The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Read Along: Part 2

This year my participation in R.I.P. VIII is somewhat limited as I only have time for this Read Along. However, you can find links to everyone else’s posts at The Estella Society.

This week we have read up to the end of the book.

1. What did you think of the way everything unfolded at the end? Any surprises?

I thought that it played out much as I had expected, with few surprises. Unfortunately, I was so bogged down with the slow-moving plot and mountains of pointless detail that I was pretty much skimming towards the end. I also felt that the suspense of the climax was handled badly so that the book almost ran out rather than coming to a satisfying conclusion.

Whilst I can appreciate the amount of work that went into constructing this mammoth text, I do think that the structure was a big problem because it removed us from the narrators and made them feel a little unreliable. It also reduced the pace dramatically, which I think was my biggest complaint about the title. It was deathly slow and this made the details feel unimportant and unnecessary rather than adding a feeling of realism. So many of the crucial plot points were miraculous coincidences or so vague that no true historian would ever give them much credence, let alone deduce anything substantial from them.

I was particularly disappointed by the revelation that Rossi had drunk some potent liquor that had robbed him of the memories of his affair with Helen’s mother: that was a very lazy way to retain his ‘goodness’ and yet fit the plot requirements. Similarly, I found the ‘unsent’ postcards from Helen totally unbelievable.

2. What did you think of Dracula?

On the whole I was a little underwhelmed by him and his role as The Historian. Being a practical-minded person I was constantly wondering how he moved his massive library around without it being damaged, lost or scattered. I have done some training in the Circulation department if my local library, so I know that hefting books about is no easy task: and he did not seem able to convert them into bats, wolves or columns of smoke. Indeed, I felt like too many details of his travels were unexplained or highly improbable. He seemed to be able to read minds and overhear private conversations, whilst covering great distances in no time at all. Then there is the matter of transporting Rossi’s body to continental Europe unnoticed. Even Bram Stoker has the Count travelling by sea into Whitby!

3. In Chapter 73, Dracula states his credo: “History has taught us that the nature of man is evil, sublimely so.” Do the characters and events in the novel seem to agree or disagree with this?

Certainly it would seem that many people could be corrupted to evil by the offer of power. The Librarian seems to have epitomized this aspect of human frailty, although we do not know what kind of man he was before he received his book. However, we see many people working against evil and doing their very best to do good, so I guess that Dracula is seeing only what he wants to see.

4. Helen’s history is deeply intertwined with Dracula. In what ways are the two characters connected? Does she win out over his legacy?

I suppose that they are both fiercely intelligent, brave and ruthless when necessary. However, both of them seem to struggle with empathy and make decisions that have horrible consequences for their loved ones. I guess that the love of a good man, and her child, made Helen turn away from her dark legacy, but I could not find much admirable to like in her.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Read Along Part 1

This year my participation in R.I.P. VIII is somewhat limited as I only have time for this Read Along. However, you can find links to everyone else’s posts at The Estella Society.

So far we have read up to the end of Chapter 40 (it is quite a long book!).

1. What do you think of the structure of the novel? It’s a story within a story (sort of within a story). We have Professor Rossi’s storyline, Paul’s reflections, and the daughter’s adventures. And letters. There’s a lot going on!

This technique increases the feel of a historian uncovering pieces of evidence about an event, which seems appropriate because of the title and the professions of several of the protagonists. However, it does also produce two major problems.

Firstly, it slows the narrative a great deal. Some might argue that this structure allows us to follow both journeys in parallel so that we can presumably have all the ‘big reveals’ at the end of the book. Personally, I find it a little bloated and I wish that the narrative of the earlier timelines had been entirely restricted to letters or documents read by the narrator. It is almost as if the author could not decide which story was more important and so she tried to ‘cover all her bases’.  

Secondly, it never allows us to address the problem of unreliable narrative. Although almost all the people we deal with are academics, and shown to be highly successful in their respective fields, we see very little critical thinking on display. There are passing remarks about how they would normally distrust such bizarre accounts, but that they trust the source and therefore believe every word as the honest truth. This lack of scholarly vigor is somewhat irritating and creates a house of cards based on very little direct evidence and a lot of opinion.

2. What are your thoughts on Helen’s characterization? Have you warmed to her?

As a person who was highly unimpressed by the man who would become my husband when we first met, I can relate to Paul’s changing opinions of Helen. However, I would be much happier if he simply said that she was the mother of his child, instead of hinting at it repeatedly. I also thought that striking resemblance between her and Dracula was done in a rather heavy-handed way. I presume that Helen’s mother will reveal (shock, horror!) that she is a descendent of the great man, as are Helen and the narrator. These hints would work more successfully if the narration had been written at the time that it occurred. However, it is recorded many years after the important points have been revealed to Paul so it comes across as clumsy.

Helen seems like the most practical and straightforward of our lead characters, so I liked her from the beginning. Unlike Paul, who shows a great deal of cowardice and over-protection in his handling of his daughter, Helen is fairly fearless and willing to do whatever is necessary.

3. What do you think of the peripheral characters? Are their motivations pure? I’m thinking of Turget, Helen’s family members, etc.

There seems to be very little gray in the matter of the secondary characters: they are either good or bad. Although I can admire Turget, Eva and Barley and their determination to help our protagonists, I do feel as if they are a little too nice and perfect. This leads to a lack of conflict and negotiation amongst the characters, which is unfortunate because it makes them a little too two-dimensional. It also adds to the feeling that they are simply there to move the plot along.

4. Other thoughts on this book?

There is an awful lot of excess detail in this book, which is starting to get in the way of the plot. I can appreciate the exacting research that has obviously been conducted and the author does paint some wonderfully evocative portraits of the places that our narrators visit. However, they visit so many places that I am beginning to get rather fed up of the endless descriptions. I honestly do not need to know about what they eat or what the decor is like in their hotel every time they stay somewhere. I feel as though the book’s editor should have been much aggressive with their red pen.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

My Rating: 3.5 / 5.0


Amazon Rating: 4.00 / 5.00
Goodreads Rating: 3.67 / 5.00

Arthur Kipps is celebrating Christmas Eve at his country home with his family when the children begin to tell ghost stories. Arthur finds this amusing at first, but soon becomes uneasy and then panic-stricken as his past experiences return to him. He decides that he must write them down to exorcise the ghost that has plagued his life.

Young Arthur is a lawyer in London, dutifully working hard to improve his standing. He is given the task of travelling to the house of the recently deceased Mrs Drablow, where he will seek out all her papers and help to prepare her estate for the beneficiaries. He is told that Mrs Drablow was rather strange, and that her house is in the middle of Eel Marsh and can only be accessed via a causeway at low tide. Arthur travels to the nearby village of Crythin Gifford, where he takes a room in the local inn. Even before he attends the funeral, he finds that the locals become evasive and mysterious when he mentions his duties. Then, at the funeral itself, he sees a woman, dressed all in black, who seems emaciated and emits an unpleasant aura. When he mentions her to the local lawyer, the man panics and rushes away, claiming that he cannot see the woman. Nonetheless, Arthur travels out to the house on the following day to begin his work and sees the woman again and then hears a horse and cart foundering in the marsh. As he continues to stay at the house the apparitions and sounds become more terrifying, leading him to believe that a terrible tragedy has stained the house forever.

This gothic horror story proceeds at a leisurely place, taking loving care over the descriptions of the settings and giving us plenty of time to get to know Arthur. We begin by meeting the older Arthur: we see his wife and family and we learn a little of how his life has turned out. The choice to set the beginning of the novel in a future well beyond the main events of the ‘story’ fits well with the first person perspective. When we are reading someone’s recollections of a period of their life we automatically assume that they will survive whatever incidents we will be reading, so seeing Arthur in the future doesn’t act as a ‘spoiler’. However, the terror that overcomes him, so many years after the events, does make us uneasy about what exactly he is going to relate, and prepares us to be terrified by what he endures. There are also subtle clues in this section that we recall later on, so that we can foresee the final act of horror and we finally find ourselves in Arthur’s shoes in the terrible moment when we realize what is about to happen. Also, Christmas Eve used to be a traditional time for relating morality tales and horror stories in Britain, as we can see in Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Unlike many modern horror stories, this title is mercifully lacking in blood-splat-gore-horror. This is the more psychological horror of Edgar Allen Poe and Bram Stoker: it relies upon the terror produced by the unknown and the inexplicable, rather than simply exposing vast quantities of internal body organs. It made Scott at Iceberg Ink think of the idea that it is often scarier to have something hinted at, but not shown. We share Arthur’s increasing terror as the unusual events move gradually from the merely peculiar to the absolutely murderous. However, we do not share his reaction to these events at the beginning: whilst we KNOW that there is something very wrong with his first meetings with the Woman, he ignores all the signs and continues to deny an otherworld explanation for events. Even when he has had some really terrifying experiences, he recovers and then hides behind his blind faith in his own indestructability and tries to ignore what his instincts, and we, are shouting: “DON”T BE STUPID! RUN AWAY!” Unlike Ron at RonReads, I find this kind of horror far more disturbing than the simple ‘jump out of your seat’ shocks that are the usual fare in most modern horror films.

Other significant aspects of Gothic horror take minor roles in this book. As the story of the Woman is revealed, we find that her life was destroyed by society’s ideas of acceptable behavior. This was a great influence on Dickens, who is himself an influence upon this novel, as he is credited with introducing fog / smog into literature as a way of creating mood. Ms Hill uses the smog in London to create a feeling of foreboding at the beginning of the story, when Arthur is being given his task. Then the sea mist / fog is an important part of the setting out in the marsh, where the loss of vision adds to the claustrophobic, gloomy mood. This morbid fascination with death was also a common motif in Gothic novels, no doubt due to the increased prevalence of death in the increasingly crowded and poverty-stricken cities of the time. Thea at The Book Smugglers makes the great point that Eel Marsh House itself and the surrounding landscape is almost another character, oppressively spreading an air of malevolence and despair.

I enjoyed the writing in this book very much, but I do have a criticism with the pacing: once the haunting began, the pace picked up and began to feel a little rushed. There was such a great set up to the horror that when it actually arrived I would have liked a more prolonged and gradual increase in tension. Also, the way in which Arthur uncovered the story about the Woman seemed far too easy: there really needed to be more subtle and varied ways to drop hints and give us pieces of the picture, which he could then mold into a whole. I felt this was a real weakness, as it made me feel that I was being fobbed off with a hurried way to give him the answers he needed. I also have a nit-pick about the lights, which kept annoying me. The book seems to be set in the early 1900s, at which time there is absolutely no chance that such an isolated house would have had electricity, unless there was a generator, and yet Arthur blithely wanders in and switches on light bulbs. This is only a very minor point, but it really stood out as a sloppy mistake in an otherwise well written and enjoyable read, and so it broke me out of the book, which is never a good thing.

As an aside, it appears that the recent film has taken great liberties with the original story, which is unfortunately all too common.