Interview with the Vampire
A vampire recounts two centuries of his undead life.
Interview with the Vampire is a gothic horror and vampire novel by American author Anne Rice, published in 1976 as her debut novel. It centers on vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac, who recounts his life to a reporter. The book was adapted into a 1994 film and a 2022 television series.
Quick Facts
- Author
- Anne Rice
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Series
- The Vampire Chronicles
- Genre
- Gothic horror, vampire
- Published
- April 12, 1976
- Publisher
- Knopf
- Format
- Print (hardcover, paperback)
Facts from the source article.
Plot summary
A vampire by the name of Louis de Pointe du Lac recounts his existence spanning two centuries to a journalist identified only as "the boy." The story begins in 1791, when Louis manages a sizable indigo plantation in colonial Louisiana. After his younger brother Paul dies, Louis is overcome with grief and takes to wandering the streets at night while drunk, actively hoping someone will kill him. One evening, a vampire named Lestat de Lioncourt finds Louis and recognizes his deep unhappiness. Believing that abandoning his humanity will relieve his sorrow, Louis agrees to become Lestat's companion and is transformed into a vampire. At first, Louis sees Lestat as something remarkable, but once he joins him as a vampire, he becomes disappointed. He discovers that Lestat possesses no profound moral understanding and is actually not significantly older than Louis himself. Lestat's elderly father arrives at the plantation, and Louis picks up fragments about Lestat's childhood: he was kept from receiving an education, and his father once described him as the kindest among his brothers. Lestat regularly feeds on enslaved people, criminals, and members of other plantation households, whereas Louis, troubled by the idea of killing humans, sustains himself on animal blood, which is weaker. The enslaved workers on Louis's plantation grow suspicious of him, forcing Louis and Lestat to accept that they must leave. Lestat's father tries to apologize for the mistreatment he inflicted on Lestat during his youth, but Lestat refuses to forgive him and instructs Louis to kill the old man before they go. Louis sets fire to his own plantation, and together with Lestat, he kills the enslaved people to prevent rumors about vampires in Louisiana from spreading. Over time, Louis yields to Lestat's influence and starts feeding on humans. He gradually comes to terms with his vampiric nature, yet he grows more and more disgusted by what he sees as Lestat's utter indifference toward human suffering. After relocating to New Orleans, Louis feeds on a five-year-old girl who is sick with plague and lying beside her dead mother. Louis begins considering leaving Lestat. Frightened by this possibility, Lestat transforms the girl into a vampire, creating a "daughter" for them to give Louis a reason to stay. She is named Claudia.
Background and publication
In 1970, Anne Rice was studying creative writing at San Francisco State University when her four-year-old daughter, Michele, was diagnosed with acute granulocytic leukemia. Michele died roughly two years later, plunging Rice into a deep depression; she began drinking heavily to cope. Later, critics and commentators pointed to Michele as the inspiration for the character Claudia. Still grieving in 1973, Rice started reworking a short story she had written in 1968 or 1969. That original piece was thirty pages long and told from the interviewer’s perspective. Encouraged by one of her husband’s students who liked her writing, Rice decided to turn “Interview with the Vampire” into a full novel. She completed the 338-page manuscript in five weeks, researching vampires during the day and writing through the night. After finishing the novel, Rice faced many rejections from publishers and developed obsessive-compulsive disorder. She became consumed by fears of germs, believing she contaminated everything she touched. She washed her hands obsessively and repeatedly checked locks on windows and doors. Rice later described this state: “What you see when you're in that state is every single flaw in our hygiene and you cannot control it and you go crazy.” In August 1974, she attended the Community of Writers Conference in Olympic Valley, run by writer Ray Nelson. There, she met her future literary agent, Phyllis Seidel. That October, Seidel sold the hardcover rights to “Interview with the Vampire” to Alfred A. Knopf for a $12,000 advance—at a time when most new authors received only $2,000. The novel was published in April 1976. In 1977, Rice and her husband traveled to Europe and Egypt for the first time. When the book came out, critics were divided. A reviewer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch praised it, calling the prose “hypnotically poetic in tone, rich in sensory imagery.” Others were harsh. Edith Milton of The New Republic wrote, “To pretend that it has any purpose beyond suckling eroticism is rank hypocrisy.” Leo Braudy of The New York Times argued that the book “is too superficial, too impersonal and too obviously made, to touch the sources of real terror and feeling.” Despite the mixed reception, the novel had sold 8 million copies worldwide as of February 2008.
Adaptations
The film rights to Interview with the Vampire passed through Paramount Pictures, Lorimar, and Warner Bros.—the eventual distributor—before landing with The Geffen Film Company. Neil Jordan, the director, revised Anne Rice’s initial screenplay draft, though Rice received sole writing credit. The cast included Brad Pitt as Louis, Tom Cruise as Lestat, Antonio Banderas as Armand, and a young Kirsten Dunst as the child vampire Claudia. By October 1993, most of the movie was shot, with only the interviewer’s scenes left to be inserted throughout the film. Those scenes were delayed for several weeks while River Phoenix, cast as the interviewer, finished work on Dark Blood. Phoenix died from an overdose later that month. Christian Slater replaced him as Molloy, the interviewer, and donated his entire salary to Earth Save and Earth Trust, two charities Phoenix had supported. The film debuted in November 1994 to generally favorable reviews and earned Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction and Best Original Score. Dunst received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Rice had publicly opposed Cruise’s casting as Lestat, preferring Rutger Hauer, but after seeing the film, she changed her mind, stating that Cruise made Lestat work in a way she could not have foreseen, and credited him for proving her wrong. In August 2014, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment secured the film rights to the entire Vampire Chronicles series, with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci attached to lead a potential franchise. The deal also included a screenplay for The Tale of the Body Thief adapted by Christopher Rice. In May 2016, writer-director Josh Boone posted an Instagram photo of a script he co-wrote with Jill Killington, titled Interview with the Vampire, based on the novel and its sequel, The Vampire Lestat. However, Universal did not renew the contract that November, and the film and television rights reverted to Rice, who then began developing the Vampire Chronicles into a television series with her son Christopher.
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