A review of Anne Rice's 'Vampire Chronicles'

Anne Rice is the benchmark for vampire novels. This is evident from the Entertainment Weekly's statement that Stephenie Meyer is, ‘the world’s most popular vampire novelist since Anne Rice.’ Of course, Stephenie Meyer was only three years old when Rice published her first vampire novel in 1976: 'Interview with the Vampire'. Rice has called the Twilight story "silly".

Irish catholic

She has a surprisingly long given name: Howard Allen Frances Alphonsus Liguori O’Brien. This is perhaps because she was born in New Orleans and to Irish Catholic parents. She was born in 1941. She married Stan Rice and had a daughter Michelle in 1966. A sad prophetic dream of her daughter dying of some blood disease, turned into reality when Michelle died of leukaemia in 1972.

'Interview with the Vampire'

Anne Rice 's 'Vampire Chronicles' number more than a dozen right now. 'Interview with the Vampire: the Vampire Chronicle' was made into a movie in 1994. It is based on the novel. It had a star cast of Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater, Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst. The movie did well at the box office. Other attempts at serialising the novels for television or making into movies, have not been so successful.

The 'Mayfair Witches'

By her own admittance, Lestat de Lioncourt, the protagonist of the 'Vampire Chronicles', is based on her husband Stan Rice and herself. Lestat narrates most of the stories, but the sixth novel 'The Vampire Armand' is told by Armand. Success gave Anna Rice financial strength and she bought a home in New Orleans, First St. This is the inspiration for Mayfair Manor. The latter is the setting for the 'Mayfair Witches' books.

100 million copies sold

Anne Rice is a prolific writer and has even written books under pseudonyms. The most famous pen name being A.N. Roquelaure, under which she wrote the 'Anne Rice Sleeping Beauty' trilogy. These are BDSM (Bondage and Discipline; Sadism and Masochism) novels. They record the sexual adventures of Beauty and they are twisted versions of Sleeping Beauty. The books are risqué and border on the pornographic. However, Anne Rice's 'Beauty' is loved by the readers. Anne Rice's books have sold more than 100 million copies. She has a very active Facebook page. An Anne Rice Vampire has particular traits. Her vampires become the strongest when they are one thousand years old. They are immune to all the things like that Dracula was afraid of, such as wooden stakes, garlic and Christian crosses. They are also very artistic and are good painters, writers and musicians. Anne Rice's 'The Witching Hour' novel is very popular after the 'Interview with a Vampire' book. Now, Anne Rice focuses on her novels on Jesus Christ.