Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire is about a boy who is interviewing a vampire, Louis. The interviewer is only called boy and the reader knows nothing about him except that he is recording the interview on cassette tapes and that he is apparently not a vampire. The boy is listening intently as Louis tells him his life story, which, as one can imagine, goes back a very long time.
Louis was born in Paris and his family moved to New Orleans when he was quite young, but his story really starts when he was 25 (in 1791). At this time, Louis was moderately wealthy and living on a plantation with his brother, sister, and mother. His brother was religious and Louis encouraged his brother to follow what he loved. One night, however, he tells Louis that he had visions and they get into an argument. His brother walks out of the room and falls down the stairs and dies.
Louis feels guilty and, unable to cope with the loss, starts to roam the New Orleans streets after dark. Wanting to die, he nearly gets his wish when a vampire, Lestat, feeds off him until he is almost dead. Back at the plantation, Louis lays down while he confesses to his sister and a priest about the argument he had. When the others fall asleep, Lestat comes into the room and offers Louis immortality as a vampire in exchange for the plantation.
A few nights later, after all the necessary financial happenings were arranged, Lestat changes Louis into a vampire. Before proceeding, he tells Louis to “Be still. I am going to drain you now to the very threshold of death, and I want you to be quiet… It is your consciousness, your will, which must keep you alive” (19). With Louis weakened, Lestat bites his own wrist and has Louis drink from the wound. As Louis drinks he hears the pounding of two drums and when Lestat takes his wrist away, he realizes that it was the beating of their hearts. Lestat then sends him out to rid his body of waste as the human part of him dies and the vampire takes hold.
This is the type of transformation that I find is typical of most vampire novels. In Dracula, Dracula forces Mina to drink from him after he drank from her multiple times. Here, Lestat has Louis drink from him as part of the conversion. It doesn’t necessarily seem to be the bite alone that causes the change in many of the books I’ve read, but the exchange of blood.
Louis was born in Paris and his family moved to New Orleans when he was quite young, but his story really starts when he was 25 (in 1791). At this time, Louis was moderately wealthy and living on a plantation with his brother, sister, and mother. His brother was religious and Louis encouraged his brother to follow what he loved. One night, however, he tells Louis that he had visions and they get into an argument. His brother walks out of the room and falls down the stairs and dies.
Louis feels guilty and, unable to cope with the loss, starts to roam the New Orleans streets after dark. Wanting to die, he nearly gets his wish when a vampire, Lestat, feeds off him until he is almost dead. Back at the plantation, Louis lays down while he confesses to his sister and a priest about the argument he had. When the others fall asleep, Lestat comes into the room and offers Louis immortality as a vampire in exchange for the plantation.
A few nights later, after all the necessary financial happenings were arranged, Lestat changes Louis into a vampire. Before proceeding, he tells Louis to “Be still. I am going to drain you now to the very threshold of death, and I want you to be quiet… It is your consciousness, your will, which must keep you alive” (19). With Louis weakened, Lestat bites his own wrist and has Louis drink from the wound. As Louis drinks he hears the pounding of two drums and when Lestat takes his wrist away, he realizes that it was the beating of their hearts. Lestat then sends him out to rid his body of waste as the human part of him dies and the vampire takes hold.
This is the type of transformation that I find is typical of most vampire novels. In Dracula, Dracula forces Mina to drink from him after he drank from her multiple times. Here, Lestat has Louis drink from him as part of the conversion. It doesn’t necessarily seem to be the bite alone that causes the change in many of the books I’ve read, but the exchange of blood.
2 comments:
Good Job. I was wondering what are the different time periods between dracula and this new book?
I have all of the original publishing years listed on the right side of the page with the books that I'm reading. Dracula was from the very late 1800's, I am Legend was from the 1950's, and Interview with the Vampire was from the 1970's.
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