It was awesome. It's a vampire novel from the prospective of a historian. As a history buff who loves nothing more than the dustiest floor of the library, it was a really different and compelling take on the vampire novel.

Great book!

This was a wonderful book. The characters were well developed and the story kept you captivated. I couldn't wait to go to work so that I could listen some more.

The format did get a little confusing because the story was told in three parts in three different time periods, so you had to pay close attention to what time period they were talking about.