I bought a book a while ago and have just learnt that the rights have been given to make a movie of it.
The Historian was written by Elizabeth Kostova and is a modern-day version of a Gothic horror novel. It's based on two generations of related people in search of the tomb of Vlad the Impaler.
The novel was well researched and, once I had finished reading, it got me looking at websites seeing how other readers had found the book.
There seems to be a mixture of feedback on it. I agreed with one view that The Historian tended to drag in places but, other than that, I thought it was really good and hard to put down near the end of it.
I feel this movie will have a difficult time following the structure of the novel, though.
The Historian is written in numerous styles. One of the main ways the author uses to convey the story is using letters that are read by the characters in another generation. This epistolary style of storytelling will be missing from the movie and I think people who liked this book will hate it. I can imagine the flow of the movie will be going back and forth throughout and it won't appeal to some.
Another great thing about the novel was the amount of research Elizabeth Kostova had put into it. I am not well-schooled in historical facts about Eastern European folklore but the way she introduced it in The Historian is enough to think she knows what she is on about. It was like reading factual tidbits of information in the context of a piece of fiction. She did a great job balancing it out.
It's because of these things that makes me concerned that the movie will not live up to the book. But then again - name me one movie that has?
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