My third foray into rereading books this year was 2005’s The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova, which I read when it was first published—and still have the original hardcover edition. All I remembered was a hunt (or being hunted) across Europe featuring the historical Vlad Dracula, who — surprise! — was in fact, a vampire. I remember loving this book when I read it, and at the time, there wasn’t a lot of fiction (there still isn’t, really) about Dracula, who’s a pet fascination of mine. I had high, if vague, expectations going into my second read in two decades. Unfortunately, while I enjoyed the book the second time round, I didn’t LOVE it. There’s way too much buildup and not nearly enough of the infamous undead man himself. I also could have done without the coming-of-age romance bit (and really the entire subplot with the unnamed daughter was distracting and not really that interesting.)

One thing I did love was the obvious nod to The Rosenbach Museum here in Philadelphia (dubbed The Rutherford in the novel) and its collection of Dracula material, including early editions of Dracula and draft notes from Stoker himself, all of which I got to see (and sometimes touch) on a ‘Behind the Bookcase’ tour a couple of Octobers ago. Back when I first read The Historian I had no idea such a museum existed, let alone that one day I would visit. 

Side notes and spoilers: I had to laugh at the number of times one of Dracula’s minions was referred to as “the evil librarian.” Also, Dracula’s love for books was just *chef’s kiss* perfection. I know if I had the gift/curse of immortal life, I’d have one hell of a personal library. And I’ve always said that for me, one of the chief draws of becoming one of the undead would be having all that time to read.