Talk:The Historian
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Reasons for edits:
I changed the name of the main narrator to Elsie, as opposed to Elise as it was originally printed. Her name is seen on pg. 625 in the line: ""Oh, Elsie," said a broken English voice." From what I remember, this is the only time her name is printed in the book.
I also added a spoiler warning to the Background and Motifs section since there are some things discussed that give away certain aspects of the plot. I know if I was reading the novel and had some of those things spoiled for me I would be upset. -- Jberg88 14:19, 22 October 2005
Please note the reasons I made the following changes:
1. The quote from the gypsy about killing Jews is written with the idea of capturing the speaker's Scottish accent. I removed this attempt at dialect to make the passage readable. If anyone feels that these misspellings must be restored to make it accurate, go ahead and do so, although I will not accept responsibility for the result.
2. I deleted much of the text in the stub after finding (to put it politely) that much of this text can be found, word-for-word, in already-published reviews of the book.
--L. 15:49, 30 September 2005 (UTC)
I was thinking about the name of the narrator in this book and I thought maybe, Elizabeth Kostova herself is the main character in this story. Please tell me what you think! --Northernn 20:21, 21 November 2005
I don't think that the name "Elsie" is the narrator's as it was said out by Master James,an old friend of Paul and also a historian, at the very end of the novel while he was dying.As you see,people cry out their beloved ones' names,but not the old friends' daughters' before they die.That could be Master James' lover or wife or somebody very close to him.
I agree with the previous comment regarding the name "Elsie." Master James called out "Elsie" at the end as a reference to his former love, Elspeth, mentioned earlier in the novel. Elsie was his fiancee; their relationship ended sadly after her car accident in England when she saw an apparition and swerved. This story was told to the male protagonist. --Mpagano 99 18:30, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
I deleted the bit about Helen's disease probably being AIDS, which was founded on nothing in the book. I still do not agree with the general statement about Helen's death though, as in the book it just says "I could not know then that she would also drift from us at times, not speaking for hours, fingering her neck, or that a wasting illness would take her for good nine years later". The matters of the vampiric bites and the illness of Helen is not shown to be related here. It could be a non-blood related wasting illness, such as cancer. The are no grounds to assume otherwise, as far as I can tell.
Other issues that I don't know what to change into:
-The comment about the narrator's storyline: she is 16 years old when she starts travelling with her father and hears his story, but two years have passed before her father disappears and she goes to look for him with Stephen Barley (which is set in 1974)
-In the plotline section, it says that Helen disappeared after showing signs of vampirism. However, she did not do such a thing: she cried a lot, wouldn't talk to Paul about what was bothering her and was generally more disconnected from her world; symptoms of depression rather than vampirism, I think.
-Again in the plotline section, it says that Dracula's tomb and library were constantly moved around. The passage in the book that this was probably based on, though, has Dracula saying the tomb in Sventi Georgi is his favourite, suggesting that he has more than one at the same time, not one he moves around. Next to that, the Sventi Georgi one has an elaborate underground chamber to house the library, whereas there is no such indication for the one in the Pyrenees. It seemed to me that the move of the library away from Sventi Georgi was its first move.
-There is mention in the Background and Motifs section of constant reference "to a deadly and horrible terrorist attack on American soil". Where? I read the book and found one reference to a terrorist attack: on one of the last pages. No more. Did I read over all that or is that comment based on a single line in the book? It also says the terrorist attack was by Islamics, which it doesn't say anywhere in the book and that it is near where the narrator holds an academic position, while she is in actual fact there on a conference. ---Pim Aelbers, 6 July 2006
