Interview with the Vampire Study Guide

Anne Rice was named after her father and was born Howard Allen Frances O’Brien. She was raised in New Orleans. She attended Catholic school and later Texas Woman’s University, eventually transferring to San Francisco State University where she graduated with a degree in political science. On her first day of school, she told teachers her name was Anne, and she later legally changed her name to Anne. Anne Rice married poet Stan Rice in 1961, and the couple had two children. The death of her daughter Michele from leukemia at the age of five in 1972 had a profound impact on Rice and eventually led to the creation of her debut novel, Interview with the Vampire, which was published in 1976. The novel was the first in The Vampire Chronicles, a series that would span multiple books, including The Vampire Lestat (1985), The Queen of the Damned (1988), and Memnoch the Devil (1995). Rice also explored other supernatural genres, including witches in The Witching Hour (1990). She also wrote erotica using several pseudonyms. In the late 1990s, Rice experienced a profound religious awakening and returned to the Catholic Church, which influenced her writing during this period, resulting in novels like Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (2005). However, she later distanced herself from organized religion because of its position on same-sex relationships. Rice continued to write until her death in 2021 from complications of a stroke.

The novel is set in various locations, but it prominently features New Orleans in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a time when slavery was a central part of the American South’s economy and social structure. Louis is a wealthy plantation owner in Louisiana, and the novel does not shy away from depicting the brutal realities of slaveholding society. Enslaved people maintain Louis’s plantation and Louis’s first kill as a vampire is a runaway enslaved person. In this section of the novel, vampirism works as a metaphor for how white landowners exploited and often killed their Black enslaved workers without a second thought. Although Louis does not enjoy killing the enslaved people, he is more than happy to exploit their bodies to increase his wealth. Later portions of the novel take place in 19th-century Paris, a hub of artistic creation. In particular, the neighborhood of Montmartre—where important sections of the novel take place—became synonymous with bohemian life, attracting artists, writers, and musicians. Cafés, cabarets, and studios in Montmartre provided a creative haven for figures like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, and Amedeo Modigliani. Although Louis never becomes involved with the art scene himself, Armand’s theater is filled with works of art, which Louis admires.

Interview with the Vampire draws inspiration from earlier gothic novels such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The novel also bears thematic similarities to existential works like Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea, exploring philosophical questions about the meaning of life and immortality. Rice’s work later influenced a wave of vampire fiction, including Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series and Charlaine Harris’s The Southern Vampire Mysteries. Interview with the Vampire is also important because it is the first book in The Vampire Chronicles. The best received of the sequels is The Vampire Lestat (1985), which shifts the focus to Lestat’s perspective. The novel begins as Lestat awakens from a long slumber in the 20th century and decides to become a rock star. Through Lestat’s perspective, the reader learns about his human life in 18th-century France, his transformation into a vampire, and his journey to understand his own nature. Other sequels include Queen of the Damned (1988) and Memnoch the Devil (1995). Rice has listed as influences Stephen King (particularly his novel Firestarter), the Brontë sisters (Emily’s Wuthering Heights, Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Charlotte’s Jane Eyre), and Henry James (The Turn of the Screw).