The Vampire Lestat

The Vampire Lestat (1985) is a vampire novel by American writer Anne Rice, the second in her Vampire Chronicles, following Interview with the Vampire (1976). The story is told from the point of view of the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt as narrator, while Interview is narrated by Louis de Pointe du Lac. Several events in the two books appear to contradict each other, allowing the reader to decide which version of events they believe to be accurate.

Plot summary
The book opens in the 1980s, with Lestat coming out of the ground after a decades long sleep, awakened by a rock and roll band named "Satan's Night Out." He reveals his name and that he is a vampire, but the band believes he is joking as, in this world, Interview with the Vampire is a published novel and they recognize the name 'Lestat' from the book. As a response to Louis's recollections in Interview with the Vampire, Lestat decides to publish his own autobiography and create a rock album. He hopes that the attention will help him to find and reunite with the vampires he's loved, including Louis, and also craves the excitement of a potential human-vampire conflict as he reveals vampire secrets to the world.

Lestat's autobiography opens with his life as the youngest son of an impoverished noble family in the 18th century Auvergne countryside. His family is proud but poor and Lestat has few prospects. He longs to join a monastery to learn to read and improve himself, but is denied this education. As a teen, he becomes captivated by traveling actors and flees with a troupe, but his father and brothers catch and beat him following this escape attempt. By age 20, Lestat is recognized as a talented hunter and the townsfolk send him to kill the wolves harassing their village. The wolves are more numerous than expected, and his dogs and horse are killed in the fight with Lestat barely surviving. Lestat begins to spiral into an existential depression after this battle. His mother, Gabrielle, encourages him to connect with Nicolas de Lenfent, a tailor's son who has recently returned from Paris. He does so, and he and Nicki connect over their hopes, despairs, and rebellious love for the arts. They escape to Paris, gaining jobs at a theater. Nicki is attempting to become a violinist but feels he began too late to become truly prodigious. Lestat meanwhile shines onstage, going from stage hand to ever greater roles and recognition for his charm.

One of Lestat's admirers in the audience turns out to be a centuries-old vampire, Magnus. Magnus has been hunting young men with Lestat's build and coloring, looking for an heir to his powers. Magnus kidnaps Lestat from the bed he shares with Nicki and keeps him prisoner. Lestat calls to God for salvation and continually refuses the offer to be turned, but Magnus turns him into a vampire by force. Magnus then kills himself as the centuries have made him mad, but leaves Lestat with a vast fortune. Lestat is both horrified and exhilarated by his newfound abilities. He learns that he is able to mingle with humans, but he knows friends and family would recognize his changed nature. He avoids his loved ones, showering them with gifts as a means to compensate for his absence. He tries to take victims whom he considers at least somewhat malicious, such as cutthroats who attack him, as he feels love for humanity even as he thrills in the intoxication of killing. Lestat struggles immensely with loneliness as he watches Nicki and his theatre troupe from afar. Nicki maintains that he heard Lestat screaming as he was taken from their room, but the others think Nicki is imagining things and suspect Lestat married rich. Lestat buys the theater and ensures they are provided for fully. Eventually, he cannot resist checking in on Nicki and the theatre, but he becomes overwhelmed by their scents and the possibility of taking them as victims. Delirious from the horror of his circumstances, Lestat winds up revealing his powers on stage - sending the human audience into a confused panic. After this, he feels he is irreconcilably inhuman and that his attempts to be moral have been a sham. He begins taking innocent victims. All the while he is haunted by a mysterious supernatural presence that refuses to approach.

Lestat's mother, Gabrielle, dying of consumption, becomes suspicious as his letters no longer seem truly happy. She arrives in Paris to see Lestat for herself before she dies. To save her, Lestat transforms her into a vampire. Gabrielle takes to the freedom of vampirism immediately, shedding the feminine clothes and roles she never longed for to become almost a new being. The pair runs afoul of the Children of Darkness, a coven of devil-worshipping vampires led by Armand, who disapprove of their lifestyle of mingling with humanity and enjoying the pleasures of society. Armand's coven attacks them but finds them challenging to capture. Armand then kidnaps Nicolas to force Lestat and Gabrielle to come to his rescue. Lestat learns that he and Gabrielle go against coven law in many ways, including their strength, as it is forbidden for an ancient vampire like Magnus to pass along his powers. After a heated debate, Lestat turns Armand's coven to chaos by telling them their superstitions about serving Satan and avoiding churches are baseless and have no more evidence than his approach of living well. With the coven conflicted, Lestat escapes with Nicolas, who begs to become a vampire. Nicolas feels abandoned by Lestat and is suspicious that vampirism is a secret of the nobility that Lestat and Gabrielle hid from him. He is insistent that Lestat turn him, which Lestat reluctantly does. In drinking his blood Lestat sees that Nicki is full of emptiness and despair.

Armand seeks Lestat out again, this time joining him at a ball and attempting to seduce him. Once he has Lestat's attentions, he tries to drain him - but Lestat is surprisingly resilient and able to beat Armand. Armand begs to be allowed companionship with Lestat, Gabrielle, and Nicolas - telling him he has insights into the ancient vampires as he was made by a Roman vampire, Marius de Romanus. He also warns Lestat that he will never find true companionship by making other vampires - as a veil exists between the minds of makers and fledglings and fledglings inevitably resent their makers. Lestat refuses Armand, feeling that Armand's need for purpose could not be fulfilled by him - and that Armand's desperation for a doctrine to live by would consume them all. Lestat offers Armand the theater as a new home, as the cemetery where Armand based his coven is set to be demolished. Armand and Nicolas, along with the few vampires Armand allows to live from his prior coven, found the Theatre des Vampires. They begin to write and compose disturbing melodies and plays to perform in front of human audiences. Lestat cannot bear to see the corruption of the theatre he once saw as the embodiment of goodness and he and Nicki fight bitterly. Nicki scorns Lestat's attempts at morality and generosity, considering Lestat ridiculous for attempting to retain morality as a deadly creature of darkness. Nicki commits to the theatre and Lestat decides to travel onwards with Gabrielle.

Still compelled by the idea of Armand's ancient maker, Marius, Lestat leaves messages carved into rock in numerous places while traveling, hoping Marius will see them. Lestat and Gabrielle voyage out of France for several years, though Lestat knows it cannot last as Gabrielle never craved motherhood and wishes to pursue her own ends. Lestat receives updates from the theatre, and learns that Nicki's madness has spiraled beyond the control of the other vampires. They fear he will expose them. Severely depressed, Nicolas eventually commits suicide by throwing himself into a ceremonial bonfire. Lestat mourns Nicki, as well as his human brothers who have died in the French Revolution. Gabrielle tells Lestat she is ready to pursue her own travels and study of the natural world, intending to go into deep jungles away from humanity and its norms. Lestat is a creature who loves cities, art, and humanity - and so they part. Lestat promises Gabrielle that he will live and not give up, but he is soon overcome by his losses and descends into the earth to sleep. He thinks about the human lives he is sparing by decaying underground.

Lestat is awoken from his slumber by Marius, who takes him to his Mediterranean home. Marius shares his past with Lestat, and shows him the progenitors of all vampires—Those Who Must Be Kept—Akasha and Enkil. He tells of a catastrophe in which Akasha and Enkil were exposed to the sun. Because they are the root of all vampires, the sunlight hitting them burned and killed all but the oldest vampires of the world, who withstood it in a profoundly damaged state. Marius was made by one of these surviving vampires, in order to discover what had caused the calamity. Marius is able to get the story out of Akasha and Enkil's former keeper, and he takes the King and Queen to safeguard them. This explains why there are relatively few vampires in the world, as their population once dwindled to almost none. Following the story, Marius leaves on an outing and warns Lestat not to disturb Akasha and Enkil. But Lestat feels compelled to see them and takes Nicolas's violin down to play. The music awakens them and Akasha feeds from Lestat as Lestat feeds from her. Enkil, furious, attacks and nearly kills Lestat. He is saved by Marius and sent away. Marius explains that he finds purpose in eternity by guarding these old ones, as well as in scholarly pursuits and a commitment to drink the blood of evildoers. But he says Lestat is not able to stay with him and share these goals now. Marius advises him to live one "human" lifetime and make fledglings out of love to be his companions. Marius tells him that he was made too young, and without a strong foundation of a first human lifetime, he will not have the personal strength to endure immortality.

The next section of the book briefly recounts the events from Interview with the Vampire from Lestat's perspective. He shares his arrival in New Orleans, his love for Louis, and remorse at recklessly turning Claudia into a child vampire. He also gives conflicting accounts to Louis' statements, saying he generally kept to his goal of drinking from evildoers, but that Louis was too consumed with his own angst to pay much mind to Lestat's motivations. Nevertheless, he feels Claudia was justified in her attempt to kill him, as Lestat's domineering control and secrecy, combined with the selfish crime of committing Claudia to eternity in a helpless, 5 year old form, made their situation untenable. He states that he probably would've done the same in her position. After Claudia's attempt to murder him, Lestat reveals that he went to Armand in Paris to beg for powerful blood to heal his wounds. Armand refused and manipulated the weakened Lestat to make him testify against Claudia, who Armand believed should not exist as a child vampire and a burden to Louis. After the trial in which Claudia is destroyed, Armand lies by claiming that he has also destroyed Louis in the ensuring battle. Armand tells Lestat he has not forgiven his prior rejection and destruction of his coven from centuries ago and that Lestat was foolish to expect his help. He pushes Lestat out of a tower to incapacitate him. After recovering somewhat physically, Lestat returns to New Orleans, and gives another conflicting account to the end of Interview with the Vampire, saying he never spoke with Louis in his rotting house, only Armand. He wastes away reading novels and drinking from animals for several years, becoming a wraithlike creature, before going to sleep in the earth.

The book returns to the present, with Lestat and his band successfully launching their rock career. He receives several threats from other vampires but dismisses them and schedules a major concert to take place in San Francisco, On the eve of the concert, Louis tracks Lestat down to the remote home where he's preparing with his band and they share a forgiving and romantic reunion. Louis has read Lestat's autobiography during their time apart, just as Lestat read Louis's Interview with the Vampire, so they arrive at a greater understanding of one another's history and mindset. Lestat proceeds with the concert, with Louis accompanying him backstage and the two sharing a kiss before the show. However, the concert is attacked by vampires who oppose Lestat's revelations about their nature and history. Louis and Lestat fight through the crowd, but are outnumbered. Mysteriously, the vampires attacking Louis and Lestat begin to burst into flames. Gabrielle drives in as she has been tracking Lestat's recent rise to superstardom and the three escape in her car. It is then revealed that Lestat's concert has awakened Akasha, who burned the attacking vampires. The book ends on a cliffhanger, as Lestat feels Akasha arrive to kidnap him for some unknown purpose.

Publication
The Vampire Lestat was released on October 31, 1985. Told from the point of view of Lestat, who was previously introduced in Interview with the Vampire, the novel explores the titular vampire's backstory. The Vampire Lestat also reinforces and expands upon Rice's vampire mythology, and The New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani noted, "We learn lots of 'facts' about vampires and vampire culture. We learn that they cry tears of blood, that they're capable of reading other people's minds, that they can be destroyed by fire and sunlight. We learn that 'no vampire may ever destroy another vampire, except that the coven master has the power of life and death over all of his flock'; and we learn that 'no vampire shall ever reveal his true nature to a mortal and allow that mortal to live'."

Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat
The Vampire Lestat was adapted into a comic and released as a 12-part miniseries by Innovation Comics in 1990 and 1991. The comic, which was formally titled Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat and featured Daerick Gross and Mike Okamoto as lead artists, had a script adapted from the novel by Rice and Faye Perozich. In 1991 the entire series was published as a graphic novel by Ballantine.

Queen of the Damned
Parts of The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned were loosely adapted into the 2002 film, Queen of the Damned. The film was a critical failure, and disappointed some viewers. Rice herself dismissed the film. On her Facebook page, any time the subject was brought up, she repeatedly commented that The Queen of the Damned film is not something she could understand or embrace, that she encouraged them not to do the film and that it hurt her to see her work "mutilated" the way it was.

Lestat: The Musical
The novel formed the basis for the short-lived 2006 Broadway show Lestat. The musical, which was composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin and written by Linda Woolverton, had a pre-Broadway tryout in California in late 2005 and ran for a total of 33 previews and 39 official performances at the Palace Theater in New York.

Television
In November 2016, Rice announced on Facebook that the rights to her novels were reverted to her despite earlier plans for other adaptations. Rice said that she and her son Christopher would be developing and executive producing a potential television series based on the novels. In April 2017, they teamed up with Paramount Television and Anonymous Content to develop a series. As of early 2018, Bryan Fuller was involved with the creation of a potential TV series based on the novels. On July 17, 2018, it was announced that the series was in development at streaming service Hulu and that Fuller had departed the production. As of December 2019, Hulu's rights had expired and Rice was shopping a package including all film and TV rights to the series. In May 2020, it was announced that AMC had acquired the rights to The Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches for developing film and television projects with Anne and Christopher Rice serving as executive producers on any projects developed.

Interview with the Vampire premiered on October 2, 2022, and Mayfair Witches on January 8, 2023. The second season of Interview with the Vampire will include flashbacks to some of the events of The Vampire Lestat, including glimpses of Lestat's life as an actor in the 18th century, his relationship with Nicolas, and his meeting and conflict with Armand. If renewed for future seasons, the show will continue to adapt material from The Vampire Lestat and subsequent novels in the series.

The show was renewed in June 2024 with the emphasis of adapting the novel and focusing on the character of Lestat.

Audiobooks
There have been three audiobook adaptations of The Vampire Lestat: a 1989 abridged version narrated by Michael York; a 1994 unabridged version narrated by Frank Muller; and a 2011 unabridged version narrated by Simon Vance.

Critical reception
The Vampire Lestat debuted at No. 9 on The New York Times Best Seller list, spending a total of six weeks on the list. The New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani found Rice's vampire mythology "more compelling than the rest of the novel", and wrote, "While Lestat's not an unlikable vampire ... it's hard to take his dilemmas all that seriously." Kirkus Reviews wrote that "Rice dots Lestat's tale with some marvelous chillers ... vampire bonanza in appropriate dark, humid, spider-web narrative—Rice's specialty" Reviewing the audiobook adaptation, AudioFile wrote that "the plot twists are difficult to follow at times".

Dave Langford reviewed The Vampire Lestat for White Dwarf #86, and stated that "[Rice is] audacious enough to propound an acceptable 'origin story' for vampirism, and to move from dark old Egyptian mysteries to the extremes of twentieth-century Dionysian ecstasy as Lestat gives his first live rock performance. Nice one."