The Historian

By: Elizabeth Kostova

Narrated by: Justine Eyre, Paul Michael

THE SUMPTUOUS INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER IN FULL UNABRIDGED AUDIO.

Breathtakingly suspenseful and beautifully written, The Historian is the story of a young woman plunged into a labyrinth where the secrets of her family's past connect to an inconceivable evil: the dark fifteenth-century reign of Vlad the Impaler and a time-defying pact that may have kept his awful work alive through the ages. The search for the truth becomes an adventure of monumental proportions, taking us from monasteries and dusty libraries to the capitals of Eastern Europe-in a feat of storytelling so rich, so hypnotic, so exciting that it has enthralled readers around the world.

©2005 Elizabeth Kostova (P)2021 Hachette Audio UK

Critic reviews

"Quite extraordinary...Kostova is a natural storyteller.... She has refashioned the vampire myth into a compelling contemporary novel, a late-night page-turner." (San Francisco Chronicle)

"Filled with fascinating details of archaic vampire lore, the splendours of the Ottoman Empire and the beauty of the Romanian countryside." (Times Literary Supplement)

Good

​3.5/5
​I have to say, I absolutely love books that make me research things and "assign me homework" as if I were in school or a class. I’m a total geek and I love learning, so in that regard, The Historian was a 10/10 for me. However, I felt like the pacing was very slow at times, and there were some pretty anticlimactic cuts from one chapter to the next. The fact that it has several first-person narrators didn’t bother me, because I took it as the protagonist "narrating" what her father told her, who in turn was "narrating" what he was discovering and being told.
​That said, I still feel like 700 pages was a bit much for how everything plays out in the end; I think the story could have been told perfectly in 350 pages—or 500 if she wanted to be really greedy.

Good premise, poor execution

On paper, this is an interesting premise... but the story itself is too bloated with flashbacks and meandering characters, with not nearly enough payoff or action. After all that.... nothing happens. If this topic interests you, you'd be better off reading a nonfiction history of the real Vlad.

Best novel ever written

The unabridged version is definetely worth the listen, all of the chapters added a lot to the story and none felt unnecessary. The narration was excellent and I found myself checking a few tunes to see if it was only narrated by two people.

Long, disappointing yet satisfying.

Very long and repetitive at times where I feel the reader didn't need a reminder. Though with the order of events being a bit confusing at times I suppose it's meant to help. I found myself loving and living myself in to the events and cultures. On the edge of my seat even! but felt torn away from it in moments of long exposition or strange racial profiling of most of the characters. Dragging my feet along and dreading having to go though it, but then a new character or place interested me again. I ranted to my friends about all the parts I didn't like yet I'm giving it a four stars, why? because I enjoyed the experience. Beautifully done research and characterization, so many good and charming characters and places.

spoilers?:

The ending/death for dracula, Helen and her husband left me sad and empty while the epilogue of Dracula/Vlad made me excited to hear more! and again empty and disappointed when it was over! I wanted more- I could read a whole book just about this characterization of him before and after he became a vampire. Scary but really attractive.

So perhaps even if I feel this book was much too long it could also not be any shorter! inspires me to involve more historic references in my vampire works, I've always wanted to but been afraid of coming off as too much of a nerd. This book feels like it was written by someone who is truly passionate and nerdy in the best way.