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Interview with the Vampire Mass Market Paperback – September 13, 1991
| Anne Rice (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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“A magnificent, compulsively readable thriller . . . Rice begins where Bram Stoker and the Hollywood versions leave off and penetrates directly to the true fascination of the myth—the education of the vampire.”—Chicago Tribune
Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly sensual, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force—a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.
- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBallantine Books
- Publication dateSeptember 13, 1991
- Dimensions4.18 x 0.98 x 6.88 inches
- ISBN-100345337662
- ISBN-13978-0345337665
- Lexile measure900L
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
While Rice has continued to investigate history, faith, and philosophy in subsequent Vampire novels (including The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, and The Vampire Armand), Interview remains a treasured masterpiece. It is that rare work that blends a childlike fascination for the supernatural with a profound vision of the human condition. --Patrick O'Kelley
Review
“Unrelentingly erotic . . . sometimes beautiful, and always unforgettable.”—Washington Post
“If you surrender and go with her . . . you have surrendered to enchantment, as in a voluptuous dream.”—Boston Globe
“A chilling, thought-provoking tale, beautifully frightening, sensuous, and utterly unnerving.”—Hartford Courant
From the Publisher
-Lisa Congelosi, Ballantine Sales Rep.
From the Inside Flap
It is a novel only Anne Rice could write....
"Magnificent, compulsively readable."
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
From the Back Cover
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
"But how much tape do you have with you?" asked the vampire, turning now so the boy could see his profile. "Enough for the story of a life?"
"Sure, if it's a good life. Sometimes I interview as many as three or four good people a night if I'm lucky. But it has to be a good story. That's only fair, isn't it?"
"Admirably fair," the vampire answered. "I would like to tell you the story of my life, then. I would like to do that very much."
"Great," said the boy. And quickly he removed a small tape recorder from his brief case, making a check of the cassette and batteries. "I'm really anxious to hear why you believe this, why you--"
"No," said the vampire abruptly. "We can't begin that way. Is your equipment ready?"
"Yes," said the boy.
"Then sit down. I'm going to turn on the overhead light."
"But I thought vampires didn't like the light," said the boy. "If you think the dark adds atmosphere--" But then he stopped. The vampire was watching him with his back to the window. The boy could make out nothing of his face now, and something about the still figure there distracted him. He started to say something again but he said nothing. And then he sighed with relief when the vampire moved towards the table and reached for the overhead cord.
At once the room was flooded with a harsh yellow light. And the boy, staring up at the vampire, could not repress a gasp. His fingers danced backwards on the table to grasp the edge. "Dear God!" he whispered, and then he gazed, speechless, at the vampire.
The vampire was utterly white and smooth, as if he were sculpted from bleached bone, and his face was as seemingly inanimate as a statue, except for two brilliant green eyes that looked down at the boy intently like flames in a skull. But then the vampire smiled almost wistfully, and the smooth white substance of his face moved with the infinitely flexible but minimal lines of a cartoon. "Do you see?" he asked softly?
The boy shuddered, lifting his hand as if to shield himself from a powerful light. His eyes moved slowly over the finely tailored black coat he'd only glimpsed in the bar, the long folds of the cape, the black silk tie knotted at the throat, and the gleam of the white collar that was as white as the vampire's flesh. He stared at the vampire's full black hair, the waves that were combed back over the tips of the ears, the curls that barely touched the edge of the white collar.
"Now, do you still want the interview?" the vampire asked.
The boy's mouth was open before the sound came out. He was nodding. Then he said, "Yes."
The vampire sat down slowly opposite him and, leaning forward, said gently, confidentially, "Don't be afraid. Just start the tape."
And then he reached out over the length of the table. The boy recoiled, sweat running down the sides of his face. The vampire clamped a hand on the boy's shoulder and said, "Believe me, I won't hurt you. I want this opportunity. It's more important to me than you can realize now. I want you to begin." And he withdrew his hand and sat collected, waiting.
It took a moment for the boy to wipe his forehead and his lips with a handkerchief, to stammer that the microphone was in the machine, to press the button, to say that the machine was on.
"You weren't always a vampire, were you?" he began.
"No," answered the vampire. "I was a twenty-five-year-old man when I became a vampire, and the year was seventeen ninety-one."
The boy was startled by the preciseness of the date and he repeated it before he asked, "How did it come about?"
"There's a simple answer to that. I don't believe I want to give simple answers," said the vampire. "I think I want to tell the real story--."
"Yes," the boy said quickly. He was folding his handkerchief over and over and wiping his lips now with it again.
"There was a tragedy--" the vampire started. "It was my younger brother--. He died." And then he stopped, so that the boy could clear his throat and wipe at his face again before stuffing the handkerchief almost impatiently into his pocket.
"It's not painful, is it?" he asked timidly.
"Does it seem so?" asked the vampire. "No." He shook his head. "It's simply that I've only told this story to one other person. And that was so long ago. No, it's not painful--.
"We were living in Louisiana then. We'd received a land grant and settled two indigo plantations on the Mississippi very near New Orleans--."
"Ah, that's the accent--" the boy said softly.
For a moment the vampire stared blankly. "I have an accent?" He began to laugh.
And the boy, flustered, answered quickly. "I noticed it in the bar when I asked you what you did for a living. It's just a slight sharpness to the consonants, that's all. I never guessed it was French."
"It's all right," the vampire assured him. "I'm not as shocked as I pretend to be. It's only that I forget it from time to time. But let me go on--."
"Please--" said the boy.
"I was talking about the plantations. They had a great deal to do with it, really, my becoming a vampire. But I'll come to that. Our life there was both luxurious and primitive. And we ourselves found it extremely attractive. You see, we lived far better there than we could have ever lived in France. Perhaps the sheer wilderness of Louisiana only made it seem so, but seeming so, it was. I remember the imported furniture that cluttered the house." The vampire smiled. "And the harpsichord; that was lovely. My sister used to play it. On summer evenings, she would sit at the keys with her back to the open French windows. And I can still remember that thin, rapid music and the vision of the swamp rising beyond her, the moss-hung cypresses floating against the sky. And there were the sounds of the swamp, a chorus of creatures, the cry of the birds. I think we loved it. It made the rosewood furniture all the more precious, the music more delicate and desirable. Even when the wisteria tore the shutters off the attic windows and worked its tendrils right into the whitewashed brick in less that a year-- Yes, we loved it. All except my brother. I don't think I ever heard him complain of anything, but I knew how he felt. My father was dead then, and I was head of the family and I had to defend him constantly from my mother and sister. They wanted to take him visiting, and to New Orleans for parties, but he hated these things. I think he stopped going altogether before he was twelve. Prayer was what mattered to him, prayer and his leatherbound lives of the saints.
"Finally, I built him an oratory removed from the house, and he began to spend most of every day there and often the early evening. It was ironic, really. He was so different from us, so different from everyone, and I was so regular! There was nothing extraordinary about me whatsoever." The vampire smiled.
"Sometimes in the evening I would go out to him and find him in the garden near the oratory, sitting absolutely composed on a stone bench there, and I'd tell him my troubles, the difficulties I had with the slaves, how I distrusted the overseer or the weather or my brokers-- all the problems that made up the length and breadth of my existence. And he would always listen, making only a few comments, always sympathetic, so that when I left him I had the distinct impression he had solved everything for me. I didn't think I could deny him anything, and I vowed that no matter how it would break my heart to lose him, he could enter the priesthood when the time came. Of course, I was wrong." The vampire stopped.
For a moment the boy only gazed at him and then he started as if awakened from a deep thought, and he floundered, as if he could not find the right words. "Ah-- he didn't want to be a priest?" the boy asked. The vampire studied him as if trying to discern to meaning of his expression. Then he said:
"I meant that I was wrong about myself, about my not denying him anything." His eyes moved over the far wall and fixed on the panes of the window. "He began to see visions."
"Real visions?" the boy asked, but again there was hesitation, as if he were thinking of something else.
"I don't think so," the vampire answered. "It happened when he was fifteen. He was very handsome then. He had the smoothest skin and the largest blue eyes. He was robust, not thin as I am now and was then-- but his eyes-- it was as if when I looked into his eyes I was standing alone on the edge of the world-- on a windswept ocean beach. There was nothing but the soft roar of the waves.
Well," he said, his eyes still fixed on the window panes, "he began to see visions. He only hinted at this at first, and he stopped taking his meals altogether. He lived in the oratory. At any hour of day or night, I could find him on the bare flagstones kneeling before the altar. And the oratory itself was neglected. He stopped tending the candle or changing the altar clothes or even sweeping out the leaves. One night I became really alarmed when I stood in the rose arbor watching him for one solid hour, during which he never moved from his knees and never once lowered his arms, which he held outstretched in the form of a cross. The slaves all thought he was mad." The vampire raised his eyebrows in wonder. "I was convinced that he was only... overzealous. That in his love for God, he had perhaps gone too far. Then he told me about the visions. Both St. Dominic and the Blessed Virgin Mary had come to him in the oratory. They had told him he was to sell all our property in Louisiana, everything we owned, and use the money to do God's work in France. My brother was to be a great religious leader, to return the country to its former fervor, to turn the tide against atheism and the Revolution. Of course, he had no money of his own. I was to sell the plantations and our town houses in New Orleans and give the money to him."
Again the vampire stopped. And the boy sat motionless regarding him, astonished. "Ah-- excuse me," he whispered. "What did you say? Did you sell the plantations?"
"No," said the vampire, his face calm as it has been from the start. "I laughed at him. And he-- he became incensed. He insisted his command came from the Virgin herself. Who was I to disregard it? Who indeed?" he asked softly, as if he were thinking of this again. "Who indeed? And the more he tried to convince me, the more I laughed. It was nonsense, I told him, the product of an immature and even morbid mind. The oratory was a mistake, I said to him; I would have it torn down at once. He would go to school in New Orleans and get such inane notions out of his head. I don't remember all that I said. But I remember the feeling. Behind all this contemptuous dismissal on my part was a smoldering anger and a disappointment. I was bitterly disappointed. I didn't believe him at all."
"But that's understandable," said the boy quickly when the vampire paused, his expression of astonishment softening. "I mean, would anyone have believed him?"
"Is it so understandable?" The vampire looked at the boy. "I think perhaps it was vicious egotism. Let me explain. I loved my brother, as I told you, and at times I believed him to be a living saint. I encouraged him in his prayer and mediations, as I said, and I was willing to give him up to the priesthood. And if someone had told me of a saint in Arles or Lourdes who saw visions, I would have believed it. I was a Catholic; I believed in saints. I lit tapers before their statues in churches; I know their pictures, their symbols, their names. But I didn't, I couldn't believe my brother. Not only did I not believe he saw visions, I wouldn't entertain the notion for a moment. Now, why? Because he was my brother. Holy he might be, peculiar most definitely; but Francis of Assisi, no. Not my brother. No brother of mine could be such. That is egotism. Do you see?"
The boy thought about it before he answered and then he nodded and said that yes, he thought that he did.
"Perhaps he saw the visions," said the vampire.
"Then you-- you don't claim to know-- now-- whether he did or not?"
"No, but I do know that he never wavered in his conviction for a second. That I know now and knew then the night he left my room crazed and grieved. He never wavered for an instant. And within minutes, he was dead."
Product details
- Publisher : Ballantine Books; Reissue edition (September 13, 1991)
- Language : English
- Mass Market Paperback : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0345337662
- ISBN-13 : 978-0345337665
- Lexile measure : 900L
- Item Weight : 6.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 4.18 x 0.98 x 6.88 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #17,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #11 in Vampire Horror
- #36 in Ghost Fiction
- #255 in Family Saga Fiction
- Customer Reviews:
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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. Anne has spent more of her life in California than in New Orleans, but New Orleans is her true home and provides the back drop for many of her famous novels. The French Quarter provided the setting for her first novel, Interview with the Vampire. And her ante-bellum house in the Garden District was the fictional home of her imaginary Mayfair Witches.
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 regards Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana as her best novel.) ---- Under the pen name, A.N. Roquelaure, Anne is the author of the erotic (BDSM) fantasy series, The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy. Under the pen name Anne Rampling she is the author of two erotic novels, Exit to Eden and Belinda.
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 hopes that her two novels about Jesus will be accepted on their merits by readers and transcend her personal difficulties with religion. "Both my Christ the Lord novels were written with deep conviction and a desire to write the best novels possible about Jesus that were rooted in the bible and in the Christian tradition. I think they are among the best books I've ever been able to write, and I do dream of a day when they are evaluated without any connection to me personally. I continue to get a lot of very favorable feedback on them from believers and non believers. I remain very proud of them."
Anne is very active on her FaceBook Fan Page and has well over a million 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. Many indie authors follow the page, and Anne welcomes posts that include advice for indie authors. She welcomes discussion there on numerous topics. She frequently asks her readers questions about their response to her work and joins in the discussions prompted by these questions.
Her novel, "The Wolves of Midwinter," a sequel to "The Wolf Gift" and part of a werewolf series set in Northern California in the present time, will be published on October 15, 2013. In these books --- The Wolf Gift Chronicles -- 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 new "man wolf" hero, Reuben Golding, is a talented young man in his twenties who suddenly discovers himself in possession of werewolf powers that catapult him into the life of a comic book style super hero. How Reuben learns to control what he is, how he discovers others who possess the same mysterious "wolf gift," and how he learns to live with what he has become --- is the main focus of the series. "The Wolves of Midwinter" is a big Christmas book --- a book about Christmas traditions, customs, and the old haunting rituals of Midwinter practiced in Europe and in America. It's about how the werewolves celebrate these rituals, as humans and as werewolves. But the book also carries forward the story of Reuben's interactions with his girl friend, Laura, and with his human family, with particular focus on Reuben's father, Phil, and his brother, Jim. As a big family novel with elements of the supernatural, "The Wolves of Midwinter" has much in common with Anne's earlier book, "The Witching Hour." Among the treats of "The Wolves of Midwinter" is a tragic ghost who appears in the great house at Nideck Point, and other "ageless ones" who add their mystery and history to the unfolding revelations that at times overwhelm Reuben.
In October of 2014, with the publication of "Prince Lestat," Anne returned to the fabled "Brat Prince" of the Vampire Chronicles, catching up with him in present time. This is the first of several books planned focusing on Lestat's new adventures with other members of the Vampire tribe. When the publication of "Prince Lestat" was announced on Christopher Rice's "The Dinner Party Show," a weekly internet radio broadcast, it made headlines in the US and around the world. "Prince Lestat" debuted at #3 on the New York Times Best Seller list and ran for nine weeks during the height of the competitive Fall-Winter season, with another week on the extended NYTBSL. ----
"Beauty's Kingdom," is the fourth in her "Sleeping Beauty Erotica Series," and the first to be launched in hardcover. Though the first three novels were published in the 1980's under the pseudonym, A.N. Roquelaure, the name, Anne Rice, was added to the series in the 1990's. About her erotica, Anne has this to say: "I believe in the erotic imagination. I believe men and women have a right to write and read erotic fantasies. My goal with the "Sleeping Beauty" books is to provide the most authentic erotica that I can for those who share BDSM fantasies."
"Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis" was published on November 29th, 2016 revealing a new adventure in the life of the Brat Prince of the vampires, and the entire tribe --- as they confront the most difficult challenge they've ever faced. This novel may introduce Lestat and extend his appeal to science fiction readers and fantasy readers who love differing versions of the lost kingdom of Atlantis. The novel does justice to both themes: Atlantis and Lestat. So far, as of early 2016, this novel has received a remarkably positive response with Amazon reviewers.
Anne's 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, directed by Neil Jordan, and starring Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas. The film became an international success. 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 and is available now on dvd. The script for the mini series by John Wilder was a faithful adaptation of the novel.
Near the end of 2016, the theatrical rights to the Vampire Chronicles reverted fully and completely to Anne. She and her son, Christopher Rice, are now developing outlines and scripts for a new television series based on the adventures of The Vampire Lestat. Anne's announcement of this on FB reached well over 2 million people. "The reception in the Hollywood community" has been very simply wonderful," says Anne. "We have high hopes that we will see the Lestat television series go into production before the end of 2017."
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, but misses her home in New Orleans. She hopes to obtain a pied a terre in the French Quarter there some time in the near future.
Anne has this to say of her work: "I have always written about outsiders, about outcasts, about those whom others tend to shun or persecute. And it does seem that I write a lot about their interaction with others like them and their struggle to find some community of their own. The supernatural novel is my favorite way of talking about my reality. I see vampires and witches and ghosts as metaphors for the outsider in each of us, the predator in each of us...the lonely one who must grapple day in and day out with cosmic uncertainty."
------
Anne's announcement of the Vampire Chronicles series as it appeared on FB.
"The theatrical rights to the Vampire Chronicles are once again in my hands, free and clear! I could not be more excited about this! --- A television series of the highest quality is now my dream for Lestat, Louis, Armand, Marius and the entire tribe. In this the new Golden Age of television, such a series is THE way to let the entire story of the vampires unfold. --- My son Christopher Rice and I will be developing a pilot script and a detailed outline for an open ended series, faithfully presenting Lestat’s story as it is told in the books, complete with the many situations that readers expect to see. We will likely begin with “The Vampire Lestat” and move on from there. ----- When we sit down finally to talk to producers, we will have a fully realized vision of this project with Christopher as the executive producer at the helm. I will also be an executive producer all the way. ---- Again, I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to be able to announce this. ---- As many of you know, Universal Studios and Imagine Entertainment had optioned the series to develop motion pictures from it, and though we had the pleasure of working with many fine people in connection with this plan, it did not work out. It is, more than ever, abundantly clear that television is where the vampires belong. ---- Over the years you all have told me how much you want to see a “Game of Thrones” style faithful rendering of this material, and how much you want for the series to remain in my control. Well, I have heard you. I have always heard you. What you want is what I want. --- You, the readers, made these books a success before any movie was ever made based on them, and I will never forget that fact. ---- Christopher and I will be posting many questions on the page for your input in the days to come. ----- I am filled with optimism this morning about the future for my beloved Brat Prince. What better way to start a tour for the new book!"
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The frame story consists of the interviewer and Louis. The core story talks about Louis’s adventures and relationships.
The setting, in the beginning, is the late twentieth century San Francisco. Before that, it is Pointe du Lac, a plantation in Lousiana, New Orleans, and Paris, France. The protagonist in the core story is Louis, a vampire of about two centuries, and the antagonist is Lestat who turned Louis into a vampire.
The secondary characters are Claudia and Armand, with Claudia’s role being much greater than Armand’s. Claudia attracted Louis first, then she was made into a vampire by Lestat possibly to keep Louis with him.
I found the relationships among the characters to be the most interesting in the story rather than the events of the story, in which the action never stops. The tension and suspense in the book are also fascinating as does the writing style, and even if the events seem to be far out, the skill of the author adds a believability factor to unbelievable circumstances.
Both Louis and Claudia have mixed feelings about Lestat, and they take some kind of revenge from him, which ends up giving Louis guilt feelings. Lestat, on the other hand, loves them but as a vampire, he is selfish but much more knowledgeable. Then there are the strong love and hate relationships between any two or more vampires, which was interesting, like that of Lestat and Louis, Louis and Armand, and Armand and Santiago and the other vampires. The relationship between Louis and Claudia had more love than any other relationship in the story. These relationships had nothing to do with gender or sex but possibly their type of attraction was due to who these vampires were.
As characterization is superior to the horror elements in the novel, I didn’t think Lestat to be a villain at all. He was a vampire who knew what was there to know about the vampire lore, but wasn’t willing to share it fully, only because he wanted to keep those he was attached to close to him. He was selfish that way. Also, that he didn’t go after vengeance after what Claudia and Louis did to him elevated the way I thought of him.
Then both Louis and Lestat love all arts and spend time in the opera or at the art museum and all vampires have intensely alert senses to shapes, colors, sounds, and smells. In fact, all these details and their peculiar richness make this book very readable.
I don’t normally read horror, but I must have read this book much earlier possibly during the late seventies, as I recalled much of it while reading it the second time this October, and I am not sorry for it. Truth is, I enjoyed it greatly.
I got very insulted by some fans that I didn't have any of Anne Rice books... And in autumn a miracle appeared. They translated "The Vampire Lestat" in Lithuanian. I ordered as soon as it was able to buy and when I got it, I started reading it like a zombie. But it still was not enough. So I found out way to get books from UK by one bookstore. So I bought all serie. Of course that bookstore got closed soon and I was again sad without English books. And well.. I got job, I got credit card and could order anything I wish from all over the world. And I started collecting Anne Rice books in ALL languages, in all covers. I have many editions so far. And this edition of "Interview with the Vampire" was my dream to get because of amazing cover. And here it is- I have it. It was so hard to get these all books, I felt like living in some end of the world where I couldn't get my favorite books.
I still didn't finish reading all Vampires Chronicles serie, I needed rest from these books for a little. But Anne Rice created best books about vampires of all times. In Lithuania I have no fans to talk about these books, mostly all people do not like fiction books here. But I'm so happy I found this author and can call her my God, my inspiration and creator of immortal characters I will never forget.
By Dorian on January 23, 2013
I got very insulted by some fans that I didn't have any of Anne Rice books... And in autumn a miracle appeared. They translated "The Vampire Lestat" in Lithuanian. I ordered as soon as it was able to buy and when I got it, I started reading it like a zombie. But it still was not enough. So I found out way to get books from UK by one bookstore. So I bought all serie. Of course that bookstore got closed soon and I was again sad without English books. And well.. I got job, I got credit card and could order anything I wish from all over the world. And I started collecting Anne Rice books in ALL languages, in all covers. I have many editions so far. And this edition of "Interview with the Vampire" was my dream to get because of amazing cover. And here it is- I have it. It was so hard to get these all books, I felt like living in some end of the world where I couldn't get my favorite books.
I still didn't finish reading all Vampires Chronicles serie, I needed rest from these books for a little. But Anne Rice created best books about vampires of all times. In Lithuania I have no fans to talk about these books, mostly all people do not like fiction books here. But I'm so happy I found this author and can call her my God, my inspiration and creator of immortal characters I will never forget.
Top reviews from other countries
What strikes me most with Rice's vampires is the perfect balance she has between making them human and making them monstors. Louis, Lestat and Claudia are so incredibly developed, such complex 3D characters that I believe they put even the greats like Jane Austen's characters to shame (I still have not gotten over the 2 years at A-Level I had to endure learning about Emma Woodhouse's 'complex' personality). But not only that - whilst most vampire fiction I've read has an exciting, fast paced plot and intriguing characters, I feel that Anne Rice is truly a master of story telling - there is just as much internal action going on here as external action, and I get the sense that Rice has truly questioned the essence of what it means to be a vampire, and through Louis, Claudia and Lestat, we begin to understand the answers.
I have now ordered the next 3 books and eagerly await their arrival. An amazing piece of work, I'm just dissapointed I have not read it previously. Far better than the Night World series, in a totally different league to Darren Shan, and completely and utterably incomparable to the Twilight series - this is the best vampire novel I have ever read, and one I will come back to time and time again.
I'd already seen the film back in the 1990's, but couldn't remember much about it. Just before my books arrived the film was on TV again so I watched it again. The film left me with many questions, I felt there was a lot left out especially were the deaths of Claudia and Madeleine were concerned. After watching the film I started to read the novel.
The journey begins in the 20th Century as a young lad is interviewing a vampire as he wants to tell his story so others will know. His name is Louis Pointe du Lac and as the interview unfolds we find out why he became a vampire and a about the vampire that made him who is called Lestat. But Louis is no usual vampire, he's different and Lestat doesn't like it.
The interviewer asks all kinds of questions and Louis tells him of how he finds the child Claudia and why he makes her a Vampire. Lestat teaches them both about being a vampire; he keeps a tight hold on both Louis and Claudia which leads to arguments and death. Here I will leave the story as I don't want to ruin it for you.
Anne Rice is a powerful writer; her characters are always believable and have great depth to them. Her descriptive work and plots are fantastic, and never disappoints the reader. :-)
The story grips you from the start, and with every turn of the page she draws you further into the story, it's a compulsive and enjoyable read. :-)
I highly recommend the book as it's far better than the film. :-)
I'm now looking forward to starting the second novel in the series which is called "The Vampire Lestat", and I'll be starting that as soon as I've finished this review. :-)
Rice maintains credibility throughout the novel in terms of the direction of the narrative, and seldom if ever are concepts introduced that seem 'unlikely' in the credible setting built up. Without speculating too specifically, I understand that Rice underwent some family tragedies not long before this novel was written, (in 5 weeks!), and her extreme sentimental openness in the novel is surely justified, and the novel actually benefits from this emotional release. It would be a comfort to be able to express your feelings as cogently as Rice if one was overcoming a tragedy.
There is only one possible loophole in the story, (although my identification of this is very questionable as it is subjective, and I could probably be proven wrong and convinced of the proof). This is when Louis seems to have only just met Armand, and although Louis has been searching for another civilised vampire, (civilised apart from the fact that he kills countless innocent mortals), for years, I felt that he would need to know Armand for longer to warrant exchanging words of love. It seemed as Louis virtually walked up to Armand and said, 'ah, hello.. I love you!'. As I said, that is a purely subjective observation; (please note that the previous dialogue is not a quote). The other interesting factor about this novel, in my opinion, is that Anne describes predominantly male thoughts, (the narrator is male: Louis), when she is female, so for any male readers it is intriguing to see her perspective.
To conclude, IwtV is a wonderful tragic vampire biography, and is not too immensly melancholy to be unbearable to read.
The book is necessary evil as i would call it, i have actually only read it after i had read the second one - just to fill in the gaps and remind myself of some of the parts of the story... Just seeing the film does is not satisfactory (this shortcut does not work).
It is good, but i wonder if i would have enjoyed it more had i read it before The Vampire Lestat, coz all the way through this book i could not wait to get to the end so i can start reading The third one - Queen of the Damned.
I would recommend you read it first - if you liked the film or if you like vampire stories, and then if it takes your fancy you will have a ball with the rest of them....
Great story , high quality book












