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Anne Rice – Lioness at Large

Anne Rice

(* 1941)

Biographical Sketch

Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O’Brien; New Orleans, LA, USA, October 4, 1941) is an American author of gothic fiction, Christian literature, and erotica. She is perhaps best known for her popular and influential series of novels, The Vampire Chronicles, revolving around the central character of a French-born vampire named Lestat.

Born in New Orleans, Rice spent much of her early life there before moving to Texas, and later to San Francisco. She was raised in an observant Roman Catholic family, but became an atheist as a young adult. She began her professional writing career with the publication of Interview with the Vampire in 1976, while living in California, and began writing sequels to the novel in the 1980s. In the mid-2000s, following a publicized return to Catholicism, Rice published the novels Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, fictionalized accounts of certain incidents in the life of Jesus. Several years later she distanced herself from organized Christianity, citing disagreement with the Church’s stances on social issues but pledging that faith in God remained central to her life.

In 1994, Neil Jordan directed a motion picture adaptation of Interview with the Vampire, based on Rice’s own screenplay. The movie starred Tom Cruise as Lestat, Brad Pitt as the guilt-ridden Louis, and a young Kirsten Dunst in her breakout role as the deceitful child vampire Claudia. – A second film adaptation, Queen of the Damned, was released in February 2002, starring Stuart Townsend as the vampire Lestat and singer Aaliyah as Akasha. The movie combined plot points from both the novel The Queen of the Damned, as well as from The Vampire Lestat. Produced on a budget of $35 million, the film recouped only $30 million at the U.S. box office. On her Facebook page, Rice has distanced herself from the film, and has stated that she feels the filmmakers “mutilated” her work in adapting the novel.

In addition to her vampire novels, Rice has authored the Mayfair Witches series, as well as several other series and stand-alone books such as The Feast of All Saints (adapted for television in 2001) and Servant of the Bones, which formed the basis of a 2011 comic book miniseries. Several books from The Vampire Chronicles have likewise been adapted as comics by various publishers. Rice has also authored erotic fiction under the pen names Anne Rampling and A.N. Roquelaure, including Exit to Eden, which in 1994 was also adapted into a film.

Rice’s books have sold nearly 100 million copies, placing her among the most popular authors in recent American history. While reaction to her early works was initially mixed, she became more popular with critics and readers in the 1980s.  She has lately become severely controversial as a result of her aggressive attacks and campaigns against reviewers who are critical of her books.

Rice was married to poet and painter Stan Rice for 41 years, from 1961 until his death from brain cancer in 2002 at age 60.  Her son Christopher is likewise an author.

Read more about Anne Rice on Wikipedia.

 

Major Awards and Honors

Bram Stoker Awards (HWA – Horror Writers Association)
  • 2003: Lifetime Achievement
    – Tied with Martin H. Greenberg.
Locus Awards (USA)
  • 1991: Best Horror/Dark Fantasy Novel – “The Witching Hour”
World Horror Convention
  • 1994: Grand Master

 

Bibliography

Writing as Anne Rice
The Vampire Chronicles
  • Interview with The Vampire (1976)
  • Armand’s Lesson, or: The Art of The Vampire at Its Peak in the Year 1876 (1979)
    – Stand-alone short story.
  • The Vampire Lestat (1985)
  • Queen of the Damned (1988)
  • Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
  • Memnoch the Devil (1995)
  • Pandora (1998)
    – Spin-off; together with Vittorio the Vampire, also known as the New Tales of the Vampires series.
  • 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 Mayfair Witches
  • The Witching Hour (1990)
  • Lasher (1993)
  • Taltos (1994)
  • Merrick (2000)
Ramses
  • The Mummy: or Ramses the Damned (1989)
  • Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra (2017)
Ghost Stories
  • Servant of the Bones (1996)
  • Violin (1997)
Christ the Lord
  • Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (2005)
  • Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana (2008)
Songs of the Seraphim
  • Angel Time (2009)
  • Of Love and Evil (2010)
The Wolf Gift Chronicles
  • The Wolf Gift (2012)
  • The Wolves of Midwinter (2013)
Nonseries Fiction
  • October 4, 1948 (1965)
    – Stand-alone short story.
  • Nicholas and Jean (1966)
    – Stand-alone short story.
  • The Feast of All Saints (1979)
  • Cry to Heaven (1982)
  • The Master of Rampling Gate (1985)
    – Stand-alone short story.
  • Vittorio the Vampire (1999)
Essays, Interviews, Memoirs
  • Conversations with Anne Rice (1996)
    – With Michael Riley.
  • Interview with Anne Rice (1997)
    – With Michael Riley.
  • The Anne Rice Reader (1997)
    – By Katherine Ramsland.
  • Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession (2008)
Writing as Anne Rampling
  • Exit to Eden (1985)
  • Belinda (1986)
Writing as A.N. Roquelaure
  • The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (1983)
  • Beauty’s Punishment (1984)
  • Beauty’s Release (1985)
  • Beauty’s Kingdom (2015)

 

A Selection of Quotes

Interview with the Vampire

“Paris was a universe whole and entire unto herself, hollowed and fashioned by history; so she seemed in this age of Napoleon III with her towering buildings, her massive cathedrals, her grand boulevards and ancient winding medieval streets – as vast and indestructible as nature itself. All was embraced by her, by her volatile and enchanted populace thronging the galleries, the theaters, the cafes, giving birth over and over to genius and sanctity, philosophy and war, frivolity and the finest art; so it seemed that if all the world outside her were to sink into darkness, what was fine, what was beautiful, what was essential might there still come to its finest flower. Even the majestic trees that graced and sheltered her streets were attuned to her–and the waters of the Seine, contained and beautiful as they wound through her heart; so that the earth on that spot, so shaped by blood and consciousness, had ceased to be the earth and had become Paris.”

The Vampire Lestat

“Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds – justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner.”

The Queen of the Damned

“It’s an awful truth that suffering can deepen us, give a greater lustre to our colours, a richer resonance to our words. That is, if it doesn’t destroy us, if it doesn’t burn away the optimism and the spirit, the capacity for visions, and the respect for simple yet indispensable things.”

The Tale of the Body Thief

“Revenge is the concern of those who are at some point or other beaten. I am not beaten, I told myself. No, not beaten. And victory is far more interesting to contemplate than revenge.”

Blackwood Farm

“And books, they offer one hope – that a whole universe might open up from between the covers, and falling into that universe, one is saved.”

Blood And Gold

“Memory was a curse, yes, he thought, but it was also the greatest gift. Because if you lost memory you lost everything.”

Find more quotes by Anne Rice on Wikiquote and Goodreads.

 

Links

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