Anne Rice, author of Interview with the Vampire, dies
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The “vampire fiction” veteran has written over 30 books and changed the way we perceive gothic fiction.
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Author Anne Rice
Celebrated writer Anne Rice passed away at the age of 80 as revealed in a statement by her son Christopher: “In her final hours, I sat beside her hospital bed in awe of her accomplishments and her courage,” adding that she passed away due to complications resulting from a stroke.
She will be interred at a private ceremony in New Orleans, where she was born and raised.
The gothic novelist was seen as a voice that broke boundaries in a genre that was largely frowned upon, notably with the advent of her 1976 debut novel Interview With the Vampire that saw her exploring the saga of a vampire named Lestat. The story followed Lestat from his early beginnings in 18th-century Louisiana to his ventures in the 20th century, offering a rather nuanced yet sharp and witty portrait of a creature that lives in the shadows and feeds off human blood. Nonetheless, Rice did not downplay the elements crucial to the Vampire mythos, thus shaking the foundations of the fictional gothic genre and showing to the literary community its endless possibilities.
Eventually, Interview was adapted in 1994 by filmmaker Neil Jordan into a highly successful film starring Tom Cruise in the titular role, Brad Pitt, and a quite young Kirsten Dunst whom Lestat turns into a vampire. The film was instrumental in introducing mass audiences to the strange and macabre worlds of Anne Rice.
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Scene from Interview With the Vampire featuring Cruise as Lestat, Pitt and a young Kirsten Dunst (1994)
The author further wrote 12 novels in her Vampire Chronicles series which starred Lestat and was interestingly dismissive of the pacification and over-simplification of the mythical creature that occurred in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. Rice commented when asked about Meyer’s writing by saying she feels “sorry for vampires that sparkle in the sun”, stressing that Lestat “would never hurt immortals who choose to spend eternity going to high school over and over again in a small town”.
Repeatedly compared to the greats of fictional literature, most notably Mary Shelley who brought upon the world the timeless gothic horror novel Frankenstein, Rice basked in a prestige that is rarely given to a gothic writer. Legendary horror writer Ramsey Campbell infamously described her writing style as one that follows “the great tradition of the gothic, both thematically and in her prose.” Campbell further praised her and her tackling of major themes: “I would argue it’s a specifically female lineage that stretches from the classical gothics but in particular from Mary Shelley, in its humanization of the monster and the way it accords him a thoroughly literate voice.”
Interestingly enough, Mary Shelley was married to Percy Shelley, the infamous poet behind Ozymandias, and Rice was married to a poet, Stan Rice, who died in 2002.
Another renowned horror author, Sarah Pinborough, commented on Rice’s efforts to elevate the genre to new heights by saying “I absolutely loved how she took that genre and created such a vivid world and characters within it and, more importantly, made them feel so contemporary and relevant.”
Now that Anne Rice’s fascinating ride has come to an end, one cannot help but wonder if she is now exploring firsthand the answers to her larger-than-life spiritual and cosmic questions, ones that have defined her life and body of work.
