The The Vampire Chronicles reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
(provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

The Vampire Chronicles

For people who check facts
The Vampire Chronicles are a series of novels by Anne Rice that revolve around the character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman made a vampire in the 17th century.

Anne Rice vampires differ on several aspects from classic vampires like Dracula, and other vampires used in fiction. The main difference is that Rice's creatures are not affected by the most usual weapons against classic vampires. They need blood, but not necessarily every day. They can even drink animal blood, but human blood is preferred as more nutricious and delicious. They are not afraid of garlic, crosses or silver and can't be killed with stakes. They can live eternally, but vampires younger than a thousand years old can usually be killed by exposure to sunlight or fire.

They don't posses many magical powers like changing into bats or casting spells, but some of the stronger, older ones do have the power to fly. Most of them also have the power to read thoughts of mortals and weaker vampires. They have other extraordinary physical powers, like moving very fast (faster than human eyes can see). They also have extremely keen senses and are quite strong. They have many artistic qualities, like singing and theatre.

The main characteristic of Rice's vampires is that they are all excessively emotional and sensitive, being easy prey to intense emotional suffering and aesthetic passions. They are usually very beautiful, as older vampires avoid making new ones out of old or ugly mortals.

The chronicles have a huge fan base since their beginning in the 70s, especially of the first four books, that feature Lestat in a proeminent position. The latests books have been criticized by a loss of sparkle and the excitement brought on my the first books of the series.

- Interview with the Vampire This is the book that began it all and it tells the story of Louis de Pointe du Lac, a French nobleman living in a Louisiana plantation. Louis allows himself to be interviewed by a reporter of the 20th century and tells the tale of his transformation. He was made a vampire by another Frenchman, the real hero of Rice's stories, Lestat de Lioncourt. Together, they lived for almost a century in New Orleans, bringing up the vampire child Claudia, saved by the vampiric blood from death by the plague.

- The Vampire Lestat This book tells the story of the infamous Lestat de Lioncourt by "his own words". The character talks to the readers and attempts to convice us not only that he actually exists, but also that he is not as bad as Louis portraited him on Interview. It's a rich, sad tale of Lestat's love for the theater and Nicolas, a childhood friend. It also introduces the vampire Marius and explain Lestat's connection with Armand in Paris. Rice's tale includes a most interesting explanation for the existence of vampires and their version of Adam and Eve, Enkil and Akasha.

- The Queen of the Damned This is probably the most complex book of the Vampire Chronicles, introducing several new characters and splitting the narrative between them to form a scary image of the vampiric world. Lestat is once again the main character, having been resposible for the waking of Akasha after a sleep of several centuries. All the vampires are either forced or led to come together at his concert, in an attempt to prevent a world-wide catastrophe caused by the ancient being that Akasha is.

- The Tale of the Body Thief After the big epic that was Queen of the Damned, Rice gets back to the private story of Lestat and his dealings with a misterious magician who wants to trade bodies with him. We meet again David Talbot, an enderly mortal belonging to the scholar order of the Talamasca, introduced in "Queen". His story get intertwined with Lestat's as they become friends and face the Body Thief.

- Memnoch the Devil This book turns to religion as Rice brings the devil, called Memnoch, on Lestat's trail. Being very ironic and cynic, Lestat does not believe Memnoch's claims of being the master of Hell. This all changes when the devil takes the vampire for a biblical ride.

- Pandora Anne Rice takes a break from Lestat's tale in this book, turning to an ancient lover of Marius, called Pandora. This is her story and mainly the story of their relationship as a vampiric couple.

- The Vampire Armand This is the complete story of Armand, made by Marius and a very important character on the beginning of the chronicles, affecting Lestat's and Louis lives. A Russian religious boy is kidnapped and taken to Italy, where he is sold as a slave on a whorehouse of Venice. There he is called Amadeo and later is saved from death by the painter Marius, who makes him a vampire and is later on betrayed by Amadeo (Armand).

- Merrick In this book Anne Rice brings together the vampires and the Mayfair witches of the Lasher series. We meet again Louis, Lestat and David. They are followed by the beautiful witch Merrick, who knew David when he was a mortal Talamasca man.

- Vittorio, the Vampire Not really related to the vampire chronicles classic characters, this books tells the tale of a young Italian nobleman who is abducted by a vampire coven in the middle of rural Italy.

- Blood and Gold This book is the life story of Marius, made a vampire by the celts before the fall of the Roman Empire. He had many lovers and produced many paintings during his travels on Europe and the East. Marius was the protector of Enkil and Akasha, until they are awaken by Lestat's rock music on the 20th century.

This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.