I first read Anne Rice’s novel The Vampire Lestat a little over 30 years ago, soon after reading Interview with the Vampire and seeing Neil Jordan’s 1993 film. Of course, there has never been a film of The Vampire Lestat, so it’s not surprising my memory of the novel was rusty at best. Still, it seems I remembered most of the important elements, though I’d forgotten several details and I came away with a somewhat different impression of the novel than I remembered.
The Vampire Lestat is an interesting second book in the series because it’s actually something of a prequel to the first book. Prequels seem to have developed a poor reputation, which I suspect is the result of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, which didn’t live up to fan expectations. Still, The Vampire Lestat is not a “pure” prequel. In fact, it opens after the events of Interview with the Vampire. The disheartened Lestat has buried himself on the grounds of a New Orleans Garden District house and has remained there for some years until one day, he hears the sounds of rock and roll. This excites him enough to find his way out of the grave and seek out the performers. Lestat falls in love with the primal energy of the music and believes he can contribute, so he begins composing lyrics. He also begins to tell the story of how he came to be in New Orleans in 1984.
At this point, we slip back in time to the eighteenth century where we will spend most of the book. Lestat is the youngest son of a French lord. He tells the story of going out on a hunt where he kills a pack of wolves who have been plaguing the farmers in the area. Grateful, the farmers bring him a wolf-skin coat. A member of the delegation is a violinist named Nicolas de Lenfent. Lestat becomes entranced and the two grow to be close friends and likely romantic partners. Interestingly, I don’t remember reading them as a couple back in 1993, but it seemed much more obvious on this read. Neither young man is especially happy in rural France and after some time, they run away to Paris and join the theater. Nicolas plays the violin and Lestat becomes one of the performers. While performing, Lestat notices a strange white face on certain nights in the crowd. Then, one night, the stranger appears in Lestat and Nicolas’s bedroom and reveals himself to be a vampire. The vampire Magnus take Lestat off to his lair, a distant tower.
This was another point where my memory played tricks on me. For some reason, I remembered Lestat being a prisoner of Magnus for a long time. However, in fairly short order, Magnus turns Lestat into a vampire and then throws himself onto a fire and destroys himself, leaving Lestat with questions about whether or not there are other vampires and how vampires originated. What does transpire over a period of time is that Lestat invests the wealth he inherited from Magnus and then uses it to give his ailing mother and Nicolas the best life he can. He also buys the theater where he performed. In the meantime, wraith-like beings seem to be haunting the edge of Lestat’s perception. Lestat’s ailing mother moves to Paris where she hopes to see her son one last time before she dies. Instead of letting her die, Lestat turns his mother Gabrielle into a vampire.
This is the next part where my memory played tricks on me. I remembered Gabrielle leaving soon after becoming a vampire. Instead, the two spend quite a bit of time together and they almost even seem to become as close as a romantic couple for a time. When Lestat turns his mother into a vampire, it prompts the wraith-like beings to strike. They capture Nicolas and take him underneath one of the Paris cemeteries where they torture him. It turns out, they are also vampires and they’re led by Armand, who we met in Interview with the Vampire. Armand and his followers see themselves as agents of Satan who must live in squalor and send evildoers to hell. With some effort, Lestat eventually convinces the vampires that they’re wasting their lives and that they should live among humans, where they can still serve a purpose by striking down evildoers. As they consider this, Lestat gets Nicolas away and attempts to save his seriously wounded friend by making him a vampire. The only problem is that this proves a bad choice for Nicolas. He’s haunted by his own demons and does not take well to immortality. Meanwhile, Armand tells Lestat about an ancient vampire named Marius, who tends mysterious figures called “Those Who Must Be Kept.”
Lestat leaves Nicolas in the hands of the Parisian vampires while he and Gabrielle go on a quest to find Marius. After months of travel, they end up in Cairo. At this point, Gabrielle wants to use her vampire powers to explore lands no Europeans have seen. She wants to continue down into Africa. However, Lestat wants to continue his quest for Marius. I related to this part of the book much better now than when I read it in 1993. Gabrielle offers Lestat the opportunity to travel with her, but she knows Lestat must go his own way. As a parent, I understood her sadness on leaving him, but also understood how she saw this as the point where their life journeys had to diverge. Not surprisingly, Lestat does eventually meet Marius and he learns that “Those Who Must Be Kept” were Enkil and Akasha, Egyptian royalty who were the first two vampires. If they’re destroyed, all vampires will be destroyed and Marius has been charged with their care. The original vampires are so ancient, they barely move, but Lestat seems to find a spark of life in Akasha, which we’ll learn more about in The Queen of the Damned.
Another part I’d forgotten was that Marius tells Lestat he needs to spend some time just living. While Lestat and Gabrielle were traveling, the French Revolution transpired and Lestat’s father fled to America. Lestat goes to New Orleans to tend to his father and that leads to the events of Interview with the Vampire.
The Vampire Lestat ends where it begins, Lestat’s band is preparing to hold a giant concert. Lestat has told all that vampires exist and he’s named names. Vampires around the world want to destroy him. The book literally comes to a rocking conclusion and sets up the events of the sequel.
I had a lot of fun revisiting The Vampire Lestat and suspect I’ll dive into Queen of the Damned sometime soon. When I first read the novel, I had not yet had children. When I read it this time, I’m the parent of two adult children. I found it interesting how much that changed my perception of Gabrielle and Lestat’s relationship. As it turns out, my first vampire novel was Vampires of the Scarlet Order followed by a prequel Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order Vampires. The novels also follow themes of vampires seeking out their origins as well as trying to understand their place in the world. The third novel in the series will be out a week from today. You can learn about the Scarlet Order Vampire series by visiting http://davidleesummers.com/books.html#scarlet_order
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