RIP - Anne Rice

alantig · 20 Sep 2006

Quote:

Anne Rice, the gothic novelist who wrote 'Interview with the Vampire,' dies at age 80
The Associated Press

Anne Rice, the novelist whose lush, best-selling gothic tales, including "Interview With a Vampire," reinvented the blood-drinking immortals as tragic antiheroes, has died. She was 80.

Rice died late Saturday due to complications from a stroke, her son Christopher Rice announced on her Facebook page and his Twitter page.

"As a writer, she taught me to defy genre boundaries and surrender to my obsessive passions," Christopher Rice, also an author, wrote. "In her final hours, I sat beside her hospital bed in awe of her accomplishments and her courage."

Rice's 1976 novel "Interview With the Vampire" was later adapted, with a script by Rice, into the 1994 movie directed by Neil Jordan and starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. It's also set to be adapted again in an upcoming TV series on AMC and AMC+ set to premiere next year.

"Interview With the Vampire," in which reporter Daniel Molloy interviews Louis de Pointe du Lac, was Rice's first novel but over the next five decades, she would write more than 30 books and sell more than 150 million copies worldwide. Thirteen of those were part of the "Vampire Chronicles" begun with her 1976 debut. Long before "Twilight" or "True Blood," Rice introduced sumptuous romance, female sexuality and queerness — many took "Interview With the Vampire" as an allegory for homosexuality — to the supernatural genre.

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"I wrote novels about people who are shut out life for various reasons," Rice wrote in her 2008 memoir "Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession." "This became a great theme of my novels — how one suffers as an outcast, how one is shut out of various levels of meaning and, ultimately, out of human life itself."

I was fortunate enough to meet Anne once at a book signing, which was packed (needless to say). I eventually kind of fell out of love with where her books were going with the witch series, but it never diminished my love for the vampire books. The scene in Interview where Claudia is buried alive is to this day one of the two most viscerally impactful scenes I've ever read - it still makes me feel claustrophobic when I think about it, and I haven't read that book in probably 20+ years.

RIP, Anne, and thank you.

Jilerb · 26 Jan 2009

R.I.P., Anne.

Jason Gore · 22 Aug 2004

I went through a brief period where I was a big fan, and devoured everything she had written to that point; I thought the Witching Hour was by far her best novel, and enjoyed about 1 1/2 of the Vampire trilogy. But both ideas seemed to peter out, and I would probably would remember them more fondly had she left them alone at that point.

I also read her "other stuff". While I did think Belinda was an interesting re-telling of the Lolita story (and would be impossible to sell now), the rest of oeuvre in that area did nothing for me.

RIP Anne, and thanks for the books over the years.

Jeff · 05 Oct 2006

Her books were an important part of my 20s. All my friends really got into her Vampire series. I kind of fell away from it all as I got older, but I'll always remember her work fondly. RIP

Simon · **Joined:** 26 Oct 2006 **Posts:** 59405

R.I.P.

Her novels inspired me to write about the changing depiction of vampires in English Literature for my ten thousand word essay when I did my Honours Degree.

I first read Interview With The Vampire when I was fourteen and I didn't stop reading her stuff until was about thirty. I didn't read any of the 'naughty' stuff, just the supernatural things. She's a favourite author of mine.

Bishop Hammer · 03 Sep 2007

Tuna · 21 Dec 2007

I didn't get the witch books at all, but very much enjoyed most of the vampire books (the uber religious ones were meh). Her love for place (New Orleans) was a big part of the draw for me. Later a friend was loving the witch books, so I gave them another go and it clicked. Not sure what the difference was, but the scenes in the moldering plantation house that was filling with water is still so evocative to me. The rotting luxury, which is a hallmark of Southern Gentility, was delicious.

At any rate. Gonna re-read IWTV. See how it stands now.

RIP, Anne. Good travels.

Darin · 14 Aug 2004

Never read any of her books, but I have felt her effect on the horror fiction industry.

Her stuff wasn't my thing, but she seemed like a nice Catholic lady.

JohnG · 03 Aug 2006

I loved the movie Interview With A Vampire and that’s all I knew of her. I was disappointed that they were never able to successfully follow up on that film. A mostly forgotten film these days.

Tuna · 21 Dec 2007

She was not happy with the casting of Tom Cruise as Lestat. Her Lestat was tall, dashing and blond. Then she saw the film and had to agree that the casting was perfect. I can't imagine anyone else as Lestat. Perhaps when an actor comes along that could carry the film a second one will happen. (Didn't see Queen of the Damned. Sad about the tragedy of Aaliyah and heard it wasn't very good.)

Jeff · 05 Oct 2006

Darin wrote:

Never read any of her books, but I have felt her effect on the horror fiction industry.

Her stuff wasn't my thing, but she seemed like a nice Catholic lady.

I'm not sure a "nice Catholic lady" could have written her Sleeping Beauty series. :lol:

RIP - Anne Rice

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