This debut novel by Elizabeth Kostova is written in a style reminiscent of 18th and 19th-century novels, namely narrative-within-narrative, using letters, diaries and other means to tell parts of the story to the audience and a long, slow-paced narrative.
It is tracing the story of a young girl of 16 living with his diplomat father in Amsterdam. One day she discovers a letter in his father's library and starts following the story of how his father was involved with tracking the real Dracula's tomb - namely that of Vlad Tepes, the 15th-century Romanian warlord who has been in a lifelong struggle with Sultan Mehmed of the Ottoman Empire and is believed to be the model for Bram Stoker's famous vampire novel Dracula. As she reads about the adventures of her father, about how he met a Romanian girl while following the footsteps of his academic advisor who was trying to find the tomb of Vlad Tepes and later on she gets involved in the same story.
It is a difficult book to follow, with several intertwined stories running in parallel. However, I would have accepted this style (which has been used far more successfully by other authors) if the story had merit. After reading through several hundreds of pages, I was really disappointed with the lack of real events and a very weak ending.
Thus the book does not add anything to the legend of Dracula and it seems that the only motivation for the book is to demonstrate the ability to write in 18th or 19th century novelists' style to handle a classic story.
Thanks for sharing this, Levent- I now have this book to add to my must-consider reads. Hope you're doing well-
Hmm -- Haven't read it, but appreciate your view ... I will be writing soon on This Writing Life about what one may or may not do in historical fiction. Any thoughts?