The Historian
To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history....Late one night, exploring her father's library, a young woman finds an ancient book and a cache of yellowing letters. The letters are all addressed to "My dear and unfortunate successor," and they plunge her into a world she never dreamed of-a labyrinth where the secrets of her father's past and her mother's mysterious fate connect to an inconceivable evil hidden in the depths of history. The letters provide links to one of the darkest powers that humanity has ever known-and to a centuries-long quest to find the source of that darkness and wipe it out. It is a quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, the medieval ruler whose barbarous reign formed the basis of the legend of Dracula. Generations of historians have risked their reputations, their sanity, and even their lives to learn the truth about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula. Now one young woman must decide whether to take up this quest herself-to follow her father in a hunt that nearly brought him to ruin years ago, when he was a vibrant young scholar and her mother was still alive. What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler have to do with the modern world? Is it possible t
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What you might want to know about The Historian
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In 1972 Amsterdam, a sixteen-year-old girl finds a blank old book stamped with a dragon and a packet of letters in her diplomat father's library. The letters, addressed to a missing graduate adviser, send father and daughter through European archives toward the real grave of Vlad the Impaler.
Yes. The Historian is a literary vampire novel that takes a scholarly approach to Dracula and Vlad the Impaler. Elizabeth Kostova spent 10 years writing the book, drawing on extensive research.
No. The Historian is a standalone, but Elizabeth Kostova has written two later novels (The Swan Thieves and The Shadow Land) that share similar literary-thriller territory.
The Historian was written by Elizabeth Kostova, published in 2005 by Little, Brown and Company.
The Historian is 661 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Historian takes most readers 10 to 14 hours to finish.
The Historian is a standalone novel by Elizabeth Kostova, not part of a series.
The Historian is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
