Interview With the Vampire

Year Published

1976

Narrator

Third person, Louis's point of view

Summary

In the first of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, a young reporter by the name of Daniel Malloy interviews Louis de Pointe du Lac, a 200 year old vampire. Louis describes his final days as a mortal and the events leading up to his becoming a vampire.

After the death of his younger brother Paul, Louis is left feeling partially responsible for the accident. This makes him vulnerable to the to seduction of Lestat. He accepts the Dark Gift, only to regret it. Louis develops a certain dislike for Lestat, but when he attempts to leave him, Lestat creates a daughter for them, Claudia.

Eventually, Claudia rises against Lestat, and she and Louis flee to Europe in search of others of their kind. In places like Romania, all they find are mindless corpses driven by their need for blood. However, in Paris, they meet Armand, who is leader of the Theater of Vampires. But their surprise, Lestat had not perished as they had thought and awaits them in the theater where Claudia is punished for attempting to destroy her maker. After the loss of his beloved, Louis burns the theater and all the vampires save Armand. The two become companions until they could no longer stand each other. Interview With the Vampire ends with Louis denying Daniel the Dark Gift and the interviewer going off in search of Lestat.