The Historian (2005)

How these papers have been placed in sequence will be
made manifest in the reading of them. All needless matters have
been eliminated, so that a history almost at variance with the
possibilities of later-day belief may stand forth as simple fact.
There is throughout no statement of past things wherein memory
may err, for all the records chosen are exactly contemporary,
given from the stand-points and within the range
of knowledge of those who made them.

—Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897

What sort of place had I come to, and among what kind of
people? What sort of grim adventure was it on which I had
embarked? . . . I began to rub my eyes and pinch myself to see if
I were awake. It all seemed like a horrible nightmare to me, and I
expected that I should suddenly awake, and find myself at home,
with the dawn struggling in through the windows, as I had now
and again felt in the morning after a day of overwork. But my
flesh answered the pinching test, and my eyes were not to be
deceived. I was indeed awake and among the Carpathians. All
I could do now was to be patient, and to wait the coming
of the morning.

—Bram Stoker, Dracula,1897

There was one great tomb more lordly than all the rest; huge it was,
and nobly proportioned. On it was but one word,

DRACULA.

—Bram Stoker, Dracula, 1897.

Dedication

For my father,
who first told me
some of these stories

First words

A Note To The Reader

The story that follows is one I never intended to commit to paper.

In 1972 I was sixteen—young, my father said, to be traveling with him on his diplomatic missions.

Quotations

"To you, perceptive reader, I bequeath my history . . ."

"My dear and unfortunate successor . . ."

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Please do not combine with any abridged editions of The Historian.