She recollects how she had, while studying in her father’s study, found a strange old book and some yellowing papers. The nameless narrator of our novel recounts her experiences and adventures with history as a young girl. Such was the impact of his cruelty, that even after his death he lives on through the legends of the bloodsucking Dracula. He was also a pitiless and barbaric ruler who enjoyed torturing his subjects and prisoners and often used a variety of methods for the same. Vlad Tepes- popularly known as Vlad the Impaler- was the ruler of the Kingdom of Wallachia (today a part of Romania) and spent his life defending his Kingdom from the Islamic Ottoman Turks who were strengthening their position in Christendom after capturing Constantinople in 1453. The legend of Dracula has its roots in 15th century Eastern European history. Her novel is about a historian’s quest for truth and the character of Dracula makes only a brief, albeit important appearance in it. But The Historian is not about Dracula like Stoker’s Dracula was. Even the Dracula (who she has portrayed as an intellectual, scholar and historian) in her novel owns a copy of Dracula. Kostova constantly quotes from Stoker’s novel and her characters keep referring to it from time to time.
Inspired from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula, Elizabeth Kostova’s debut novel merges history and fiction to leave us with a compelling and exciting historical thriller.
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