Laurie Hrydziuszko's Anne Rice Collection
Laurie Hrydziuszko's Anne Rice Collection
Laurie Hrydziuszko's Essay:
The year 1994 is very memorable for me. That year, I got my first job, my first steady boyfriend, and it is also the year I was introduced to the enchantment of Anne Rice. I had already read several classics by that time, one of my favorites being Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. When I saw Interview with the Vampire in the theater that year, though, I knew I had to know more about the fantastic characters Rice had brought to life on the big screen. I am the type of person who feels taking time to read a book gives the reader so much more insight into a story, rather than just watching a movie. One can actually know what is going on inside a character's mind, because we are reading their thoughts, not just having a dialogue spewed at us from the mouth of an overpaid actor.
So, I hinted around, and for Christmas I received a box of Anne Rice's, The Vampire Chronicles. I immediately fell in love with mysterious and heart-wrenching lives of the vampire duo, Louis and Lestat. Most of all though, I became entranced by Rice's style. Her descriptions and detail were unlike anything I had ever read and anything I have read since. When I open the cover of an Anne Rice novel, I am not just reading words typed out on a page, I am living along with her characters seeing the world Rice has so intricately created through their eyes.
After I completed that first set, I had a thirst not unlike the thirst Rice's vampires must experience that could not be quenched. There are too many nights to count when my mother came into my room and insisted I go to sleep because I could not tear myself away from my precious books. The next saga I sought out was that of the Mayfair witches which spanned three novels, and I was sucked into the world of betrayal and secrets that lay behind the doors of a Garden District mansion in New Orleans.
I continued drinking down one Rice work after another, and then moved on to her lesser known works under assumed names. I have to say that I did enjoy these works, but they are definitely not of the same caliber as her Rice works. They seek more to fulfill the animalistic side of her readers, and I think a little of her craftsmanship is lost in the process.
In 1995 Rice released her first new novel since I had
entered her following, Memnoch the Devil, and it was like Christmas
all over again when I finally had it in my hands. Since then, Rice has
published two more books, Servant of the Bones and Violin.
I own both, but since I have started my college career, the opportunity
for pleasurable readings does not occur as much as I would like. I cherish
every moment I get, though, to lose myself in her enchanted worlds.
Annotated Bibliography:
All of the works mentioned below are the creation of the imagination of Anne Rice.
1. Cry to Heaven. New York: Ballantine, 1982
This is the story of the life of a young Italian man named Tonio Treshi and the trials and glory he experiences after his forced entry into the world of the infamous eighteenth-century castrati.
2. The Feast of All Saints. New York: Ballantine, 1979
Like Cry to Heaven, this is a period piece also focused on a young man, but this boy is a "quadroon" (mixed French and black blood) named Marcel Ste. Marie living in nineteenth- century New Orleans. The story tells of Marcel, his family and friends, and how they lived and loved.
3. Interview with the Vampire: Book I of The Vampire Chronicles. New York: Ballantine, 1976
This book has been very influential in the career of Anne Rice. It was the first novel she ever published, and the story was released as a major motion picture in 1994. It is the only Vampire Chronicle told from the view point of Louis (whom the public knows as Brad Pitt). The story revolves around his transformation and his search for humanity in his now inhuman self.
4. Lasher: Lives of the Mayfair Witches. New York: Ballantine, 1993
This is the second book in the tale of a family of "witches" based in New Orleans. This installment focuses on Rowan Mayfair, and her struggle to release herself and her family from the demonic spirit, Lasher, that possesses them. We also find out the roots of Lasher as an ancient, giant being in old Scotland.
5. Memnoch the Devil: The Vampire Chronicles. New York: Knopf, 1995
This is the conclusion of The Vampire Chronicles which takes us along with the vampire Lestat on his journey to regain his soul in a battle between Heaven and Hell.
6. The Mummy: or Ramses the Damned. New York: Ballantine, 1989
This is the tale of the cursed mummy of an ancient Egyptian ruler, Ramses, brought back to life in nineteenth-century London. We see how he adapts to this new age, and also learn about his tortured past.
7. The Queen of the Damned: Book III of the Vampire Chronicles. New York: Ballantine, 1988
This segment of the chronicles leads Lestat (known to movie-goers as Tom Cruise) on a search to find the origins of the race of the undead.
8. Servant of the Bones. New York: Knoopf, 1996
This is one of Rice's latest novels. It is a story told to a writer named Jonathan by a ghost-like creature named Azriel. Azriel's story starts with his human life in ancient Babylon and takes the reader time-traveling through his supernatural life up until present day Manhattan.
9. The Tale of the Body Thief: The Vampire Chronicles. New York: Ballantine, 1992
This is the fourth novel in The Vampire Chronicles and what I initially assumed to be the last. Here we find Lestat caught up in an experiment to once again feel the warmth of his soul in a human body by switching bodies with a human who has the power to leave his body. Lestat gets more than he bargained for, though, and he almost loses his immortality in exchange.
10. Taltos: Lives of the Mayfair Witches. New York: Ballantine, 1994
This is the conclusion of the story of the Mayfair witches. In order to end the saga, Rice takes the reader along as Lasher (a.k.a. Ashlar) tries to find a mate to carry on his kind.
11. The Vampire Lestat: Book II of The Vampire Chronicles. New York: Ballantine, 1985
Here we are first introduced to Lestat's story. We are taken from his human beginnings, through his re-birth, and his quest for an answer to why he has been chosen to become this new creature.
12. Violin. New York: Knopf, 1997
Rice's newest invention deals solely with a topic she has always injected into her other novels: the seductive powers of music. Here, a woman is possessed through her own music by a demonic ghost and must fight to hold on to her sanity.
13. The Witching Hour. New York: Ballantine, 1990
This is a premier novel in the witchs' saga and it leads
the reader through the extremely intricate web of lineage that makes up
the Mayfair clan.
Works by Anne Rice under the pseudonym: Anne Rampling
14. Belinda. New York: Jove, 1986
In this novel Rice deals with the subject of a forbidden love between an older man and a young run-away girl. The girl seduces the man and gains his aid to help her try and escape her past.
15. Exit to Eden. New York: Ballantine, 1985
Like Interview with the Vampire, this novel also
made it to film, but it was adapted to make it suitable for at least an
"R" rating. The story is set on a private island where people come to give
themselves over to their fantasies, and in the midst the two main characters,
Lisa and Elliot, develop a love rather than just a lust.
Works by Anne Rice under the pseudonym: A.N. Roquelaure
16. Beauty's Punishment. New York: Plume, 1984
This is the second book in this erotic series where Rices dives deep into the subject that underlies almost all her novels in some form or another: sex. But here she strips it down to pure erotica.
17. Beauty's Release. New York: Plume, 1985
This is the conclusion to the set in which the main character, Beauty, is finally set free from the life sexual servitude.
18. The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty. New York: Plume, 1983
This is the initial look into the saga of Beauty where
we learn that Rice has taken a once innocent fairy tale and transformed
it into something that should be strictly for adult eyes only.