The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches) [Mass Market Paperback]

Anne Rice (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lives of the Mayfair Witches | Publication Date: March 22, 1993

Demonstrating once again her gift for spellbinding stoyrtelling, Anne Rice makes real a family of witches--a family given to poetry and incest, to murder and philsophy, a family that is itself haunted by a powerful, dangerous and seductive being.
"Unfolds like a poisonous lotus blossom redolent with luxurious evil."
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this engrossing and hypnotic tale of witchcraft and the occult spanning four centuries, we meet a great dynasty of witches--a family given to poetry and incest, to murder and philosophy, a family that over the ages is haunted by a powerful, dangerous and seductive being.

From Publishers Weekly

"We watch and we are always here" is the motto of the Talamasca, a saintly group with extrasensory powers which has for centuries chronicled the lives of the Mayfairs--a dynasty of witches that brought down a shower of flames in 17th-century Scotland, fled to the plantations of Haiti and on to the New World, where they settled in the haunted city of New Orleans. Rice ( The Queen of the Damned ) plumbs a rich vein of witchcraft lore, conjuring in her overheated, florid prose the decayed antebellum mansion where incest rules, dolls are made of human bone and hair, and violent storms sweep the skies each time a witch dies and the power passes on. Newly annointed is Rowan Mayfair, a brilliant California neurosurgeon kept in ignorance of her heritage by her adoptive parents. She returns to the fold after bringing back Michael Curry from the dead; he, too, has unwanted extrasensory gifts and, like Rowan and the 12 Mayfairs before her, has beheld Lasher: devil, seducer, spirit. Now Lasher wants to come through to this world forever and Rowan is the Mayfair who can open the door. This massive tome repeatedly slows, then speeds when Rice casts off the Talamasca's pretentious, scholarly tones and goes for the jugular with morbid delights, sexually charged passages and wicked, wild tragedy. 300,000 first printing; BOMC main selection.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 1056 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; later printing edition (March 22, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345384466
• ISBN-13: 978-0345384461
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (435 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anne Rice was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in English and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, as well as a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science.

She is the author of over 30 books, most recently the Toby O'Dare novels Of Love and Evil, and Angel Time; the memoir, Called Out of Darkness;and her two novels about Jesus, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana,

Anne publicly broke with organized religion in July of 2010 on moral grounds, affirming her faith in God, but refusing any longer to be called "Christian." The story attracted surprising media attention, with Rice's remarks being quoted in stories all over the world.

Anne is very active on her FaceBook Fan Page and has over 550,000 followers. She answers questions every day on the page, and also posts on a variety of topics, including literature, film, music, politics, religion, and her own writings. She welcomes discussion there on numerous topics.

Her latest novel, The Wolf Gift, a werewolf story set in Northern California in the present time, will be published on February 14th, 2012. With this book, Anne returns to the classic monsters and themes of supernatural literature, similar to those she explored in her Vampire Chronicles, and tales of the Mayfair Witches.

Her first novel, Interview with the Vampire, was published in 1976 and has gone on to become one of the best-selling novels of all time. She continued her saga of the Vampire Lestat in a series of books, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles, which have had both great mainstream and cult followings.

Interview with the Vampire was made into a motion picture in 1994, starring Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas. Anne's novel, Feast of All Saints about the free people of color of ante-bellum New Orleans became a Showtime mini series in 2001.

Anne Rice is also the author of other novels, including The Witching Hour, Servant of the Bones, Merrick, Blackwood Farm, Blood Canticle, Violin, and Cry to Heaven. She lives in Palm Desert, California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rice's journey through myth, legend and the supernatural, April 15, 2003

By 

Chris K. Wilson "Chris Kent" (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches) (Mass Market Paperback)

"The Witching Hour," Anne Rice's 1990 foray into witchcraft and the occult, is not really a change of pace for the uniquely gifted author more than it is a better realized creation emphasizing her strengths and obsessions. As most readers know, Rice cut her teeth with the enormously successful Vampire Chronicles including "Interview with the Vampire" and "The Vampire Lestat." With "The Witching Hour," Rice has taken a well-deserved break from the immortal lives of her witty vampire clan, creating a fascinating legend of a family of witches stretching back four centuries and two continents.

The witches, known as the Mayfairs, are connected by the haunting thread of the mysterious spirit Lasher, appearing ghost-like to a selected few, standing within the shadows of ominous trees and forming within mirrors, tears streaking his pale face. Lasher forms an eerie, if not erotic bond with the women of the Mayfair clan, providing untold riches and eventually amorous damnation. But Lasher, much like the legacy of the Mayfair family, is an exotic mystery waiting to be solved, and this intimidating responsiblity falls into the modern-day hands of Michael Curry and Rowan Mayfair. This appealing, love-struck couple, set out for New Orleans to solve the mystery and reclaim the souls of the Mayfair family.

"The Witching Hour" was eventually followed by two sequels, but it stands alone as one of Rice's greatest novels, an enthralling, complex epic filled with gothic mystery, dancing ghosts and heartbreaking irony. Her descriptions of the decayed mansion on First Street, situated in the Garden District of New Orleans, a moody, ancient home owned by the Mayfairs for over 100 years, provides some of this novels most sensual and memorable passages. This house is indeed haunted by spirits and the hovering mysteries of past tragedies, but like Shirley Jackson's classic "The Haunting of Hill House," what is lurking within the home is much more than just crying spirits of the dead.

Rice's body of work has always had an old fashioned taste for the finer things in life, from exquisite bottles of wine to antique furnishings and dusty historic paintings. She caresses these lush trappings, much like a lover embraces an old flame. And her descriptions of these tasteful adornments - clothes, artwork, china, food and even New Orleans culture, all glowing within the flame of yellow candlelight, are examples of her sensual writing style. Granted, the passages leading up to the novel's final conflict, in which Michael and Rowan begin renovating the ancient Mayfair home, move slowly, perhaps providing more architectural detail than the reader is interested in. But Rice is strategically building a growing sense of dread. Horror is going to pay a visit to this young couple, and when it eventually does, the reader's mouth will be agape.

"The Witching Hour" is a mesmerizing novel, combining comfortable elements of the English ghost story with a feather-touch dash of erotica, witchcraft and the occult. As in all Anne Rice novels, the dead will simply not go away. They lurk in the shadows of history, as they have for centuries. Time may have passed these pseudo banshees by, but their power is far reaching. Even within the shadows of skyscrapers, automobiles and computers, these timeless supernatural fears are hiding. In Anne Rice's fascinating worlds, ancient legends live and wait, and our imagination is entranced.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, and disturbing in a good way..., April 20, 2001

By 

Kimberly Shalls (Philadelphis, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches) (Mass Market Paperback)

Though I am twelve years old, (if you have read this book than you know that I should not have read it) I enjoy the quality of Anne Rice's novels. The scenes in which her charcters live are wonderfully described, and they become real. I bought this book at the mall with a friend who said ever so rudely to me that I was insane for trying to read a book that size, and it would take me a least a year, but I assured her that the critics were always right, at least about Anne Rice, and I devoured this book in an impressive amount of time. I deeply adore this book now, and am very excited to start Lasher, the next book. The suprise ending hurt me, because it was most definately not what I was expecting! This is now one of my favorite books, and I will most likely purchase the others in the very near future. It's sad romance was a little more than I could endure. I found it sadistic and romantic. If you believe nothing else, believe me when I say this. Anne Rice will not dissapoint you!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastically Dark and Gorgerously Written, April 24, 2000

By 

Andre Mason - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches) (Mass Market Paperback)

If I can sum up this books in a few words I would, but I cannot. It would not do this book any justice to give you a few simple descriptive words on how much I loved this book. Mrs. Rice has out done herself once again, by creating an entire world for us to dwell in and stretch our imaginations even further. Her mastery of the unknown, description, and the undead is a tremendous gift. The Witching Hour kept me glued from the very first page to the very last. She has weaved an entire family history with so many "magikal-skeletons", a prime time televison mini-series would be the perfect display of the magnificence of this novel. The Witching Hour in short, is one big history book. It details the past and current adventures of the family Mayfair, that through the years have amassed great wealth, magic, and influence from an entity known as Lasher to their kin. However, in the old tradition of witch covens - there can only be one who sits at the head of the family - and she is Deidre Mayfair and she is about to die. Her daugher, Rowan Mayfair,whom was taken away at the moment of her birth, never to know her family, has come back to claim what's rightfully hers. However, unbeknownst to Rowan, there's more to this family that meets the eye. We come to find that only women can inherit the role of the head witch of the family, but all is not as it seems because there is a power at work that is claiming this family into it's insestous ways to make the most powerful family. Through a mystical and magikal journey into the dark beginings of this family's history, you come to know the most powerful witches of the clan. In a word-Julien..mesmerizing. When you read this you will know what i mean. Rowan and her family give a stellar performance, as they jump off the pages and you being to take the trip into this dark world with them. Fans of the Vampire Chronicles will have a certain kinship to these books, because our friends from the Talamasca are all over this book. This book is a pure triumph and something that needs to be read carefully, for there is a lot of history and names to know. What I suggest, which is a very fun and interactive way to get involved with the book, is make your own timeline of the Mayfair family and follow along with it during the course of the story as it unfolds and as you are introduced to more of the clan. See if you can figure out the secrets of the mayfair family before you even finish the series. Happy Reading.