Interview with the Vampire

Anne Rice, an American author, published her debut, the Gothic horror novel Interview with the Vampire, in 1976. It centres on the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac, who recounts his life to a reporter, and it grew out of a short story Rice wrote around 1968. Many sequels followed, known collectively as The Vampire Chronicles.

Louis describes his transformation into a vampire at Lestat's hands, Lestat being the charming and sinister older vampire who made him, and the way he was pulled into that existence against his will. His story moves through New Orleans and defines the moments that matter to him, including his discovery of the lost young child Claudia. He makes her a vampire rather than let her die, which traps her intelligence and will inside a body that never ages.

Claudia becomes Louis's companion against Lestat, and the three of them form a household that is also a set of grievances. Rice began the novel soon after her young daughter died, and that daughter is the model for Claudia. The book's vampires are introspective and emotional rather than purely predatory.

The novel was followed by many volumes, and it was adapted into a film in 1994, a television series in 2022 and comics. The first book is told almost entirely in Louis's voice as an interview.