Blackwood Farm

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The novel Blackwood Farm (original title: Blackwood Farm ) by the American writer Anne Rice was published in 2002 and is the ninth book from the Chronicle of the Vampires .

The focus of the story is the character Quinn Blackwood with his story of life and suffering.

Content of the vampire novel

The young vampire Tarquin (Quinn for short) Anthony Blackwood enters the house of the vampire Lestat de Liouncourt in New Orleans to ask for his help in the annihilation of a ghost that Quinn calls only a goblin. Goblin, which means goblin , has been a friend and constant companion for Quinn since his earliest childhood who had outwardly taken on his form. However, after transforming into a vampire , Goblin had repeatedly attacked him to suck blood from him.

In Lestat's apartment, which is located on Rue Royale in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Quinn meets his friend Sterling Oliver, who belongs to the secret organization of the Talamasca, and drinks uncontrollably from him until Lestat intervenes.

Family tree of the Blackwood family

Lestat soon feels sympathy for the young vampire and accompanies him to his Blackwood Manor, north of New Orleans near Lake Pontchartrain .

After the acquaintance with Aunt Queen, who is passionate about collecting cameos , Lestat now listens to Quinn's life and suffering story in order to better understand the problem with the ghost Goblin. Quinn tells of his early childhood, youth, his family, the discovery of a hidden hermitage in the swamp and his first love for the witch Mona Mayfair, who can also see ghosts, his growing problems with goblins and finally of his transformation into a vampire by Petronia, a hermaphrodite from Roman times .

After the death of Aunt Queen, which was caused by Goblin, Lestat now assures Quinn of his support and involves Merrick Mayfair, a vampire with magical powers, who, with the help of Quinn's mother, reveals the origin of Goblin. Goblin is the ghost of Quinn's twin brother Garwain, who died in infancy and whose soul is still earthbound.

With the help of Merrick, who has taken the body of the dead twin for the ritual of the expulsion, Goblin is exorcised . However, Merrick went into the flames along with Garwain's body. Afterwards, the terminally ill Mona appears at Blackwood Manor and wants to be transformed from a lestat to a vampire.

Narrative situation and time level

The novel, which is written in the first person perspective by Tarquin Blackwood, is divided into two parts in its narrative structure: The meeting of the vampires Quinn and Lestat, the joint visit to Blackwood Manor and the death of Aunt Queen, the expulsion of Goblin and the offer to transform Monas into a vampire the general plot of the story. Quinn's detailed accounts of his childhood, youth, family, etc., which take up a large part of the novel, however, represent the internal plot on which Rice has set the actual focus. However, the function of the internal plot is not to provide the reader with the necessary information for understanding the framework, which is already given by the letter to Lestat, but rather in the introduction of a new character (Quinn) and the development of the character.

Within this internal plot, which is a flashback , there are still occasional retrospective insertions such as the story about the mistress of Quinn's ancestor Manfred or the story of Petronia about her life as a female gladiator in the Roman Empire .

Motifs

In her work, Rice takes up the binary motif of the doppelganger , which, however, is reversed in the course of the plot and results in a strong bipolarity.

At first, Goblin, whose mirror-image appearance to Quinn is repeatedly emphasized in the novel, acts as Quinn's only "peer" playmate and friend, who gives him the feeling of never being lonely and thus gives him additional security. Goblin, who always appears as an independent personality, is treated almost equally by Quinn (he gets his own chair, food and drink) and both support each other in the learning process. This creates a doppelganger motif with a copulative (connecting) character, where both interactants support each other and build a unique intimate bond.

However, through Quinn's aging, his spiritual maturation, dealing with Mona, the three-year trip to Europe and finally through the transformation into a vampire, the relationship between Quinn and Goblin gradually dissolves, with Goblin increasingly gaining power and for Quinn and his surroundings becomes a danger. There is no longer any communication between the two and the doppelganger spirit only comes to the fore through aggressive behavior. Goblin has developed into a traditional doppelganger in literature who has an adversive (divergent) relationship to its original and should therefore be destroyed.

Historical references

In addition to the occasional references to the recent family history of Quinn Blackwood, the life story of the hermaphrodite Petronia is highlighted separately. Her life as a female gladiator in the Roman Empire, her sale to the Athens- born vampire Arion and her flight from the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD near Pompeii are described.

References to the Chronicle

For the first time, the reader learns what happened to Lestat when he lay lifeless and as if in a coma on the floor of the chapel in St. Elisabeth's convent, which is described by Armand the vampire as well as by Merrick or the guilt of the vampire . By returning his right eye, which he had lost because of Memn, the figures who called themselves "angels" were able to establish contact with him and talk to his spirit. Meanwhile, his body remained motionless in the care of his vampire friends.

References to The Mayfair Witches series

After personal links between the Chronicle and the series The Mayfair Witches (1990–1994) had already been established in Merrick , these are now being expanded more strongly in Blackwood Farm by adding figures of the white Mayfair witches of the Garden District (Mona, Rowan Mayfair and Michael Curry) are actively involved in the story and take part in the action.

review

For Entertainment Weekly, the characters and the plot were a bit ridiculous, but the novel is still a real pleasure for the reader, especially since the story is filled with ghosts, blood and sex, which alone speaks for itself.

Text output

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  1. ↑ See, among others, Forder, Christof: Ich-Eklipsen. Doppelganger in literature since 1800. (= M and P series of publications for science and research) Stuttgart, Weimar 1999; Dettmering, Peter: twin and double fantasy. Literature studies. Würzburg 2006.
  2. ↑ Review of Entertainment Weekly November 6, 2002

Secondary literature

  • Katherine Ramsland / Anne Rice. Prism of the Night. A Biography of Anne Rice . New York: Penguin, 1994.
  • Gary Hoppenstand / Ray B. Browne. The Gothic World of Anne Rice . Twayne Publishers, 1994.
  • Jennifer Smith. Anne Rice - A Critical Companion . Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996.
  • George E. Haggerty. Anne Rice and the Queering of Culture . In: Novel: A Forum on Fiction 32.1, 1998, pp. 5-18.
  • Erwin Jänsch. Softie-Vampir Lestat in: Das Vampirlexikon , Munich: Knaur, 2000, pp. 232-239.
  • Rebecca Cordes. Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" - Myth and History. Osnabrück: Der Andere Verlag, 2004.