The hypnotic, deeply seductive novels of Anne Rice have captivated millions of fans around the world. It all began a quarter of a century ago with Interview with the Vampire. Now, in one chilling volume, here are the first three classic novels of The Vampire Chronicles.
In Interview with the Vampire, witness the confessions of a vampire. A novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force, it is a story of danger and flight, love and loss, suspense and resolution, and the extraordinary power of the senses.
The Vampire Lestat focuses on Lestat, who was once an aristocrat from pre-revolutionary France, but now a rock star in the decadent 1980s. Lestat rushes through the centuries seeking to fathom the mystery of his existence. His is a mesmerizing story–passionate and thrilling.
In Queen of the Damned, Akasha, the Queen of the Damned, has risen from a six-thousand-year sleep to let loose the powers of the night. She has a marvelously devious plan to “save” mankind–in this vivid novel of the erotic, electrifying world of the undead.
The Vampire Chronicles is part of Barnes & Noble’s series of quality leatherbound volumes. Each title in the series presents a classic work in an attractively designed edition bound in genuine bonded leather. These books make elegant additions to any home library.
Rice wrote Interview with the Vampire, she said later, "without ever realizing I was writing about loss. I was writing about my daughter's loss [Rice's daughter died in 1972]. And I was writing about my loss of Catholic faith long before that, because I had lost my faith in the year 1960, when I first went to college."
After her first book, Rice continued to write about loss -- and about vampires, witches and demons -- for more than 25 years. She also wrote, under the pen name A.N. Roquelaure, the Beauty series, an erotic retelling of the story of Sleeping Beauty; writing as Anne Rampling, she published two other novels, Exit to Eden and Belinda.
But it is as the queen of gothic fiction that Anne Rice's fans know her best. Her fans are passionate about her, and she returns the sentiment, e-mailing tirelessly with them and occasionally posting on their blogs. She also adores communing with them in person on book tours: "They give me personal, priceless and unforgettable feedback and verification of what I have achieved for them in my books," she once explained in a Salon interview.
After Blood Canticle was released in 1993, her readers, accustomed to an output of one book a year, kept asking her what was coming next. "And I've told them, 'You may not want what I'm doing next'," she said in a Newsweek interview.
They were in for a surprise. In 1998, Rice had returned to the Roman Catholic Church, and in 2005 she published Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, a novel about the childhood of Jesus, narrated by himself.
"It's the most startling public turnaround since Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming announced that he'd been born again," wrote David Gates in Newsweek.
But as Rice sees it, Christ the Lord represents the fulfillment of a longing that has been in her books, and in her soul, all along.
"This subject is in no way a departure from that of my previous works; no one who knows my work could possibly think so," she said in a Q&A on her publisher's Web site. "The whole theme of Interview with the Vampire was Louis's quest for meaning in a godless world. He searched to find the oldest existing ‘immortal' simply to ask ‘What is the meaning of what we are?' I was always compelled to seek the ‘big answers.'"
Christ the Lord received mixed reviews, but many critics were as impressed with the book's style as its ambitious subject matter. "Rice's book is a triumph of tone -- her prose lean, lyrical, vivid -- and character," noted Kirkus Reviews. Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times Book Review: "Even in biblical times and in the Holy Land, Rice retains her obsessions with ritual and purification, with lavish detail and gaudy decor. But she writes this book in a simpler, leaner style, giving it the slow but inexorable rhythm of an incantation. The restraint and prayerful beauty of Christ the Lord is apt to surprise her usual readers and attract new ones."
Some of those usual readers, of course, are now wondering whether she will write any more vampire novels. Will the vampire Lestat ever return?
Anne's response, from her publisher's Web site: "I can't see myself doing that. My vampires were metaphors for the outsiders, the lost, the wanderers in the darkness who remembered the warmth of God's light but couldn't find it. My wish to explore that is gone now. I want to meet a much bigger challenge."
"My first job was as a cafeteria waitress at a Walgreen's cafeteria over the drugstore on Canal and Baronne Street in New Orleans when I was sixteen years old. What a plunge into reality. Canal Street was then the only downtown in town. And I was in fact a boarding school student and unbeknownst to the principal, Sr. Felix, took this job on weekends. When she found out, she did not approve of a St. Joseph's Academy girl being a waitress. I was undeterred. I had discovered that I could turn time into money. I never forgot that lesson. The crashing boredom of childhood was over!"
"I was employed from then on a shocking variety of low level jobs, including grill cook at a huge downtown cafeteria in San Francisco. I had to be there at 5:00 a.m., and once while I was en route on a bus, a drunken man fell asleep against me. The conductor had to wake him up for me to get off, poor guy. I think he'd staggered out of an after hours club. I was a crack waitress, a receptionist, a claims examiner, a theatre usherette in a big Cinerama house, and must have seen It's Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World over one hundred times while standing there with a flashlight. My last job in the straight world -- after motherhood -- was that of proofreader for a law book company. I hated it. Then my devoted husband Stan, who was already teaching and had been for some time, said, 'Stay home and write, I believe in you.' And I wrote Interview with the Vampire."
"I was a painfully slow reader. Never really read a novel for pure pleasure until I was 35. It was Ordinary People by Judith Guest. Thought it very good."
"How do I unwind? There are different levels to unwind. The primo way for me is to read history or some form of involving scholarship. A good book on an obscure subject. The recent bestseller Krakatoa by Simon Winchester was a wonderful example! That's a delicious unwind book. And there are others out there like that. The British writers seem especially good at it. But I can't get enough on how or why the Roman Empire fell. That's my idea of a good evening. To be in Florida with the deck door open to the roar of the waves, and a good book open to pages on the decline of paganism."
"But! There is another kind of unwind. The gripping fiction bestseller that takes two days. The Da Vinci Code is a good example. Every now and then I have time for that. I was smiling all the way through it. At one time in my life, I had read everything I could find on the Knights Templar (see First Way to Unwind, above), and on Opus Dei, and Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and so I was just tickled by what the author did with the material. And of course, I couldn't stop reading. Such cleverness, such a puzzle and right up to the last page."
"Interest and hobbies: well, my interests are pretty much literary, except for maintaining two pre-Civil War houses in New Orleans (both family homes, one used for Mardi Gras season entertaining), and then I do devote some attention to my doll collection, which includes a small assortment of French antique dolls -- but this part of my life is drawing to a close. I am divesting myself of possessions rather than acquiring them. I am decorating, yes, and redecorating, but cutting down on the area, and the amount of things I have to maintain. I've let go of my huge property, St. Elizabeth's Orphanage -- a monster building which used to house my doll collection and so many other things. It was the fulfillment of dreams for about 10 years for me and so many other people. Weddings, book signings, book parties, benefits, fundraisers -- all kinds of events were held there. We even hosted President Clinton there. But that chapter of my life is over. For those ten years I asked 'what if?' many times. And I found out and as the result I am a satisfied person and a happy one. But it's over."
"I guess you could call my cats a hobby. I have five of them, all Siberians and very lovable and demanding and sweet. They are keepers certainly. Other than that, I don't know that I have hobbies so much as passions, and my passions center around my writing."
"My only other diversion of late is seeing that The Witching Hour will soon be made into a television limited series -- that is, a mini-series that will extend over 10 hours. The scripts that have been written by writer-producer John Wilder are very simply wonderful -- profoundly faithful to the material and the characters. Our producer, Mark Wolper, is extraordinarily dedicated and we have the network behind us. It looks very good."
"Other news looming is that Elton John and Rob Roth are making a musical based on the Vampire Chronicles for Broadway. I've talked to Elton John several times. He's absolutely charming. I've heard the first five songs, performed by him, and they were great. Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics, and will write the lyrics for all. The other people involved have top credits. The treatment I read was a wonder -- very true to the books, quite terrific. My conversation with Rob Roth was very exciting."
"What I've learned from both these experiences so far -- the television series and the Broadway production -- is that the passion of people makes all the difference in the world. And sometimes it is the passion of a few key people that moves a project forward. Sometimes one person alone goes to the hard work of getting everybody else together, and making the studio that owns the underlying rights respond. People who love the work, who want to make something of it, can be brought together by that one key person. That one key person has to believe that past disappointments or failed connections don't mean anything. When you have that sort of person, something can happen."
"I've also learned that the author of the books usually can't do it. Not unless she wants to stop being an author altogether and move to L.A. or N.Y. and become a producer."
Anonymous
Posted Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2009
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The Anne Rice vampire series is engaging and excellent. If you expect a tween/teen "Twilight" series, then definitely don't read these. This series is for mature readers, it is detailed, interesting, and you will wonder if vampires were real. The settings and time periods are meticulously accurate and contributes to the dark possibility of the actual existence of vampires. Anne Rice's books pique interest in the reader to the historical origins of the concept of vampires, and her interpretation adds a current perspective to the mystique of the classic "Dracula" vampire. I read the series when they were published, many years ago, and still maintain the series as one of my favorite reads.
23 out of 24 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Unfortunately, I have to agree with a couple of people here who have stated that if not for Anne Rice's reinvention of the vampire, we would not have Twilight, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries right now. That said, we can not hold it against Miss Rice to have written a stunning series of novels on what is possibly the greatest creature of the night: the Vampire.
Rice's vampires are as genuine as you could imagine for what they are. They deal with the curse of eternity the way most human beings would: very bitterly. They present a very unique situation in that they are humans trying to come to terms with not being human anymore. Modern vampires just don't spark on this extremely essential issue; the rules have been so switched around that there isn't a vampire story out there that isn't about a "forbidden" romance that is no more forbidden or impractical that Hugh Hefner and his Bunnies. Rice presents the real meat and potatoes of what a vampire is, and she presents it brilliantly.
Both of Rice's main characters have to deal with the pain of not being able to live and behave like a normal human being. Louis despises his condition; he is totally averse to murdering a human being for survival, and spends his time trying to atone for the way of "life" he is forced to live. Lestat, on the other hand, is perfectly comfortable with the essential rules of being a vampire, and even goes so far as to openly walk among human beings bearing the truth of what he is (fortunately for him, very few take him at his word). The constant prevelance of sex in modern vampire literature is totally absent; Rice's vampires actually state fairly regularly that the satisfaction of their bloodlust is far better than human intimacy, and that they have no sexual drive whatsoever.
The Vampire Chronicles (mind you, this is only the first three books of it, although they are the most essential ones) are a timeless presentation of the dark world of a vampire. They remind us to value our time on earth as what we are, and when the time comes, to value that we will eventually die. Extremely humanistic in nature, they are a tragic and yet compelling observation of many of the themes of human nature. They are a challenging but worthwhile read, and their stories stay with you long after you set them down. Five out of five, and in my opinion, an absolute necessity to take in at some point in your life.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This is one for the permanent collection. I got it as a gift for a friend and decided to keep it. I had to buy an extra one for her! Three of Rice's best novels are together so you can read one and go straight to the next. The book itself is so lovely - it really looks fabulous on the shelf (with a New Orleans feel to the wrought-iron engraved on the leather). I have several of these collectible edition titles and this one is my favorite.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.If it was not for Anne Rice and her redemption of what the life of a Vampire is really about then we would not have Twilight, True Blood and the Vampire Diaries. If you have never read the books and was just satisfied with the movies that were based on the book - then your missing out. Take a step back from all the new stuff and read the original.
I am a huge Anne Rice fan and even though she has left the supernatural. Her style of story telling is classic and has carried with her into the new books about Jesus.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Sat Oct 10 00:00:00 EDT 2009
I love collecting books. Especially classics in Leatherbound. Great for collecting and saving for children who loves books too.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Read Interview With a Vampire as Louis tells his story of being turned and struggles with the loss of his humanity; or The Vampire Lestat, his maker, who has reasons of his own for becoming the monster he is; or the mother of them all in Queen of The Damned. Beautifully written! For those who haven't read Anne Rice, she is the author who started this phenomenal genre that has since taken the world by storm by writing The Vampire Chronicles and The Mayfair Witches. She literally brought them to life on the page and captivated most of us with their tales.
I've read all of The Vampire Chronicles but in paperback. I decided it would be great to have them in a leather bound edition for my collection, so I bought this beautiful classic edition for my personal library. For those who haven't read them this would be a good way to collect and read them for yourselves. However, I must alert you to the fact that this volume doesn't contain all of the vampire stories written by Anne Rice. But it can be a nice addition to any library, or a great gift for that Anne Rice fan. I don't know if the publisher will be turning out other volumes with the rest of the stories or not. Let's hope so. It would be a shame not to.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Fri Oct 09 00:00:00 EDT 2009
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This is a big book containing Anne Rice's best works, incl. Interview with the Vampire". I had read these when I was younger and once this came out, I had to have it for it's vintage look. It's a great book and looks nice, too, sitting on the bookshelf. However, it's got some marvelous novels inside that anyone interested in vampire reading should definetely get.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.LuceEveKinkaid
Posted Tue Sep 04 00:00:00 EDT 2012
This is what vampires are all about not sparkly like a fairy.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.DARK_TAVERN
Posted Wed Jan 19 00:00:00 EST 2011
This is my first time reading Anne Rice vampire stories and I am blow away. I love vampires and stories make them feel so real. I can't ask for more and I couldn't put down the book till I read all the way through. Truthfully great original stories. The book it self is great and I love the look of it next to my "leather" bound Dracula book. Someone said something about getting black on there hand from the cover and I have not had that happen to me nor do I think that will happen. the cover is really cool, while it's not real leather, it is pretty cool looking and will hold up really well. Also last thank you to B&N for making this great book(s) available in such a cool format.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.These series are one that you should have in your collection. If you are into reading about Vampires, and the history that goes into them then this is a series you will def. want!
Anne Rice is a very talented author she keeps you wanting more each page that you read...she is very discriptive when it comes to describing each character, feeling, back ground, that it takes you into the book and wanting more!
My favorite out of all the three in this collection book is the Queen of the Damned...
Vampires have always and should always be portrayed as what they really truly are, and Anne Rice captures that in every aspect!
You will not be dissapointed in this series!
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Aquarian37
Posted Mon Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010
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I'm really happy that they made this collection of Anne Rice's vampire saga with Lestat. Not only is the book really pretty but it got me to finally be able to read Queen of the Damned along with the other two. Her tales are sensual and beautiful - her writing is poetic. It's not teenager fiction, although when I first read the first two books I was a teenager. Recommended for all mature ages (but there isn't lots of sex or anything; just great stories). Great for gift-giving, too.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.The leather binding leaves black smudge marks on your hands while holding the book. Beware!!
1 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Christina_83
Posted Tue Feb 16 00:00:00 EST 2010
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I haven't actually read from this book, but I have read all of the Anne Rice novels. All of them are great. This book was an excellent gift for students who follow the vampire craze. I thought they would enjoy reading from one of the classic writers. She's no Dracula, but she made vampires hot. A great book to help broaden the horizons of your student.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.KabbottCO
Posted Thu Nov 12 00:00:00 EST 2009
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This is an amazing book of three of Anne Rice's best Vampire stories. I loved it. The characters are geat! If you love details and worlds of luxery and elegance and Dark fantasy, then you will love these books. The leather bound cover on this trilogy will look great in anyone's library collection. These are fnatastic books that i would reccommend to anyone who is an Anne Rice or Vampire lover.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.i enjoy reading anne rice's books ... her vampire stories are great ... i love the plot ... even the details within the stories ... these are great reads, i consider this volume to be part of my classic reads collection ...
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I love the classical design of these books. It was a little disappointing to find the new "colorful" covers compared to the traditional black/maroon ones, but I have since got over that and enjoy the quality of the design in these series. The book/author speak for themselves. I absolutely recommend!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I checked these books out on a whim, because I have met a lot of people who swore by them and I thoroughly enjoyed the movies.
If you like easy reads, as I do, these books might not be for you. They are very exposition heavy. I find the prose to be stifled and mired down with details. The characters are well developed. Yet they are too introverted, insecure, neurotic, morose, contrite and self-absorbed for my taste. The last place I ever wanted to be was stuck in the mind of introverted, insecure, neurotic, morose, contrite and self-absorbed vampires; who have done little with their extended-lives but exist in their own heads for centuries and brood. I'm sorry; but tall, dark and brooding is nothing that I find at all attractive. I found myself cringing. At least reading these books made me feel very glad to be an extrovert. I mean, Lestat, whom is supposed to be extremely gregarious...he seems so in the movies, at least...seemed introverted, almost painfully so in the books.
I also found there to be very little humor, sarcasm and satire in these books; which is something I strongly desire in a novel. They also seemed to be lacking in the romance department, another element that I find myself drawn to. This book is a little too much delodrama, not enough har-dee-har. I don't like drama. I don't let drama into my life and I certainly don't want to escape into a book that is chock full of it to the point it becomes Drama Stew where the veggies are first simmered in lard. There's a recipe I don't want.
I found myself extremely bored while attempting to read these. I found there to be no real story-arch or overall plot. I mean, I felt like I kept reading and reading and reading and thinking to myself, "Get on with it," especially since absolutely nothing was happening. Granted, it's very original, but who wants to take the road less traveled if it's a long road leading to nowhere? It takes its time getting to any real action and the action is so very anti-climatic that by the time I got there, I threw in the towel and gave up on these tomes.
I swear by fantasy and paranormal romance for teens and adults!
1 out of 20 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Mon Apr 22 00:00:00 EDT 2013
The best vampire stories ever written.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.BelindaB
Posted Sun Feb 03 00:00:00 EST 2013
I think this product is amazing! I want to collect ALL the leatherbound collections in this series. And, Anne, if you read this... I have read almost all of your books ( that I know of) including, Belinda, which I thought was awesomely! Very well written. I truly learned so much about myself while following your writings. Thank you -
My favorite, I think, is the Mayfair Witches, and Lasher - scary dude! Taltos, the Glen, very interesting! Will continue to read... going hunting for the ones I don't have yet. Will add them to my collection. I also read your book about Jesus - LOVED IT!
Salute! Anne Rice.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.VenomValleyEquine
Posted Tue Jul 10 00:00:00 EDT 2012
I bought this book on a whim, being a huge fan of dracula and of the Movies that spawned from this book, only a few pages in and I'm hooked. Interview with a Vampire is so much better then the movie.
This book is well made but super heavy and bulky. All in all a good value for THREE books bound well. A must have.
Overview
The hypnotic, deeply seductive novels of Anne Rice have captivated millions of fans around the world. It all began a quarter of a century ago with Interview with the Vampire. Now, in one chilling volume, here are the first three classic novels of The Vampire Chronicles.
In Interview with the Vampire, witness the confessions of a vampire. A novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force, it is a story of danger and flight, love and loss, ...