Anne Rice: Interview with the Vampire

When I was pre-ordering a paperback copy of Prince Lestat, the newest installment of Rice’s Vampire Chronicles no one saw coming, that imaginary bulb lit up above my head. Did I mention the beginning of Lestat’s journey on my blog? Nope. So after I thought I was done with all the primary literature from my thesis I had to recall all the stuff again. Not that going back to Rice’s world is something one can forget.

But I was disappointed with myself because Anne Rice is the reason why I speak English. When I was a kid I decided I liked vampires best from all those spooky monsters I read about. So after I read everything about them in my local library and started getting more decent pocket money, I started buying books. Internet was quite unfamiliar back then (we paid unbelievable amount of money per hour!) so from my expensive research I found out that there was this “mother” of vampires writing supposedly awesome books and from all those books only a handful was translated to Czech (like the Witching Hour which didn’t include what I wanted). So I bought the first three books in the Vampire Chronicles in English online and waited till my English was good enough to comprehend. It took the whole grammar school to finally open the books and understand but it was worth it. So, Interview with the Vampire is a very dear book to me. I just don’t see the flaws. You can’t want a bad review from me, sorry. It has sentimental value...

So, this is how it began... An author came up with the idea of bringing more “human” vampires to literature. A farewell was given to the nosferatu tradition Europeans came up with, America needed moster-heroes, not just monsters one couldn’t relate to.

And so we embarked on a journey with the most loved/hated vampire. Lestat. In this particular book he is a villain, stealing free choices from the ones around him. The story is well-build and the characters are believable -  that was the whole point, I guess. It’s a great introduction into Rice’s magnificent universe where sophisticated vampires thrive and share their stories. One can’t wonder why other authors took her portrayal of vampires and used it. But unlike her followers, Rice has something more in her books apart from great stories. There is this “je ne sais quoi”. Well, maybe I know what - the transcendence. There are moral, philosophical, and religious battles the charactes have to fight which make the book(s) outstanding. 

GENRE: gothic horror

FANGS OUT: now a classic one must read to understand the development of vampires in literature

FANGS RETRACTING: no flaws detected

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