Book Note: The Historian

I've been wanting to read this book, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, for quite awhile. Alas, my library didn't have a copy of it, and as I have banned myself from shopping at Amazon, I had to keep waiting. But then I found myself in possession of a Border's gift certificate and I could finally get my hands on it. Deliciously thick, this book; 642 pages of little type.

You could say this book is about vampires, Dracula in particular. I never knew that the legend of Dracula was based on an actual man, Vlad the Impaler, who fought to keep his little country, Wallachia, out of the hands of the Ottomans. He was a horrible man, a cruelty artist as likely to torture his own people as he was the unlucky Ottomans who crossed him. It is also about scholars who are tracking down this ellusive historical character. It's a love story as well as a father/daughter story, not to mention the relationship between mentor and mentoree. The story itself is intriguing, interesting, informative and, despite the length, face paced.

But what intrigued me more than the story was the method the historians used to track down the legend. Letters, unknown books, secrets, folk songs, relics, maps, oral history, crazy old monks. Those ancient documents---one letter in Istanbul, for example, and its companion in Bulgaria---steeped in the scent of centuries, stained, torn, yet held at one time by a real, breathing person. It has made me think, ever since finishing, how difficult it is to piece together any history, and how histories are made up of many, many voices. I thought about one of my literary theory classes in college, when we discussed new historicism. The professor (my favorite one!) said something that I continue to think about: history is told by the conquerers. The conquered don't get to tell their stories because they are lost in ruin, or destroyed, or subjugated. All of the small little stories about Dracula had to be linked together, and that linking was made much more difficult by politics and dictators.

All of which has made me think about my own history. I mean, not that I am important enough for someone to need to uncover my history. But if someone wanted to, how would they do it? What, for example, will happen to my journals and notebooks when I die? What about my scrapbooks? In, say, 100 years, how might a person learn more about me? And what unwitting clues am I leaving? Someone could learn a lot about me just by reading the comments I've made in the books I read---unless all my books are given to charity once I die, like my grandma's were. And which ancestor left clues for me to follow, back to her story, and how could I find them?

I'm left, having finished this book, thinking about the very nature of time, of death and of archives and of the written word. I think The HIstorian's version of Dracula might like this thought I am left with. He thought that by gathering history together, he could control the future. Is that possible? What impact does history have on us, on my life right NOW? How much of the person I am is based on ME, how much on the people who sired me through all the preceeding generations? In the end, I think I like this book so much because it makes me ask myself those questions but it doesn't give an answer; they are inherently unaswerable, I think. Unless you can stumble across a Draculian archive of your own.

Comments

[Gwyn]

What a fascinating book, I hadn't heard of this one, or if I had, I'd forgotten it. As a storyteller, one often pieces together things from bits and pieces of first person accounts and evidentiary threads. My husband is a historial re-enactore and laments the lack of information available on the everyday minutiae of 18th century life. What was done about brushing one's teeth? How did folks clean up after they, well, they pooped? No one knows! Too commmonplace to report.

I've long contended that what I'm leaving behind in the way of "historical record" is nothing more than snippets to amuse myself. So I suppose if someone were to glimpse into the extant record I left, they'd get just a sense of the person I was, but no real sense of personal history. Interesting thoughts, Amy!

[Heather D. White]

My gosh....I must admit that books that big always seem a little daunting to me. However, it DOES sound extremely interesting. I had no idea about the "history" of Dracula. Very cool that there is an actual historical background to it. And the research done for that book definitely DOES make you think about your own history....how easy or hard have we made it for people to find out about us once we are gone? For that reason, I am still so wanting to do an All About Me Album. Although I blog often, I don't really delve deep into who I am. I want a book that is unedited and open as to who I really am...so that when I AM gone, my relatives won't have to go far to find out more about me. Loved your entry today Amy!