by D.Chazan

Created on: October 09, 2010   Last Updated: October 11, 2010

What if the infamous Dracula really existed and wasn't just the fruit of the overactive imagination of one Bram Stoker? What if he's been recruiting people all these years since his 'death' to help him in his vile work? What if some people figured out that he could actually be tracked down? And what if that search overtook their lives to the point of frenzy and placing themselves in mortal danger? This is the premise of The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova's first novel - and was being touted as "a Da Vinci Code for Dracula". Of course, with recent interest in everything vampire, this is a book that such fans should really take a look at.

In essence, this book takes the reality of Vlad Tepes, (a.k.a. Vlad the Impaler, a.k.a. Count Drakul, etc.) who was a real person in the 15th century in Transylvania (or Wallechia), and then mixes in the idea that perhaps Bram Stoker wasn't wrong when he made this real person into a vampire. This story then takes the premise one step further in that it also assumes that Dracula has been 'undead' over the centuries and that he continues to prey on the blood of his victims while being hunted by historians throughout the ages.

In order to tell this story, Kostova focuses on a particular group of people who apparently have been chosen by Dracula himself to research him and eventually find him. The choosing is done by a mysterious delivery of a book to each of these historians. These ancient looking books are totally empty except for an elaborate wood cut of a long-tailed dragon, and it is from this initial 'clue' that the historians are essentially challenged to get to the bottom of the myth or truth behind the infamous Dracula.

The group of people in this book are Prof. Bartholomew Rossi, his doctoral student Paul, Prof. Rossi's daughter Helen, Paul & Helen's daughter (who narrates the book) and an Oxford student named Stephen Barley who befriends her. This is also done in two layers, since Paul & Helen are involved in one time period of research - in looking for the missing Prof. Rossi (and Dracula), and the daughter and Barley are in another time period - in looking for the missing Paul who has gone to try to find the missing Helen (as well as Dracula). Confusing, isn't it? Well, since this is done through the retelling of incidents and reading of documents, it becomes quite less confusing as you read it. And although it isn't totally chronologically done - since we jump back and forth between the time periods - the

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