The Vampire Chronicles is a series of novels by Anne Rice centering on the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French noble who became a vampire in the 18th century. Rice said in a 2008 interview that her vampires were a "metaphor for lost souls," and the books explore the themes of existentialism, grief, and the experience of the outcast. The first volume, Interview with the Vampire, was published in 1976, and the de facto final novel, Blood Communion, was released in 2018. To date, the series has sold more than 80 million copies worldwide.[1]
Books in the series[]
The Vampire Chronicles[]
- Interview with the Vampire (1976)
- The Vampire Lestat (1985)
- The Queen of the Damned (1988)
- The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
- Memnoch the Devil (1995)
- The Vampire Armand (1998)
- Merrick (2000)
- Blood and Gold (2001)
- Blackwood Farm (2002)
- Blood Canticle (2003)
- Prince Lestat (2014)
- Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016)
- Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat (2018)
The New Tales of the Vampires[]
- Pandora (1998)
- Vittorio the Vampire (1999)
Crossover[]
Merrick, Blackwood Farm, and Blood Canticle include characters from The Lives of the Mayfair Witches.
Existence In-Universe[]
The Vampire Chronicles are all published within the universe of the book series, with characters in later books often being familiar with the prior novels. It is generally implied that the books in-universe are similar or identical to the books as they exist in our world, with Fareed at one point citing specific page numbers in The Queen of the Damned. Interview with the Vampire is mentioned to not have been published under the author name Daniel Molloy, though a specific in-universe author's pseudonym is not mentioned. In the adaptations by Innovation Comics, the books are published with the author being named as Anne Rice. In the world of the books, the majority of the books are "written" by Lestat, with The Vampire Armand, Merrick, Blood and Gold, and Pandora being written or collected by David. The books containing multiple points of views or sections in third person, The Queen of the Damned, Prince Lestat, and Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, are "written" by Lestat based on the memories of the individual point of view characters.
Adaptations[]
Interview with the Vampire was made into a film in 1994. It starred Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Christian Slater and Kirsten Dunst. Portions of The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned were used for the plot of the 2002 film Queen of the Damned, starring Stuart Townsend and Aaliyah. In 2006, after a trial run in San Francisco, a musical adaptation called Lestat with lyrics by Bernie Taupin and music by Elton John had a short run on Broadway. In 2022, the initial season of a television adaptation called Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire first aired on AMC.
The first three books of The Vampire Chronicles were adapted into comic books and graphic novels by Innovation Comics between 1988 and 1994, and The Tale of the Body Thief was adapted in a limited comic series by Sicilian Dragon in 1999. The story of Interview with the Vampire was adapted from the character Claudia's perspective into the 2012 graphic novel Interview with the Vampire: Claudia's Story by artist Ashley Marie Witter.
References[]