{"id":2185,"date":"2021-01-29T16:34:02","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T21:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=2185"},"modified":"2021-01-03T17:10:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-03T22:10:29","slug":"essential-vampires-interview-with-the-vampire-by-anne-rice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=2185","title":{"rendered":"Essential Vampires: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interview with the Vampire is one of the most influential vampire novels ever published. First published in 1976 it has been in print consistently since then and was instrumental in launching the idea of vampires as sympathetic antiheroes. The first book in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series it has been adapted into a movie and a comic book. It has its own in depth Wikipedia page here<\/a>. Interview with the Vampire is not considered a YA book, but nearly everyone I know read it in their teens. -Michele<\/em><\/p>\n

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Interview with the Vampire\u00a0<\/em>by Anne Rice\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1976 (first edition)<\/p>\n

ISBN-13: 9780345337665<\/p>\n

Available hard cover, paperback and ebook editions<\/p>\n

Louis, a 200-year-old vampire tells his story to a reporter known only as \u201cthe boy\u201d, in a rundown motel room in New Orleans.\u00a0 Louis and his family were indigo plantation owners just south of New Orleans in the late 1700s.\u00a0 Louis\u2019 younger brother was an extremely devout Catholic and seemed to be headed for the priesthood.\u00a0 Louis was told by his brother that he was having visions and to sell all of the family\u2019s possessions and return to France to fight atheists and the Revolution.\u00a0 After an argument, the brother fell from a second floor balcony to his death.\u00a0 Louis moved his mother and sister into the city and left the plantation to be run by the overseer.\u00a0 Rumors swirled that Louis killed his brother and as a result, Louis began drinking heavily.\u00a0 He was visited by Lestat, a vampire, and ultimately became a vampire himself.<\/p>\n

Louis and Lestat live out at the plantation, but Louis initially refuses to feed off of humans, surviving instead on the blood of animals.\u00a0 Lestat\u2019s reckless behavior and the superstitions of the slaves lead to a revolt on the plantation.\u00a0 Fleeing back to the city during epidemics of plague and scarlet fever, Louis feeds on a young girl crying over the corpse of her mother.\u00a0 Lestat, having followed Louis, takes the girl home and turns her into a vampire.\u00a0 Louis is horrified but the three live together, playing out the fantasy of being a family.\u00a0 Over the years Claudia grows older mentally but not physically.\u00a0 She manages to get Louis to help her kill Lestat, or so they think.\u00a0 Lestat shows up just as Louis and Claudia are about to leave for Europe to find others like them.\u00a0 They flee, setting fire to the house and Lestat in it.<\/p>\n

Louis and Claudia spend years touring Europe, finding that other vampires were no more than mindless corpses.\u00a0 It is while in France that Louis and Claudia are found by Armand and the Theatre des Vampires.\u00a0 This coven of vampires lives in the bowels of an old theater and feed on unsuspecting humans in the guise of a theatrical performance.\u00a0 Ultimately, Louis and Claudia are punished for violating the \u201crules\u201d.\u00a0 Distraught, Louis spends a few years in Europe with Armand but eventually makes his way back to New Orleans where he lives in the shadows, feeding only when necessary.\u00a0 Unfortunately for the boy, after Louis leaves the motel room, Lestat makes a return appearance.\u00a0 And thus begin\u00a0The Vampire Chronicles.<\/em><\/p>\n

My own personal copy of\u00a0Interview with the Vampire\u00a0<\/em>is a 1977 paperback published by Ballantine Books and it is one of my most prized possessions, along with my copies (though not as old) of Bram Stoker\u2019s\u00a0Dracula<\/em>\u00a0and Mary Shelley\u2019s\u00a0Frankenstein.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Where Bram Stoker established the vampire as a literary icon, Anne Rice added to their mythology and created just as memorable a character in Lestat.\u00a0 Anne Rice romanticized the vampire while reminding us that it is still a monster to be feared.\u00a0 These vampires don\u2019t sparkle and aren\u2019t dirty old men in love with teenage girls (thankfully) and yet Louis still manages to be a sympathetic and likeable character.\u00a0 He never wanted to be a vampire and was for the most part horrified by Lestat\u2019s lack of compassion for the humans he killed.\u00a0 Louis retreats from humanity because he recognizes that he no longer belongs.\u00a0 On the other hand, Lestat craves attention and likes to toy with the humans he kills.\u00a0 Lestat is one of the most recognized and popular horror fiction characters because he acts similar to a spoiled child yet he is very charismatic.\u00a0 He is one of my favorite literary characters.\u00a0 In my humble opinion,\u00a0Interview with the Vampire\u00a0<\/em>is extremely well-written and character development is flawless.\u00a0 The story has a great rhythm and never stumbles over the many details of Louis\u2019 long life.\u00a0 While I wasn\u2019t too happy with the last couple of books in\u00a0The Vampire Chronicles,\u00a0<\/em>the first is still one of the best vampire stories ever written. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

Contains violence, gore, sexual situations and adult language<\/p>\n

Reviewed by: Colleen Wanglund<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Our Essential Vampire Series is an attempt to highlight the history of Horror conventions by topic through both MonsterLibrarian and the history or the genres.<\/p>\n

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**Vault Reviews were posted previously on the main MonsterLibrarian website and are transferred here in an effort to preserve our history. Efforts have been made to ensure the books are still available, but formats, covers, and other details may have changed.**<\/div>\n
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Interview with the Vampire is one of the most influential vampire novels ever published. First published in 1976 it has been in print consistently since then and was instrumental in launching the idea of vampires as sympathetic antiheroes. The first book in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series it has been adapted into a movie and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-vampires"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Eu9f-zf","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2189,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2185\/revisions\/2189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}