Product Description: Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, 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.... "Magnificent, compulsively readable." CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Amazon.com Review: In the now-classic novel Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice refreshed the archetypal vampire myth for a late-20th-century audience. The story is ostensibly a simple one: having suffered a tremendous personal loss, an 18th-century Louisiana plantation owner named Louis Pointe du Lac descends into an alcoholic stupor. At his emotional nadir, he is confronted by Lestat, a charismatic and powerful vampire who chooses Louis to be his fledgling. The two prey on innocents, give their "dark gift" to a young girl, and seek out others of their kind (notably the ancient vampire Armand) in Paris. But a summary of this story bypasses the central attractions of the novel. First and foremost, the method Rice chose to tell her tale--with Louis' first-person confession to a skeptical boy--transformed the vampire from a hideous predator into a highly sympathetic, seductive, and all-too-human figure. Second, by entering the experience of an immortal character, one raised with a deep Catholic faith, Rice was able to explore profound philosophical concerns--the nature of evil, the reality of death, and the limits of human perception--in ways not possible from the perspective of a more finite narrator.
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
A World Beyond Your Mind's Eyes I read this book only twice in my life - the last time being, well, over five years ago. But I can deliciously recall many details from Anne's first book in the Vampire Chronicles INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE. It's hard to think of the many reasons I would recommend this or any of her other books that tell the story of one of her many alluring vampires, but I fail in doing so even in my own mind for simply put I haven't even the vaguest words to describe how sensationally rewarding it is to be involved with any of her novels. Her portrayals of vampires and their existence in our modern world isn't vulgar nor is it entirely fantastical. I believe the reason so many fall victim to her eloquent prose is that her characters -even through immortality - are still relatable to every reader. They are beings you would want to know, ask questions, and have in your life to learn and experience life with. Maybe that was a bit much. The composure of the stories and characters are detailed and enrapturing. A time and a place you will soon want to be. It will be with all your heart that such characters did in fact exist. Another book by Anne Rice that is not part of her Vampire Chronicles that I HIGHLY recommend is THE MUMMY: RAMSES THE DAMNED. Superb.
Tower of Imagination This book is simply one of the most thoroughly imagined pieces of writing in modern literature, and thoroughly disciplined and effective on paper. It disdains categories; the author stepped into a genre well-paved and hackneyed and made words fly off the paper by sheer force of talent.
The plot and characters are well summarized elsewhere; indeed one hesitates to write anything about something already reviewed 500+ times on Amazon. So I simply add these footnotes: it is not blasphemous, pornographic, deviant, anti-social etc. It is not by any means mere pop culture B grade pulp. As for what it is exactly, I have no idea & don't care. But having read hundreds & hundreds of books since early gradeschool thru age 56, including most Western & world classics, I can say it is in a small group of works of supreme imaginative force, thoroughly conceived through & through & without a nick, tear, or smudge upon its massive and impossible illusion.
One might simply call it an indignant protest against American realism and fact & knowledge obsession. It is also a protest against literarture with a purpose, program, or "message." It simply exists. It stands as an impregnable tower of the human imagination. It is Exhibet A for the proposition that, short of a God (whose existence or not is not challenged here, although that issue eerily haunts the text), there is no higher endeavor than that of human artistry.
Yawning with the Vampire Try as I might, I really fail to see what all the hype was about this book. I've seen the movie although it's been quite a while until I recently caught about three quarters of it on cable. I've been reading many vampire novels as of late (the twilight saga, The Diaries of the Family Dracul trilogy and the magnificent The Historian). Being that this is such a highly praised book and claimed to be a 'vampire classic' I felt I owed it to myself to finally read it after all this time.
I was utterly let down. I will say that the movie was as close an adaptation of any novel as I've ever read. Very little in the book was left out of the movie.
The premise is interesting and I'm sure everyone knows exactly what it's about so I won't go into too much detail summing up what happens in the book.
First off, it's a very VERY slow book. Basically we have Louis, who's a rich landowner in New Orleans. He gets bit by a vampire. They kill to live and sometimes make more vampires. All of this is revealed as Louis is telling his story to a 'young boy' with a tape recorder.
Anyway, not much really happens in this book other than Louis lamenting his existence as a vampire. ALOT. As in, every paragraph of every page has some self loathing diatribe by Louis about how much his life 'sucks' (pun intended).
While the premise was rather interesting (a vampire giving a chronicle of his creation and life to a journalist of sorts), it's just a laborious read. I found myself liking the movie. It wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't painful to watch, but the book was something completely opposite. I'm not sure if it was what did (or didn't) happen in the book as much as the overly verbose language used by Rice to explain every feeling, every sight, every movement in painstaking detail. It was almost like reading dickens. There's very little dialogue between characters in the book as well, which for me made it all the more difficult to get into. A character giving a long speach isn't good reading to me. I read for character interaction. I don't mind if it's in the form of a story told by a main character or a retrospective as this is, but it's about 340 pages of primarily Louis speaking of himself and very little dialogue is revealed in his tale.
Also, there's very little vampire 'lore' in this book. I understand that Lestat kept all of this from Louis in order to keep him as close to himself as possible, but even after centuries of living and all the exposition of Louis's life and experiences, there's still next to no lore. Every author tells the tale of vampires' myths and legends a little differently. This book features next to none of that other than the fact that it seems in Ann Rice's universe, they're more human than what we're used to.
Maybe in 1976 when this was the first type of book of its kind it was groundbreaking. I understand that and take it for what it's worth and give her credit. But I've found several other books featuring vampires that were more enjoyable by far.
I'm curious to see how Vampire Lestat is different than Interview. I will say that if it's as slow and uneventful as Interview, I won't be reading another Ann Rice novel.
Love and Angst for all Eternity Anne Rice is the acknowledged queen of goth horror. Louis and Lestat are the quintessential eternal lovers. Their story is one of tragic heartache.
If you are one of the five people in the world who hasn't yet read this poignant love story, one that rivals Romeo and Juliet, then you best get your act together.
There's a reason they tapped Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise to star in the leading roles. No one else could possibly do justice to these characters. (and they only barely pulled it off)
Eternal love, drama and centuries long angst to a degree never before put to paper. If only real life were this tragic.
vampire legend made real Anne Rice's "Interview with a Vampire" is her first, and I think, best vampire tale. As such it is original, vibrant and haunting. An actual vampire is interviewed. He describes his transition from a mortal man to an immortal vampire and he describes his moral transition from a vampire who, initially, feasts only on 'undesireables' to one who will destroy literally anyone.
We see a fiend with a human outlook. We wonder how we, ourselves, would behave if we had the fortune [misfortune?] to be changed into a being with the remarkably positive trait of immortality with the unbelivably negative trait of hemo-cannibalism. Rice has answered part of the question.
Ron Braithwaite, author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico
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