Editor's Choice feature in the July 2010 Issue of Explore TACA

Editor's Choice

By Jean Milán

The Historian
Elizabeth Kostova
Little, Brown and Company, 2005

In a race to both satisfy the literary cravings of fans of Dan Brown's best-seller, The Da Vinci Code, and to fill the throne recently abdicated by the former queen of modern vampire novels, Anne Rice, there was a bidding war surrounding the manuscript of a recent Yale University graduate. The story it contained conveniently combined the mythology of that most famous of vampires with a conspiracy theory that spanned various countries and multiple centuries. In the end, Little, Brown and Company put forth the winning bid, and so it was that Elizabeth Kostova's first book, The Historian, earned her a previously unheard of $2 million advance at signing.

Executing flawless timing, Kostova's book delivers the well-known Dracula "brand" through a popular Da Vinci Code-style interface. But, if you're wondering whether this merger has produced a good read, the answer is resoundingly no.

You see, for some people undead bloodsuckers are the stuff of nightmares. Yet for myself, it's the poorly differentiated one-dimensional characters and the excruciatingly stilted exposition of mediocre writing that make me wince, snarl and run for cover faster than Bela Lugosi at the sight of a crucifix. But I like vampires, and hey, this book isn't the worst I've ever read… However, the time invested in finishing its nearly 650 generally tepid long-winded pages could be better spent.

For instance, you could opt to read Bram Stoker's enthralling classic to experience the charmingly sadistic seduction of the original Dracula as he lures and debauches young virgins at every turn in order to quench his insatiable bloodlust. But if you, instead, insist on becoming acquainted with Kostova's version of this archfiend, you'll find a villain that requires nary a female liaison, and instead lusts after rare maps, woodcuts and manuscripts when he isn't in the library picking on hapless academic types, or mooning over Hitler, Stalin and the possibility of world domination. Yep, this vampire has mostly lost his bite and become a bit of a bore, making reading this book a dull task.

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