| Hours & Information | Locations | Departments | Friends of the Library | Foundation |
|
|
San Bernardino Public Library 555 West 6th Street 909.381.8201 | ||||
|
|
Catalogs at Other CA Libraries Children's Events Teen Events San Bernardino Pioneers Historical Treasures of San Bernardino Magazine, Health Articles Civil Service Tests Databases Typing Practice and Computer Skills Virtual Library Policies and Rules |
Living Section of the San Bernardino SUN August 21, 2005 Issue 
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Little, Brown and Company, 2005 
On the Trail of the Historical Dracula Awesome! Hypnotic! All-consuming! Those are just few of the words that may convey a portion of the seductive power of the newly published novel "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. This 647-page tome vies for first place on every bestseller list with the even heftier new Harry Potter tome. It is a book that sucks you in and makes you do foolish things, like reading it in the morning instead of getting ready for work or trying to sneak a peak at it while at a meeting instead of listening to the discussion going on. So many sacrifices - for what? To follow a handful of obsessed scholars on the trail of Vlad the Impaler, better known as Dracula. Dracula means son of Dracul, or son of the dragon, that being the symbol for the Order of the Dragon, which was formed by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund to defend the empire against the invading Turks. Vampire myth and little known Balkan history entwine and unfold as the scholars follow the trail of the historical Dracula - Vlad Tepes (1431 -1476). He was a Wallachian nobleman and tyrant who entered the annals of history as the fierce foe of the invading Ottomans. He defended his territory from the Turks with the same savagery and brutality the Turks themselves used on the people they conquered. When a child, Vlad's own father had given him to the Sultan as a pledge that he would not wage war on the Turks. It is from the Turks, masters of barbaric violence, that Vlad had learned all the cruelties he used later not only on the Turks, but on his own people as well. There are many examples in the book of what a good pupil he had been. When some envoys of the Sultan visited Vlad's court, so the story goes, they did not take off their turbans although European court etiquette called for men to remove their head gear. Vlad asked them why they were so disrespectful to him. When they replied that their religion forbade them to take off their turbans, Vlad ordered for the turbans to be nailed to their heads so that they would never fail to observe that particular law of their religion. Vlad was killed by the Turks, his head was severed and taken to Istanbul where more than likely it was impaled in front of the Topkapi Palace. But no one knows where exactly is his tomb. This is one of history's unsolved mysteries that "The Historian" tries to unravel. We follow the scholars digging though ancient archives and roaming historical sites in Istanbul, Budapest, Bulgaria and Romania as they search for Vlad's burial place. Because Vlad was the patron of the monastery on the island in Lake Snagov (Romania) and because he had willed this to be his burial place, it had been assumed that Dracula was buried there. However, the tomb at Lake Snagov is not that of Dracula but of another nobleman. Old documents suggest that monks from the Carpathian Mountains traveled with Vlad's headless body through Bulgaria to Istanbul where they stole the head to reunite it with the body so that Vlad could have a Christian burial according to the tenets of the Eastern Orthodox Church. These documents also suggest that Dracula's real tomb might be in Bulgaria. Bram Stoker used Balkan vampire myths and the lore about Vlad's bloody rule to create Dracula the Vampire. Author Kostova uses many Stoker quotes throughout "The Historian." A major portion of the book is written in the epistolary style of 18th century novels, thus, lending it the glow of a bygone era. Woven into the scholars' search for Dracula's tomb are intricate history lessons about life behind the Iron Curtain, about the destruction of the glittering Byzantine Christian civilization by the Turks, about the tragic and catastrophic fall of Constantinople and about the consequences of the Ottoman conquest - hatred of the Turks all over the Balkans and volatile tensions, still palpable in the region, between two cultures formed by two opposing religions. "The Historian" is also a travelogue that awakens our curiosity and wanderlust with its descriptions of places laden with history, mystery and lore. Kostova took ten years to research this book. The result is a historical account that is impeccably accurate. Every historical event and site, every archive visited or ancient book consulted is real. But ultimately, "The Historian" is about the power of books, of the written word. "I feel that books are the real keepers of history," says the author in an interview. "I find it wonderful and eerie that language lasts so much longer than people, and that a book can transmit history from one generation to another, whether or not it's actually a work of history." "The Historian" does exactly that. Ophelia Georgiev Roop Library Director San Bernardino Public Library |
| ©2008 SBPL.org | Book Reviews · Art Gallery · FAQ · Board of Trustees · Library News · City Website |