The Historian

The narrator, trying to obey her father’s wishes to stay close to home, returns to the university library in Amsterdam after an extended break. Her curiosity compels her to return to her research. The librarian gives her a book on Byzantine history and the conflict between Dracula and Sultan Mehmed II. The narrator considers asking the librarian for more sources when she hears a loud noise: The librarian was attacked, his head smashed into the desk. A bloody handprint marks the wall behind him.

The police cannot get prints from the hand; the fingerprints are “unusually worn” (105). While the narrator is frightened, she is also curious. She took the book the librarian was holding when he was attacked; it contains a chapter on Lake Snagov. Her father takes her to the south of France. She is envious of the people there, who are ignorant of ancient dangers. She knows that she must listen to the next piece of her father’s story and put all the pieces together.

After Rossi’s plea, Paul has no choice but to track him down. He decides to study the materials Rossi left to him before making a final plan. He studies the copies of the maps, the third of which contains a marker in the shape of a crowned dragon, indicating that someone is buried there. The sealed envelope holds a copy of the third map with the name of his mentor inscribed over the tomb. It also contains Rossi’s notes and a list of materials within the sultan’s archives in Istanbul. There is a notation on a bibliography of the Order of the Dragon—with no further description.

He realizes that his cat has not come in to eat. When he looks outside for him, he finds the cat dead, its body still warm. He is afraid but enraged. He decides to arm himself with garlic, crucifixes, and stakes made of silver. He decides to hunt for the tomb.

Paul ends the story abruptly, nudging the narrator back to the hotel. Neither of them wants to be caught in the dark.

Paul returns to the library before embarking on his quest. In the card catalog, there are no entries for Dracula or Stoker, though he knows the woman he met was reading Stoker’s novel. The librarian looks up the information on who has the book checked out: The patron’s name is Helen Rossi.

Paul notices another librarian lurking about; the man has two scabbed wounds on his neck. He notices that anyone who studies Dracula too closely becomes a target. He decides to call the H. Rossi he finds in the university directory.

The narrator is captivated by this new character in her father’s story. Helen was her mother’s name, but her father never spoke of her.

The narrator and her father travel to Athens. It is 1974, and the military presence in Greece makes Paul nervous, though the narrator continues to explore. Paul resumes his tale.

Helen agrees to meet Paul at a local diner. She is suspicious and brisk; she dresses and speaks harshly. He tells her that someone does not want her, or anyone else, researching Dracula. She tells him that, as a Romanian anthropologist, she is interested in the region. She admits that Bartholomew Rossi is her father, though she has never met him. Rossi abandoned Helen’s mother. Helen was born in 1931, after the time of the letters, but Rossi has never spoken of Romania. Helen’s mother was a peasant who fled to Hungary when she realized she was pregnant; her sister lived there, and she could not risk bearing a child out of wedlock in her village. Helen’s aunt has prestige within the Hungarian government, so Helen received an excellent education.

Helen’s mother told her that she and Rossi met when Rossi was doing research on Dracula. Helen knows, however, that Rossi never published any work on this, so she wants to do her own research and publish first. She thinks it is all fiction, but this is her way to enact revenge on her absent father.

In Slovenia, the narrator is eager to explore the local castle. She and her father take tea on the terrace where her father will again resume his story. He asks her to record these fragments.

Paul decides to take a break from work, and they return to the Adriatic coastline. They cross to an island, and before they disembark, the boatman makes the sign of the cross over the narrator. In the present, she remembers how peaceful that time was; civil war was 20 years away.

Paul informs Helen that her father has been missing for several days. He shares that Rossi believes that Vlad Dracula is alive. Helen says that her mother believes the same. Paul suggests that Helen read Rossi’s letters and look through his materials. He asks her to meet him at St. Mary’s Church.

Paul hopes that Helen can walk into the church unscathed; he worries she is one of Dracula’s minions. When she crosses herself with holy water, he is reassured. She tells him that she believes his story and suspects she is being followed. He is relieved to have an ally.

Helen looks through Rossi’s materials. They wonder why Dracula is so interested in him. Paul considers further sources, and Helen suggests her mother. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of the disheveled librarian: He tells an altar lady that he is looking for a woman. Paul and Helen hide in a side chamber. He does not want her to go back to her room alone. Helen suggests they let the librarian follow them because he might have information about Rossi.

Helen says they should split up, luring the librarian to follow her into the library. Paul follows closely behind, listening to Helen’s conversation with the corrupted librarian. She tells him that she will show him a map if he tells her something about Rossi’s whereabouts. The librarian immediately grows agitated, screaming that he would kill her for that map. Paul sees that Helen is holding a crucifix toward the librarian, keeping him at bay. However, she was bitten.

The librarian shouts about his master, but before they can get any information, he wrenches free and runs into the street, where he is fatally struck by a car.

The narrator and her father travel to Oxford. She is introduced to Stephen Barley, who will be her guide to the university. Barley is an undergraduate whose mentor, Master James, is an acquaintance of Paul. The narrator admires a stained-glass scene in the dining hall, and Barley points out that it is of a man driving a stake into the heart of a vampire. He says that the books on the occult are at the Radcliffe Camera.

They first explore the main library. The narrator thinks of attending university at Oxford. They go on to the Radcliffe Camera: She thinks how strange it is that this building should house books on evil. Barley directs her to the room that contains the vampire collection. As they enter, her father is already there, studying an old book.

Helen confirms that she has been bitten, but she thinks that one minor bite is not enough to turn her into a vampire. Paul decides to go to Istanbul, hoping to follow Rossi. Helen will accompany him.

Though her father offers excuses, the narrator knows that he was looking for information on Dracula. The chapter in the book he was reading is entitled “Vampires de Provence et des Pyrénées” (174).

The narrator wakes that night and finds her father is gone. He left her a note telling her to return home and resume school; Barley will be her chaperone on the train journey back. He left her garlic and a crucifix.

The next day, she asks Barley to take her back to the reading room before their train leaves. She finds the book that her father was reading and asks Barley to help her translate the French: The passage suggests that Dracula returns to the monastery at Saint-Matthieu, near Les Bains, every 16 years to pay tribute to the site of his original transformation.

She and Barley arrive at her home. He will stay the night before taking the ferry back to Oxford. She plans to slip away to the train station the next morning. Meanwhile, the narrator searches for clues to his current location. She finds a hidden packet filled with letters addressed to her. She is only to read them if he has disappeared. The first letter begins, “If you are reading this, forgive me. I have gone to look for your mother” (182).