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The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
Apr. 23rd, 2007 11:25 amI used to collect vampire novels. Now I still do, only I collect them to sell to people like I used to be. I'm not sure what made me pick up this book.. (morbid curiosity?) but I didn't regret it.
A young woman finds a strange book and a bunch of old letters in her father's study, and when she asks about them, he starts to tell her a long and complicated story.
A lot of this novel is told in flashback, and most of these flashbacks are in the form of letters. This may be in reference to the original Dracula, or to the way most historical research is done. Either way, their are a few problems with it. One is the one I always have, where people quote entire conversations quite confidently. Another is the time people are allotted to read these things. One guy takes all night to read maybe a hundred pages, if that, then someone else does it in about an hour, then some people read the bulk of the novel in no time flat.
Aside from that, however, it was pretty fascinating to read.
A young woman finds a strange book and a bunch of old letters in her father's study, and when she asks about them, he starts to tell her a long and complicated story.
A lot of this novel is told in flashback, and most of these flashbacks are in the form of letters. This may be in reference to the original Dracula, or to the way most historical research is done. Either way, their are a few problems with it. One is the one I always have, where people quote entire conversations quite confidently. Another is the time people are allotted to read these things. One guy takes all night to read maybe a hundred pages, if that, then someone else does it in about an hour, then some people read the bulk of the novel in no time flat.
Aside from that, however, it was pretty fascinating to read.
