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One of my major passions in life is a good novel. Up until two years ago I used to read the novels of a variety of authors, e.g., Stephen King and John Grisham. But two years ago my attention was grabbed by one specific author - Anne Rice. She is one of the most talented writers that I have ever come across. Since the very day that I first picked up her novel Interview With The Vampire I have become enthralled with her work.
I can hear many of you wondering why I have become so fixated on a "one hit wonder" but
that is not the case. Many people do not realise that Interview With The Vampire
does not stand alone as a novel. It is the first of five books that make up The Vampire
Chronicles. The five books are entitled:
Interview with the Vampire started off what became known as the Vampire Chronicles. It is essentially an interview with Louis, one of the main characters in the novel. It details his death and eventual rebirth into the world of the immortal. We follow his travels with Claudia, the vampire-child, in their desperate quest to find others who know what and why they are. It is a story about the tragic and triumphant life experiences of a soul. The Vampire Lestat contains another biography detailing the life, death and undeath of Lestat who is the main character in all five novels. Anne Rice provides some Ricean vampire history as well. In The Queen of the Damned, Lestat wakes the ancient dead and stirs up ancient vengeances. For me, this is undoubtedly the best of the five novels in the series. The Tale of the Body Thief follows the story of Lestat whose body has been stolen. The last novel in the series, Memnoch the Devil, is a story about Lestat's struggles against heaven and hell. This is very philosophical and for me a disappointing end to the chronicles.
Anne Rice's tales of horror are not at all like the majority of horror stories. Her novels are not just scary. She succeeds in weaving the invisible and supernatural worlds together in epic stories. Her books are full of history, belief, philosophy, religion and compelling characters that examine our physical world beyond how we perceive it. Her books are quite philosophical and probe into the questions of human nature and human existence. She involves the reader in her books. Her characters are at the same time both fictional and real.
Anne Rice novels are for anyone who enjoys more than just a horror story. These novels are full of very interesting characters, magnificent settings and some amazing stories. All characters in these stories are ficticous but there experiences are integrated into real-life historical events. There is much to be learnt from them. Anne Rice puts a lot of research into her novels which is what makes them the top-class novels that they are.
This historical fiction is a rich tapestry about the free people of colour living in New Orleans in the 19th Century. These gens de couleur libre are neither black nor white, but caught between the two, free and yet not free. These people are caught perilously between the worlds of master and slave, privilege and oppression, passion and pain. The characters are fictional but the setting is real.
This historically accurate, fictional novel details the lives of the Castrati in Italy during the 18th Century. The Castrati were the male sopranos whose glorious voices brought them adulation throughout Europe even as they were shunned as half men. For Tonio Treschi, the child of Venetian nobility, kidnapped and castrated in a murderous family conspiracy, only one thing would soothe his soul - revenge. The stage for this novel is Rome, the music is the opera and the soprano is the Castrato.
In this novel Anne Rice investigates the realms of the mystical and the magical. It is the story of Azriel, an ancient ghost, who questions his existence, his motives and restraints. He is both an angel, in love with good, and a demon, in thrall with evil.
