The Historian
(Death of Dracula finally)
Vocabulary:
Acuity- sharpness
Bacchanalia- feast in honor of Bacchus
Scimitars- curved single-head sword
Idiosyncrasy- something that is strange to an individual
Deference-respectful or yielding to judgement
Indubitable- cannot be doubted
Precocious- unusually advanced or mature development
Disquisition- a subject is examined and discussed
Perspicacity- ability to show mental perception and understanding
Iconostasis- screen where icons are placed (separating sanctuary from church)
Summary
Chapter 45-79
Paul gives his speech at the conference at the University of Bucharest in Romania. Then they travel to Istanbul to visit Helen's mother. They find letters from her mother giving information about Professor Rossi. They find out about how he said he was going to marry her, but he didn't come back. They read many of the letters and find out that Rossi traveled to Dracula's fortress . Paul and Helen profess their love for each other. They get a message from Turgut that they must go to Bulgaria because there is a library where they will find more rare documents. While back in Istanbul, they find out that Turgut and his scholar Selim are part of the Crescent Guard which is a secret guard that was thought of years ago. Their librarian friend gets bitten three times and he is killed out of misery. When they finally visit Bulgaria, they meet a researcher who they hope will help them find something.
While all these events are happening earlier, in the present time Elsie and Barley find her father's room and it looks like her father left in a hurry.
In Bulgaria, Helen and Paul are looking at manuscript from fourteenth century monks. After a while, they figure out why Rossi didn't come back to Helen's mother. He has dementia and that's why the letters don't make sense. The historians visit the Rila Monastery with a local researcher named Ranov, and look at the records of the earlier monks. After hearing the story about how the Ottomans decapitated Dracula's body and took his head with them, Helen figures out that Dracula is looking for head in Constantinople. Paul asks Helen to marry him and she's worried about what their married life will be like.
Elsie and Barley find some letters. These letters are address My Beloved Daughter. Elsie realizes that her mother is not only Helen Rossi, but she is alive.
Paul wakes up one morning to wake up Helen, and finds out that she has been bitten again. They don't understand how the librarian (vampire) could have gotten to her. The monk, Ranov, and the main characters, visit the Sveti Georgi Monastery and find Professor Rossi in a sarcophagus. They think he's dead at first, but he's not. He is killed out of misery by his daughter knowing that her mother loved him and he loved her back. After searching the monastery, they are betrayed by Ranov, their old researcher , and Helen's old colleague. Finally they get home safely, get married, and have a daughter named Elsie. After a few year, Paul finds Helen becoming weaker and depressed. One morning he wakes up and he finds out she is dead.
Elsie and Barley find the monastery where her father is and they try to help him kill Dracula. Dracula was not in the sarcophagus. So they tried everything to distract Dracula so Helen could shoot him in the heart with her gun. The family gets back together and they live happily ever after with no vampires!
Friday, November 25, 2011
There are a few parts that happened in this story that intrigued me. First of all I would like to point out that Rossi was kidnapped by Dracula the entire time, so there is our answer. I feel sorry that he had to die, but death is better than the vampire virus any day. You won't be able to go outside in the sunlight, you can't eat good food, and you watch your loved one's die one by one. It doesn't seem like a happy life, and in some movies they show how a vampire suffers loss and blood lust, but others say being a vampire is cool. What's important is that Professor Rossi has been found and he is at peace. Now for the romance between Paul and Helen. I just knew they were going to fall in love. I knew that Helen had to be Elsie's mother because of her father's letters, but I couldn't just assume before I read it. When Helen and Paul traveled together, they have been through Bulgaria, Turkey, and Romania trying to find answers. The good thing was that they have always gotten results, but they were always tracked by something. I found it funny that they had to lie in order to have time alone to talk. They couldn't talk in their rooms because there were microphones. Of course they were in a few communist countries so you get the reason why. All in All, tracked down Dracula and now Vlad Dracula is no more.
Rossi really helped bring on the death of Dracula. The main reason is that Barley risked his life by helping Paul distract the vampire, and then Helen, the last piece of the puzzle, shoots the vampire with silver bullets. Despite Paul, thinking that he was going to save Helen, she actually saved him. It's funny how things work out. I was extremely happy when the family go back together because that is just how I am. I love happy endings!
Recommendation
I would like to say that this author is long-winded. The book just took forever and I was just hoping for it get more interesting and then it finally does and I was pretty happy. One thing that really was interesting to me was that it didn't talk about the girl's first name or idea of her mother in the beginning. I found it interesting that she put that towards the end. This author definitely did her research about Dracula. In almost every chapter, there is more and more history about Dracula and how he ruled the Carpathians and killed anyone who disobeyed him. Overall I actually liked this book. I don't think I would read it again, but that's just me because I tend to remember books that I have read. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in the history of eastern Europe and Dracula.
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