Back المؤرخ (رواية) Arabic Историкът Bulgarian Der Historiker German La historiadora Spanish مورخ (رمان) Persian L'Historienne et Drakula French ההיסטוריונית HE The Historian ID ヒストリアン Japanese Историчарка Macedonian

The Historian

This article is about the 2005 novel by Elizabeth Kostova. For the academic journal, see The Historian (journal). For the 2014 film, see The Historian (film).

The Historian
Dark brown book cover saying "The HISTORIAN"; then "A Novel" in a shiny gold stripe, then "ELIZABETH KOSTOVA". A few thin reddish streaks stretch from the top almost to the bottom.
The Historian's first edition cover shows a blood red curtain with a snippet of a picture of a man's face laid across it. Although the book is a vampire novel, Kostova promised herself "that only a cup of blood would be spilled" in the novel.[1][2]
AuthorElizabeth Kostova
LanguageEnglish
Published2005 (Little, Brown and Company)
Publication placeUnited States
ISBN0-316-01177-0

The Historian is the 2005 debut novel of American author Elizabeth Kostova. The plot blends the history and folklore of Vlad Țepeș and his fictional equivalent Count Dracula. Kostova's father told her stories about Dracula when she was a child, and later in life she was inspired to turn the experience into a novel. She worked on the book for ten years and then sold it within a few months to Little, Brown and Company, which bought it for US$2 million.

The Historian has been described as a combination of genres, including Gothic novel, adventure novel, detective fiction, travelogue, postmodern historical novel, epistolary epic, and historical thriller. Kostova was intent on writing a serious work of literature and saw herself as an inheritor of the Victorian style. Although based in part on Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Historian is not a horror novel, but rather an eerie tale. It is concerned with history's role in society and representation in books, as well as the nature of good and evil. As Kostova explains, "Dracula is a metaphor for the evil that is so hard to undo in history."[3] The evils brought about by religious conflict are a particular theme, and the novel explores the relationship between the Christian West and the Islamic East.

Little, Brown and Company heavily promoted the book and it became the first debut novel to become number one on The New York Times bestseller list in its first week on sale. As of 2005, it was the fastest-selling hardback debut novel in U.S. history. In general, the novel received mixed reviews. While some praised the book's description of the setting, others criticized its structure and lack of tonal variety. Kostova received the 2006 Book Sense award for Best Adult Fiction and the 2005 Quill Award for Debut Author of the Year. Sony has bought the film rights and, as of 2007, was planning an adaptation.

  1. ^ "An anaemic Prince of Darkness", Hindustan Times (16 June 2005). Access World News (subscription required). Retrieved 9 May 2009.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Wheelwright was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sullivan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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