“Interview with the Vampire”, by Anne Rice: immortal creatures and earthly passions
Review by Patrick Bateman
"Interview with the Vampire" , originally published in 1976 and reprinted several times (latest edition Tea , 2020), is the first chapter of the very successful "Vampire Chronicles" by Anne Rice, an American writer who succeeded in the far from simple mission of perfectly fit into the contemporary classic figures of horror and collective horror imagery such as vampires, werewolves and mummies, a choice pursued by many but only masterfully executed by her.
The progenitor of this long series is immediately brought to life, with a journalist intent on interviewing Louis de Pointe du Lac, vampirized in 1791 and still in splendid shape today. The pressing initial question and answer between the two is gradually replaced by the fluid narrative of Louis, who recounts his life as a creature of the night, laying the foundations for a universe from which Rice will later draw with both hands, staging characters of unquestionable scenic strength and solidity such as the hedonist and cruel Lestat de Lioncourt (who will prove to be the real protagonist in the sequels ), the small and ambiguous Claudia and the wise and fascinating Armand.
Far from being a mere horror novel, "Interview with the vampire" does not betray the purest tradition on vampires (Stoker, Polidori) but broadens it by giving way to reflections and thoughts that, with the expedient of eternal life to which the protagonists are condemned , they become more and more profound and authentic, crossing time (from 1791 to the 1970s) and space (from the New Orleans of the bayou to the artistic Paris of the cabarets, passing through the Gothic Transylvania). Many themes are touched upon in this agile but far from simple reading: the relationship with immortality, which seems to make any experience lose value, leaving an eternal void like the life that Louis is condemned to live; the desperate search for a faith now passively accepted, now crudely rejected (sign of the introspective path that Rice herself will face later on); the difficulties of finding a place in the world, split between the bestial lust for blood and human impulses and finally the search for a teacher for Louis, a figure who opens his eyes allowing him to appreciate immortality as a gift and not as a condemnation , to avoid the murderous logic of nourishment to turn only to animal blood and to fully enjoy the pleasures of eternity without torturing oneself for their transience.
Furthermore, in Anne Rice's Gothic Renaissance, there is room for an elegant writing that recalls nineteenth-century literature, in an exciting mix between form and substance that invites you to go further and further in reading, getting lost in the ambiguous triangle of blood composed of Louis, Claudia and Lestat, three characters chiseled with maniacal care and powerful inspiration.
"Interview with the Vampire" is and will always be Anne Rice's most famous novel, also thanks to the good 1994 film adaptation directed by Neil Jordan and animated by a stellar cast (among others Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst), but it is enough to continue reading the saga or reading other works of hers to understand that this was only the first step of an author of undoubted value, who deserves to be cited among the main names of contemporary horror and neo-gothic literature.
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/recensioni/intervista-col-vampiro-di-anne-rice-creature-immortali-e-passioni-terrene/ on Sat, 19 Dec 2020 04:52:00 +0000.