#Elizabeth Kostova

[saintsebastiensbf]

The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova

[bebemoon]

look for the EYRE (requested by anonymous) | orseund iris cropped rawcut turtleneck jumper w/ thumb holes in beige, miu miu sheer thigh-slit ruffle-trimmed skirt (s/s 1996), elizabeth kostova's "the swan thieves" hardback book, clean "reserve | avant garden collection: galbanum & rain" eau de parfum (aqautic notes, sichuan pepper, star anise, frankincense, galbanum, cedarwood, white moss, haitian vetiver, patchoulli), muxart dark brown pointy lace-up leather heeled shoes (c. 2ooo's)

[agardenandlibrary]

Afternoon reading: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

I'm having the odd experience of really enjoying every page but also really wanting the story to hurry up so I know what happens.

[aseaofquotes]

Elizabeth Kostova, The Historian

[dancingsalome]

Teenage fashion, 1972.

As the first chapters of The Historian takes place in the early 70s and the unnamed narrator is 16, I thought it could be fun to have a bit of a visual to what she could have worn.

[105nt]

Finished The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova. If you loved Possession (and I really, really did) you'll like this, I think. She's master of her form.

[literarycatchall]

“Today I will go to wait for her again, because I cannot help it, because my whole being seems now to be bound up in the being of one so different from myself and yet so exquisitely familiar that I can scarely understand what has happened.”

—The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova (2005)

[lets-curse-each-other]

i'm really fond of Eastern Europe described in fiction about vampires. u know these gloomy, isolated villages; antediluvian, superstitious communities; deep desperation, the odour of incense, colored scarves on women's heads, dense forests, the Carpathians.

like... yeah, that's a pretty reliable picture. thank you for adding such a powerful atmosphere to the culture i live in. better in fiction, honestly.

[agameofbooksblog]

New reads! I didn’t realize I picked two vampire books until I started listening to The Historian. What are your thoughts about these books?

[stefito0o]

Not your classics challenge

6. To the Lighthouse

[jesteia]

[agardenandlibrary]

***Spoilers for The Historian***

I think it's so funny that Dracula is like "I don't have time to catalog all my books... instead I will play threatening, increasingly convoluted mind games across continents with every academic who starts to study my life, to judge if one of them wants a job" like

a) worst job interview ever

b) dude, it's been 500 years, I think you probably had time to catalog your books

[fiction-quotes]

Children are assumed to enjoy little things, but actually I remember dreaming only big as a child, and then the narrowing of that dream from one interest to another, and then the channeling of all my dreams into biology and chemistry and the goal of medical school, and finally the revelation of the infinitesimal episodes of life, their neurons and helices and revolving atoms. I first learned to draw really well, in fact, from those tiniest shapes and shades in my biology labs, not from anything as large as mountains, people, or bowls of fruit.

Now when I dream big, it's for my patients, that they may eventually feel that ordinary cheerfulness of kitchen and orange, of putting their feet up in front of a television documentary, or the even bigger pleasures I imagine for them of holding down a job, coming home sane to their families, seeing the realities of a room instead of a terrible panorama of faces. For myself, I have learned to dream small – a leaf, a new paintbrush, the flesh of an orange, and the details of my wife's beauty, a glistening at the corners of her eyes, the soft hair of her arms in our living room's lamplight when she sits reading.

  —  The Swan Thieves (Elizabeth Kostova)

[coffeebean-88]

🔮 10th October: Name a horror title that has some academic themes and that you can totally recommend

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova!

This is one of those books that I've had for years and don't quite remember how I acquired it, but when I finally read it in 2020 it was WOW. I mean, the pandemic was happening so I think I was really desiring a book through which I could do some imaginary travelling (Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania, England.... ^_^). I remember being glad it was a long book because I was enjoying it so much!

I have since read reviews that say the plot is a bit loose, but if you're the kind of person who likes taking time to smell old books, or writing notes by hand, or chasing singular references to obscure things all over the internet... Well then this book kind of puts on a pedestal that life but as a cool plot. Oh, and there's vampires too!

[dancingsalome]

The Historian, Chapter 4

In Istanbul there is a little-known repository of materials, founded by Sultan Mehmed II, who took the city from the Byzantines in 1453. This archive is mostly odds and ends collected later by the Turks as they were gradually beaten back from the edges of their empire. But it also contains documents from the late fifteenth century, and among them I found some maps that purported to give directions to the Unholy Tomb of a Turk-slayer, who I thought might be Vlad Dracula. There were three maps, actually, graduated in scale to show the same region in greater and greater detail.

Summary: Paul continues to narrate Rossi’s story, and that Rossi found out in Istanbul that Dracula is still alive. While doing summer research in Crete, Rossi makes a detour to Istanbul, and finds three maps. They don’t resemble Lake Snagov, where Dracula is officially entombed, and at the place the tomb is located, a small dragon is depicted, and underneath the legend 'In this spot, he is housed in evil. Reader, unbury him with a word.

Rossi reads them out aloud, and in the same instant a door slams, footsteps are heard, and a man, who is not one of the librarians, approaches Rossi. The man tells Rossi he has no right to look at the maps, even threatens him, and takes the map with him when he leaves. But not before Rossi has noticed that the man has two half-healed puncture marks on his throat.

When Rossi returns to his hotel he finds that all his notes about the maps have been stolen, and he returns to Crete. He tells Paul that he then gave up his research about Dracula, and that he and Paul will never discuss this matter again. He gives Paul a sealed package of notes before he leaves.

Here Paul stops talking, and N realizes he is in tears. When she looks around she notices a tall man in a dark suit walking away from them, and she finds she can’t stop looking after him.

My thoughts: After Rossi’s declaration that he thinks Dracula is still alive, it seems a bit strange that he can be so certain, considering that the only thing he found was a map of his tomb, albeit in the wrong place. It seems that there is more to this story than either Rossi, or perhaps Paul, is prepared to tell.

This chapter amps up the uncanny. Rossi reading the words aloud seems to set things in motion. However, it can hardly be that Dracula is awoken by them, as the man who takes the map has already been bitten. I think that reading the legend aloud rather focuses Dracula’s attention on Rossi, making him direct one of his minions to him. And who is the man N sees? Dracula, or perhaps his minion from the library?

[105nt]

Enjoying the opening quarter of this, which is leisurely but full of quality - some chapters have a short story feel. I bought it for the cover (and because I enjoyed The Historian) but it has lots of references to Leda (of Greek myth fame) so I get frequent reminders of Strike.