The spellbinding classic that started it all, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author—the inspiration for the hit television series “A magnificent, compulsively readable thriller . . . Rice begins where Bram Stoker and the Hollywood versions leave off and penetrates directly to the true fascination of the myth—the education of the vampire.”—Chicago Tribune Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly sensual, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force—a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.
An exploration of the continuing appeal of vampires in cultural and social history. Our enduring love of vampires—the bad boys (and girls) of paranormal fantasy—has persisted for centuries. Despite being bloodthirsty, heartless killers, vampire stories commonly carry erotic overtones that are missing from other paranormal or horror stories. Even when monstrous teeth are sinking into pale, helpless throats—especially then—vampires are sexy. But why? In A History Of The Vampire In Popular Culture, author Violet Fenn takes the reader through the history of vampires in “fact” and fiction, their origins in mythology and literature, and their enduring appeal on TV and film. We’ll delve into the sexuality--and sexism--of vampire lore, as well as how modern audiences still hunger for a pair of sharp fangs in the middle of the night.
See the difference, read #1 bestselling author Anne Rice in Large Print * About Large Print All Random House Large Print editions are published in a 16-point typeface In the latest installment of The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice summons up dazzling worlds to bring us the story of Armand - eternally young, with the face of a Botticelli angel. Armand, who first appeared in all his dark glory more than twenty years ago in the now-classic Interview with the Vampire, the first of The Vampire Chronicles, the novel that established its author worldwide as a magnificent storyteller and creator of magical realms. Now, we go with Armand across the centuries to the Kiev Rus of his boyhood - a ruined city under Mongol dominion - and to ancient Constantinople, where Tartar raiders sell him into slavery. And in a magnificent palazzo in the Venice of the Renaissance we see him emotionally and intellectually in thrall to the great vampire Marius, who masquerades among humankind as a mysterious, reclusive painter and who will bestow upon Armand the gift of vampiric blood. As the novel races to its climax, moving through scenes of luxury and elegance, of ambush, fire, and devil worship to nineteenth-century Paris and today's New Orleans, we see its eternally vulnerable and romantic hero forced to choose between his twilight immortality and the salvation of his immortal soul.
Throughout history, around the world, there are many examples of the mass disappearance of people living in small towns. Easter Island in 1718, Hoer Verde, Brazil, in 1923, Lake Anjikuni, Nunavut, Canada in 1930, Roanoke Island, Virginia in 1587, all were found deplete of humanity. Meals remained rotting on dinner tables, pets wandered aimlessly, not a soul to be found. The same ancient evil that devastated these places has arrived in a small eastern Colorado town. A fog covers the small town and closes in on Tom Benton and his family. Susan Benton watches the day turn to night from the inside of a store. She is determined to get home to warn her husband and son of all the destruction she witnesses. The evil that lurks within the fog feeds on humanity but has special plans for those with anger deep inside. Bobby Benton has seen the face of evil outside his bedroom window in the darkest hours of the night. The man who appears at his window offers a veil of redemption to those holding onto anger and rage.Let me in.....As the fog wraps around the Benton family home there will only be a narrow chance at survival. The evil that has gathered outside seeks a way in, but young Bobby Benton knows the true risk may be the secrets each member of the family holds. The greatest danger may not be the violent, evil creatures who await them, but each other. Can Tom Benton and his family escape the issues of their past in time to save themselves from Croatoan?
Warning - this book contains some swearing and has a cliffhanger ending! Blood doesn't just make her who she is...it also makes her what she is. Like being a sixteen-year-old vampire isn't hard enough, Tessa's throwback human genes make her an outcast among her relatives. But try as she might, she can't get a handle on the vampire lifestyle and all the...blood. Turning her back on the vamp world, she embraces the human teenage lifestyle--high school, peer pressure and finding a boyfriend. Jared manages to stir something in her blood. He's smart and fun and oh, so cute. But Tessa's dream of having the perfect boyfriend turns into a nightmare when vampires attack the movie theatre and kidnap her date. Once again, Tessa finds herself torn between the human world and the vampire one. Will blood own out? Can she make peace with who she is as well as what?
A collection of stories features a pair of centuries-old vampires whose relationship is tested by a sudden fear of flying, a dejected teen who communicates with the universe, and a massage therapist who heals a tattooed veteran by manipulating the imageson his body.
Prominent examples from contemporary vampire literature expose a desire to re-evaluate and re-work the long-standing, folkloristic interpretation of the vampire as the immortal undead. This book explores the "new vampire" as a literary trope, offering a comprehensive critical analysis of vampires in contemporary popular literature and demonstrating how they engage with essential cultural preoccupations, anxieties, and desires. Drawing from cultural materialism, anthropology, psychoanalysis, literary criticism, gender studies, and postmodern thought, Piatti-Farnell re-frames the concept of the vampire in relation to a distinctly twenty-first century brand of Gothic imagination, highlighting important aesthetic, conceptual, and cultural changes that have affected the literary genre in the post-2000 era. She places the contemporary literary vampire within the wider popular culture scope, also building critical connections with issues of fandom and readership. In reworking the formulaic elements of the vampiric tradition — and experimenting with genre-bending techniques — this book shows how authors such as J.R. Ward, Stephanie Meyers, Charlaine Harris, and Anne Rice have allowed vampires to be moulded into enigmatic figures who sustain a vivid conceptual debt to contemporary consumer and popular culture. This book highlights the changes — conceptual, political and aesthetic — that vampires have undergone in the past decade, simultaneously addressing how these changes in "vampire identity" impact on the definition of the Gothic as a whole.
Vampires have been a popular subject for writers since their inception in 19th century Gothic literature and, later, became popular with filmmakers. Now the classical vampire is extinct, and in its place are new vampires who embrace the hi-tech worlds of science fiction. This book is the first to examine the history of vampires in science fiction. The first part considers the role of science and pseudo-science, from late Victorian to modern times, in the creation of the vampire, as well as the "sensation fiction" of J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells. The second part focuses on the history of the science fiction vampire in the cinema, from the silent era to the present. More than sixty films are discussed, including films from such acclaimed directors as Roger Corman, David Cronenberg, Guillermo del Toro and Steven Spielberg, among others.
First in a delightfully irreverent new series-and second to none when it comes to beautiful 227-year-old career women. Being dead isn't all it's cracked up to be. Take it from Francesca Marinelli, trapped underground for over 200 years and rediscovered during the renovation of a Victorian mansion in historic St. Augustine. A tourist attraction herself, she's well suited for a job as an Old Ghost Town Tour guide. Francesca's due for a new lease on afterlife-and with enough sunblock, she can finally live it. Unfortunately, everything she learned about men is a little dated. And when people in her tour group turn up dead, naturally the police suspect her. After all, she is a vampire. Which is why a crazed vampire-hunting vigilante squad is out to get her as well. Between the dead bodies, the stalkers, and a seriously non-existent love life, she's starting to wish she was dead. Or at least buried, where she was safe.
This book brings together a wide variety of historical, critical, and literary texts that reveal and discover the origins, growth, and development of the vampire myth from its beginnings to the 21st century.
