Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice
April's Pick for the Gothic Book Club is a personal favorite and here's why
We were always going to get to Anne Rice (1941-1921) as part of the Gothic Book Club. Her impact upon fantasy and horror fiction was (and continues to be) immense. She laid the groundwork for numerous, subsequent book series and franchises, and epitomized late 20th century gothic. She brought several amalgamated subcultures to the mainstream, whilst simultaneously creating new and expressive outlets for them. Her work danced effortlessly between the picaresque to the postmodern, with enough decadence and viscera to satisfy the most devilish of tastes.
Background
Originally published in 1976, Interview With The Vampire told a tale of immortal love, lust and longing. It wasn’t long before the allure of the story, and the characters within, led to several sequels, each gaining a fanbase and increasing notoriety for Rice.
Interview With The Vampire is an unusual book because, whilst being self-contained, it later becomes a tangible entity within the world of the Vampire Chronicles. Not quite a MacGuffin*, but more an unearthed bone of contention.
While the book was passed around widely during the 1980s, it rose to even greater prominence in the ‘90s, following Neil Jordan’s 1994 cinematic adaptation. This grandiose, $60m spectacular featured an all-star cast, including Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, with some phenomenal supporting roles from Christian Slater, Stephen Rea, Antonio Banderas and Kirsten Dunst. This collective of cool (and, believe me, this was a stellar cast for the time) catapulted Rice’s Vampire Chronicles into Stephen King territory, which would see her sell over 100 million books within her lifetime.
The Vampire Chronicles, especially Interview With The Vampire, is a tale which emerged from grief. Rice lost a daughter, Michele, to leukemia when she was five years old. This became the basis for the vampire Claudia in the book. Like Michele, Claudia would remain a child indefinitely. An adult life held unfairly out of reach. Permanently etched into a single picture at a single time.
Grief is just love with nowhere to go.
Rice clearly directed a lot of that love into her work, as the emotional resonance which exists within these novels belies the fantastical nature of their stories. All great works of fantasy fiction contain elements which strike a chord in terms of pathos, empathy and heartbreak, and Interview With The Vampire contains an abundance of all three. Rice’s characters yearn eternally. None of them possess what they desire, and few of them ever will.
The Plot
In short, it tells how Louis de Pointe du Lac, a vampire from New Orleans, confesses his condition, life and misdeeds to a journalist, who records the titular interview for publication purposes. Louis was turned at the age of 25 by a more seasoned vampire named Lestat de Lioncourt (The Brat Prince), and so begins their everlasting tale of love and hate. Louis was in mourning for his family and his lowest ebb when he was made into a vampiric abhorration. He brings his turmoil into the realm of the undead.
Lestat also has many demons of his own, but is more careless and destructive in nature. The two begin a journey which will last for centuries, never fully able to escape the connection they hold within their bloodstreams.
The child vampire, Claudia, comes into their lives through tragic means, and she brings both balance and division to the pair. As she matures, yet remains locked in her infant body, a multi-layered and frustrated character develops, further complicating the tense dynamic between Louis and Lestat.
Old world vampire hierarchies and rules are brought into play, often at odds with the impudent and self-serving behaviour of Lestat, or the self-destructive and nihilistic tendencies of Louis. In short, there’s a huge world contained in this deft and spirited novel.
Book Club Pacing
If you are unsure of how to pace yourself for this month’s read, I can tell you that the book is usually 340 pages long, which would mean an average of about 12 pages a day should get you through. I doubt, however, that you’ll be able to stop once you get into it, as it’s such a captivating and energetic read. There’s just to much to explore and so little time before the dawn.
There is a magnificent audiobook available, read by Simon Vance with his trademark flair and razor sharp delivery.
The book delves into histories and locations ranging from the 1700s to the present day, taking in picturesque and evocative locations such as Paris and New Orleans, the latter of which plays a huge part in the Vampire Chronicles, forever imprinting Rice into the lore and allure of the Crescent City.
The style is both decadent and disciplined. There is little padding in the book, with a great deal of action to counterbalance the more ponderous aspects. It creates a sense of contemplative introspection, as one considers the greater topics of love, death and tragedy as part of the reading experience.
This is a story in which love is unconstrained by boundaries, and existence is unconstrained by mortality. So, light a candle and get comfortable, for we’re about to step into a world so rich, dense and sumptuous, that it might just change yours forever.
*A MacGuffin is an object used within a narrative to propel the story along. It usually comes with a certain degree of backstory and perceived importance. The statue in The Maltese Falcon and the briefcase in Pulp Fiction are two oft-cited examples.