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Chargement... The Historianpar Elizabeth Kostova
  
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First of all, this is really 3.25 stars. I liked this book quite a bit. But it took me an embarrassingly long time to read as I kept getting distracted by other books that weren't so heavily laden with detail. Oh my goodness can Kostova set a scene. She's really great at that. The plot is well thought out, pretty solid, and intriguing. The pacing, though, is funereal, and most of the characters are little more than sketches, a few broad strokes made from archetypal characteristics. They're good broad strokes, but I can't help but think that if the author had spent less time describing the setting, there might have been more time for character development. This is definitely a suspense novel that defies the breakneck intensity that typifies the suspense genre. Overall a good book that even if it isn't amazing, is satisfying. (  ) JessicaReadsThings | Dec 2, 2021 |  I really enjoyed this book, but skimmed a few portions of it, if I'm going to be perfectly honest. Reading the Goodreads description of it makes the storyline seem pretty upfront, but in truth it is a wildly convoluted and intricate story from start to finish. I give great props to the author to be able to create so many levels and keep them straight; I sure wasn't able to. It has three different timelines, but within those timelines, people are writing letters to others and notes and diaries to themselves. I had to stop a couple of times to remember who was writing to whom and who was reading it at what time. And as for what I was skimming over? The interminable history of areas that had little to do with the actual story of what I wanted to read. Yeah, yeah, it's touted as historical fiction, but it's DRACULA, so no. (  ) relorenz1064 | Nov 21, 2021 | 600 pages of dull, plodding travelogue followed by 40 pages of action that whips by so quickly it's barely comprehensible. Dracula, when he finally arrives, is actually pretty fun -- far better company than any of the other interchangeably milquetoast characters -- but it's too little too late. There is an interesting story clumsily suggested by this book: a revisiting of the Dracula mythos from the point of view of the Ottomans and their descendents. I'd love to see that. https://donut-donut.dreamwidth.org/830055.html (  ) amydross | Oct 29, 2021 | I think this novel may qualify as top one I have ever taken so long to read. It has been on my shelf for a very long time & I originally had as a target to try to read more stuff off the shelves this year. So far, I am failing miserably :( It has taken me over 6 months to get through this novel! It's huge with tiny print which didn't help. I was reading bits inbetween other books, although I never actually decided to DNF. So I enjoyed it enough to keep going. To me, it's like a very literary Dan Brown novel - lots of geographical touring mixed with a mystery. I didn't hate it but I wasn't very enamoured either. ( ) infjsarah | Aug 11, 2021 | This is one of my favorite reads from the past decade. It is a mixture of coming of age, historically based mystery and thriller. The blend of innocence and violence is well done and a very promising beginning for a new author. I am anxiously awaiting a followup! (  ) Riverdeboz | Jul 25, 2021 |
 Vlad Lit: don't flirt with it, just sink your teeth right in When, after many other allusions to historians and historicism, Kostova introduced a character whose last name is Hristova, I was tempted to run out to a pharmacy for some antihristomine. What's unfortunate about this overload is that the book -- which seems to want to do for historians what ''Possession'' did for literary scholars -- is otherwise the kind of wonderfully paced yarn that would make a suitable companion to a deck chair, a patch of sun and some socklessness.  In a ponderous, many-layered book that is exquisitely versed in the art of stalling, Ms. Kostova steeps her readers in Dracula lore. She visits many libraries, monasteries, relics of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, crypts, restaurants, scholars and folk-song-singing peasants. Every now and then a mysterious pale, sinister figure will materialize, only to vanish bewilderingly. The book's characters find this a lot more baffling than readers will.  Stuffed with rich, incense-laden cultural history and travelogue, The Historian is a smart, bibliophilic mystery in the same vein (sorry) as A.S. Byatt's Possession--but without all that poetry.
A young woman discovers an ancient book and a cache of old letters in her father's library, and thus begins her adventurous quest for the truth about Vlad the Impaler, a search that will span continents and generations, and a confrontation with the darkest powers of evil. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Couvertures populaires
 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.6 — Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (3.69)
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November Fantasy Thread - NO SPOILERS - The Historian
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