Rhiannon Judith Williams reviews Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles.

Before there was Twilight, there was Interview with the Vampire.

Given the current climate of hysteria regarding the release of New Moon, the second film adaptation of the Twilight saga this week, I’ve chosen to revisit this teenage favourite and classic in the literary horror genre.

Predating Stephenie Mayer’s efforts by more than thirty years, Anne Rice began her Vampire Chronicles in this sumptuous, lush epic in 1976 single-handedly kick starting literature’s renewed obsession with the blood-sucking living dead.

But a saccharine-coated vampire-boy-meets-human-girl tragic romance this ain’t. This is a visceral, bloody tale of lust, revenge and frustration, literally dripping with hetero and homosexual desire, pulsing with contempt and grief.

The novel charts the (after) life of the 200-year-old American vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac from his privileged upbringing running slave plantations in 18th century New Orleans. Whilst mourning the untimely demise of his beloved brother, he is attacked by the irrepressible vampire Lestat in 1791, marking his unpleasant transformation from human to vampire aged twenty five.

Now living a solitary existence in 1970s present-day San Francisco, the novel is narrated through Louis’ eyes via a thorough all night interview with eager boy reporter Daniel Molloy, and a life of excess, betrayal and deception is mapped out in glorious Technicolor.

Lusciously written with sumptuous detail, the novel weaves an involved and intriguing world based around Louis’ eternal dilemma of when one is immortal with all of the finery in the world, the only thing you really end up desiring is company. To be immortal is not so much a gift as a curse.

So far, so undead. But Interview’s real charm lies in Rice’s seamless marriage between horror convention (vampires sleep in coffins during the day, cannot be exposed to daylight or fire, feed off human blood) with deliciously contemporary twists. Garlic, crosses and holy water have no effect, and there’s no cheesy bat transformation to be seen. Instead, all vampires are enchantingly beautiful, excessively emotionally perceptive and highly intelligent. Their interaction with their ever-shifting surroundings is beautifully documented through Louis’ morose confessions of the pointlessness of infinite time ahead of you.

Lestat provides little practical guidance for the nervous Louis in navigating his new life of darkness. Selfish, greedy and innately devious, Lestat is the virtuous Louis’ nemesis. With no knowledge of other vampires forced to keep their existence secret in fear of being hunted down by humans as devils

Whilst Louis struggles to come to terms with the murder and necessary blood consumption of humans, Lestat revels in seducing, trapping and gorging on innocent lives.

Louis tires of Lestat’s frippery and unsatisfying company, and longing for intelligent immortal companions considers abandoning Lestat to search for others of their kind. Sensing Louis’ mutiny, Lestat turns a small dying girl found on the streets of New Orleans into a vampire “daughter” for them, naming her Claudia.

With eloquent, bewitching style, Rice created the compelling and enigmatic Lestat de Lioncourt. The original bad-boy of vampire literature, Lestat is a rebellious Bob Dylan-esque figure in a society of contemplative and secretive beings, pushing boundaries and causing trouble whenever possible. Manipulative, vain but always endearingly charming, Lestat has the nickname of “the brat prince” bestowed upon him by his senior vampires, and is excessively childish but has his rare moments of altruism. His bisexual adventures make for engrossing and sensual reading in subsequent sequels The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned.

Spanning South America, Eastern Europe and Paris, the intertwined existence of Louis and Lestat makes compelling, poignant reading. Beautifully created fiction at its most sensual, Interview with the Vampire encapsulates vast emotional journeys spanning centuries, richly drawn characters living in infinity reduced to a claustrophobic microcosm.

It’s certainly easy to understand the huge cult popularity of the book, and the massive influence it had upon the goth culture upon its publication. A modern masterpiece, Interview with the Vampire begs to be read by anyone with even a passing interest in our relationship with the ever-present notion of death, our irrational fear of aging, and the implausible theory of immortality.