The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (reread)

"But history, it seemed, could be something entirely different, a splash of blood whose agony didn't fade overnight, or over centuries."

When faced with a reading slump, my usual strategy is to revisit an old favourite.  And so last week, I found myself pulling The Historian off my shelf and settling in for a gothic treat. The unnamed narrator of The Historian discovers a strange book in her father's library, containing a sinister and old-fashioned woodcut of a dragon. Unable to get this image out of her mind and frustrated by her father's avoidance of the topic, her own research leads her to find out about Vlad Tepes, the historical Dracula.  As she delves deeper into his history, the story of her father and of the professor who disappeared in mysterious circumstances slowly reveal themselves.  It's the start of a journey punctuated by strange occurrences that will lead her across Europe to the tomb of the impaler himself.

I just love this book! It contains so many of the things I love in fiction; a gothic atmosphere, an intellectual mystery, a nested/embedded narrative structure, the inclusion of letters from the characters and travel to wonderful places.  Reading The Historian makes me want to walk along the bridges of Budapest, visit the archives of Istanbul and see the beautiful countryside of Eastern Europe.  I love it when a book transports you to another place so clearly as The Historian does, it completely took me away from real life and carried me along with the story.

I also love how carefully information is revealed by Kostova.  The novel has an unusual narrative structure where the girl's story is told alongside her father's and that of Professor Rossi.  Information is slowly doled out across the chapters, allowing all three stories to build up at the right moment.  The links between the three stories are clever and I love how Kostova used existing information about Vlad Tepes and twisted it subtly, just enough, to make it fit with her plot.  As someone interested in history, I enjoyed that so many of the 'original documents' in the story were reproduced and as readers, how we get to follow the thought processes of the characters.

Although this is a vampire story, readers expecting a fast pace or full-out horror will be disappointed.  The Historian is a meandering book full of twists and turns and the horror elements are more subtle than you might expect.  As I love gothic classics, this works perfectly for me.  I love this book and don't hesitate to recommend it!

You will enjoy The Historian if:

• You liked Dracula by Bram Stoker.
• You love reading gothic fiction curled up in front of a fire.
• You like an intellectual mystery.
• You're an armchair traveller

Source: Personal copy

Score: 5 out of 5

Little Women Readalong: Final Post

This is my last post for the Little Women readalong hosted by Risa at Breadcrumb Reads.  This week, we finished what was traditionally the stand-alone novel, Little Women, but which is now only typically half of the novel as the sequel, Good Wives, is often included in the same edition.  My edition does contain both and I plan to carry straight on and read the rest of the book (in fact, I've already started!).  There will be spoilers in this discussion.

One thing that struck me on finishing the 'first' novel was how happy it is in comparison with what I know is to come in the second volume.  Although Beth does become sick with scarlet fever and there are some tough times for each of the sisters, things all work out in the end.  Mr March comes home from war, Meg becomes happily engaged and everyone else has been improved in some way.  The hardships work to stop the book from becoming overly sweet whilst still allowing it to have a feel-good atmosphere.

My life is a bit stressful at the moment and reading Little Women has been an effective relaxation tool every evening.  I've been taking the book at a slow pace and really savouring each chapter.  There's something about the way Alcott writes the sisters that makes them so real and consequently it's reassuring to read about them and their struggles to be better people.  Each of the girls make mistakes in this latter part of the book (and Laurie is no angel too) and it's therapeutic to see them dust themselves off and carry on.

As I said in my first post, I'm an Amy fan, so I was pleased to see her start to mature and learn to think of others as well as herself by the end of the book.  I still think Amy gets a lot of flack for readers when really, she tries very hard to improve and is even a bit tough on herself;

"I've thought a great deal about 'my bundle of naughties' and being selfish is the largest one in it; so I'm going to try hard to cure it, if I can.  Beth isn't selfish, and that's the reason every one loves her, and feels so bad at the thought of losing her.  People wouldn't feel half as bad about me if I was sick, and I don't deserve to have them."

I still find it hard to warm to Meg.  Her relationship with Mr Brooke isn't developed very well by Alcott so the whole thing feels a bit forced and arranged.  There's no hint she has any feelings for him until his feelings become obvious.  In contrast, the clues that Laurie has feelings for Jo are planted very early on and developed throughout the whole of this book although nothing has happened yet.  Although I know what happens later on, I always find it pleasing that Laurie goes for Jo on the basis of who she is and the way they interact rather than choosing someone based purely on looks. I'm looking forward to reading the next volume although I know it's more full of hardships than the first. 

Thanks for hosting the readalong Risa, I've really enjoyed it!

Little Women Read-along Chapters 1-8

 I'm participating in the Little Women readalong hosted by Risa at Breadcrumb Reads and this week, we read chapters 1-8.  There will be spoilers ahead!

In this part of the book, we meet the family for the first time.  As I mentioned in my introductory post, I read an abridged version of the book many times as a child so I thought the girls were familiar to me.  I remembered headstrong, passionate Jo and peaceful Beth right, but in my head Meg was more mature than she appears at the start of the book, always going on about dresses and looks.  Maybe it's the film-Meg I'm remembering rather than the book-Meg?

As for the plot, Little Women as a whole is divided into episodes that teach life lessons.  In chapters 1-8, the girls learn that poverty is relative, Beth overcomes her shyness to make a new friend, Jo's temper and refusal to forgive leads to Amy burning her manuscript and Amy learns that there are consequences to breaking the rules at school.  Much of these chapters were taken up with Jo becoming friends with Laurie and his introduction to the family as a whole.  I love Laurie as a character; he's quite loud and boisterous but capable of great sensitivity towards Beth too.  There is one section where Alcott writes that Laurie is always nice, but then he only ever shows his pleasant side to the Marches (or words to that effect!), that promise some interesting chapters later on.

One of the questions Risa posted was 'have you a favourite sister yet?' and I most definitely do.  Although I would like to think of myself as calm and peaceful like Beth or creative and passionate like Jo, I'm more of an Amy.  Before you all start writing me off as a spoiled brat, what I mean by that is I was the youngest sister too.  Much of Amy's 'bad' behaviour comes from her desire to catch up, to do what Jo and Meg are doing.  The scene where she throws a tantrum about not being allowed to go to the theatre reminded me of all the times my big sister got to do something first and I remember how jealous I was!  You never feel like you will catch up when you're Amy's age, although age becomes irrelevant later.  I think Amy gets a bad rep sometimes, burning Jo's manuscript was appalling but Amy is always ready to own up to her mistakes and ask for forgiveness and she can be very generous.  Beth is almost too perfect to relate to so I appreciate that Alcott created a human, flawed character in Amy.  I will be cheering for Amy all through this read-along!

I'm looking forward to reading the next third of the book next week.  We are reading the original Little Women only (half of the American version), so I'm going to go straight on and read Good Wives/ the second half afterwards.  Reading the book brings on a cosy feeling which is just lovely after a long day at work.

Risa's discussion post

Little Women Readalong

I'm joining in the Little Women read along at Breadcrumb Reads, running from 14th September to 5th October, with discussion posts every Friday.  Earlier in the year, I discovered that my battered, much-loved copy of the book was in fact an abridged version and ever since then I've been wondering what was omitted from the text.  This readalong is therefore the perfect time for me to experience the whole book for the first time.

I'll be reading the gorgeous Penguin Threads edition and it will count towards my Classics Club list as book four of seventy-two.  Although I read the abridged version many times as a child, I haven't read it recently and I wonder if my reaction will still be the same.  I always wanted to be like feisty, determined Jo or peaceful Beth but I have a feeling that I'm more of an Amy.  I hope it hasn't ruined me, but I was the youngest daughter growing up and consequently I was a bit spoiled.  I was permanently in a one-woman race to be grown up already, to do everything my older sister did.  I would never have done anything like throw her manuscript in the fire but I'm definitely more like Amy than any of the other sisters.

I'm hoping Little Women will still give me that cosy, safe feeling it did as a teenager.  I want the sisters to feel like old friends and the book like revisiting a favourite.

The readalong is very low-key and I'm sure Risa is still accepting sign-ups if anyone wants to join us in reading Little Women this month.