The Vampire Lestat

By
Anne Rice
This book is dedicated with love to Stan Rice, Karen O'Brien, and Allen Daviau
"WONDERFUL . . . THE BEST NEWS IS THAT THIS IS THE MIDDLE BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES OF THE VAMPIRES. " Playboy
"Where Rice excels is in evoking the elusive nature of vampiric sexuality, the urgency of the quest for self- knowledge, the thin line between arrogance and terror, the loneliness of what is necessarily a solitary existence. " Houston Post
"Lestat is more than a sequel to Interview; it's also a prequel and a supplement, swallowing the earlier novel whole.... Lestat is fiercely ambitious, nothing less than a complete unnatural history of vampires.... In Anne Rice's hands, vampires have come of age. They now have a history and a vital new tradition; instead of creeping about in charnel houses, they stand center stage, with a thousand spotlights on them. And they smile straight at the camera, licking without shame their voluptuous lips and white, sharp teeth. " The Village Voice

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT 1
Downtown Saturday Night In The Twentieth Century 4
1984 4
The Early Education And Adventures Of The Vampire Lestat 16
Part I - Lelio Rising 16
Part II - The Legacy of Magnus 53
Part III - Viaticum For The Marquise 102
Part IV - The Children Of Darkness 140
Part V - The Vampire Armand 184
Part VI -On The Devil's Road From Paris To Cairo 219
Part VII - Ancient Magic, Ancient Mysteries 247

Downtown Saturday Night In The Twentieth Century 1984

I am The Vampire Lestat. I'm immortal. More or less. The light of the sun, the sustained heat of an intense fire-these things might destroy me. But then again, they might not. I'm six feet tall, which was fairly impressive in the 1780s when I was a young mortal man. It's not bad now. I have thick blond hair, not quite shoulder length, and rather curly, which appears white under fluorescent light. My eyes are gray, but they absorb the colors blue or violet easily from surfaces around them. And I have a fairly short narrow nose, and a mouth that is well shaped but just a little too big for my face. It can look very mean, or extremely generous, my mouth. It always looks sensual. But emotions and attitudes are always reflected in my entire expression. I have a continuously animated face. My vampire nature reveals itself in extremely white and highly reflective skin that has to be powdered down for cameras of any kind. And if I'm starved for blood I look like a perfect horrorskin shrunken, veins like ropes over the contours of my bones. But I don't let that happen now. And the only consistent indication that I am not human is my fingernails. It's the same with all vampires. Our fingernails look like glass. And some people notice that when they don't notice anything else. Right now I am what America calls a Rock Superstar. My first album has sold 4 million copies. I'm going to San Francisco for the first spot on a nationwide concert tour that will take my band ...

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