The Lord of Darkness
The novel The Prince of Darkness (original title: The Vampire Lestat ) was published in 1985 by the American writer Anne Rice and is the second book in the Chronicle of the Vampires .
The focus of the plot is the vampire Lestat, who wants to become a rock star in the late 20th century and publishes his autobiography in preparation for his career .
Content of the vampire novel
City center. Saturday night in the twentieth century. 1984
In 1929 the vampire Lestat went underground in New Orleans and awoke from his sleep after 55 years. Then he goes to a rock band and wants to start as a singer. Before that he learns about the novel Conversation with a Vampire , which appeared in 1976 while he was sleeping.
Apprenticeship and adventures of the vampire Lestat
Lestat de Lioncourt belongs to an impoverished French aristocratic family and lives in the Auvergne . In January 1779 he set out to kill a wolf pack. Then he goes into shock. After a delegation of traders from the village of Lestat presented gifts, he met Nicolas de Lenfent again, with whom Lestat developed a friendly relationship. His mother Gabrielle gives Lestat money so that he and Nicolas can flee to Paris. Here they live in a small attic room on the Île de la Cité and both Lestat and Nicolas can work in a theater on the Boulevard du Temple .
In the middle of the night Lestat is kidnapped by a figure who drinks his blood again and finally offers him his own blood after some struggle. Lestat drinks and becomes Magnus' successor, who then goes into the fire. With the money and jewels that Magnus left him, he bought the theater on the Boulevard du Temple. Lestat returns to the theater out of longing. During an appearance on stage, he terrifies the audience. They flee the theater, whereupon Lestat closes the theater. Shortly afterwards, his seriously ill mother comes to Paris and wants to see Lestat.
He visits her and turns her into a vampire. The next evening they are overwhelmed by other vampires and taken to the Les Innocents cemetery , where Nicolas was also abducted. Here it is explained to them that the vampires formed an order many years ago and spend their lives as outcasts and children of the devil. After that, Lestat turns Nicolas into a vampire. Back in Paris, he meets a part of the vampire order who survived Armands' destruction inferno and they ask him for help. He therefore gives them the theater as a hiding place and leaves the theater of the vampires to the vampires, Nicolas and Armand. Before that, Lestat met Armand, who reveals his story to them: as a child he was kidnapped by Tatars from Russia and came to Venice to the vampire Marius, who takes care of those who need to be preserved and who turns Armand into a vampire. However, Marius is burned to death by a group of vampires and Armand is accepted into the Vampire Order. After that, Armand is ready to join the Théâtre des Vampires . Since then Lestat has been leaving messages for the old vampire Marius.
Gabrielle and Lestat travel the world. After their separation, Lestat buries himself in the ground until Marius finds him and wakes him up. In his hiding place on an island in the Aegean Sea , Marius Lestat shows those who have to be preserved , the petrified vampires Akasha and Enkil, and tells him his story: The Roman Marius is kidnapped in Massilia by the druid Mael and made a vampire by a Celtic god. After his escape, he travels to Egypt to bring Akasha and Enkil to a safe hiding place.
Dionysus in San Francisco. 1985
Lestat and Louis meet again for the first time in San Francisco . He then accompanies Lestat to his concert, where both are then attacked by other vampires who are suddenly destroyed by bright lightning bolts. Both escape in a car driven by Gabrielle, who has returned. Both she and Louis can feel the unknown power of an evil being. Lestat tries to contact Marius and learns that everyone is in danger and that Akasha was awakened by Lestat's music.
construction
Like Conversation with a Vampire, the novel contains elements of a travel and adventure novel . The protagonist Lestat finds himself in a changed situation within the framework of the plot , which consists of the events of 1984 (awakening, concert). The internal plot is a coherent flashback in the form of an autobiography, which can be viewed as independent, especially due to its centered position within the work, and has hardly any references to the framework plot. The elements of the travel novel also only appear within this plot, whereby the motivation for the journey itself is secondary, but its increase in knowledge becomes particularly clear in the meeting with Marius (see pp. 405–479). Furthermore, the internal plot contains two flashbacks (Marius' and Armand's story), which put both the motifs and the experiences of the secondary characters in the foreground. However, the protagonist is not subject to any personal development within the plot, although this takes up a period of over 200 years.
The narrative flow of the internal plot is increased and continuously maintained at the beginning of the novel by the story of the wolves. The transition from the internal to the framework action is evenly shaped by reducing events and dialogues. The end of the novel is characterized by a narrative climax, whereby the tension is not relieved, since a character of the internal plot now unexpectedly appears in the frame plot, and thus represents an open ending: “My lips remained silent and I lost consciousness. The sun had risen ”(p. 607). This increase in tension at the end is produced by some statements made by the secondary character who feel a foreign power (see p. 601 ff.). Lestat summarizes this in the third volume as follows: "And when I left you at the time, at the end of the last chapter, it was meanwhile at the most exciting point" ( The Queen of the Damned , p. 11).
background
After Anne Rice gained commercial importance through conversation with a vampire and the readers asked for a sequel, her second vampire novel was published nine years later, in 1985, the content of which was also planned as a sequel, which ultimately resulted in a chronicle.
The representation of the vampires and their properties is largely based on the other vampire novels that Bram Stoker's Dracula had coined. The vampires of the Chronicle also sleep in coffins, drink human blood, have an appearance that distinguishes them from humans and avoid the sun. In addition, more influenced by romantic vampire novels , a sensual aspect is ascribed to them, which is particularly evident in the drinking of blood, which is described as ecstasy. There is also a reduction in the classic vampire elements in the novels. a. turning into animals (bat, cat) and the empty reflection does not appear, but at the same time, more modern properties such as flying, telepathic and telekinetic skills were ascribed to the vampires. The protagonists themselves address this deviation from the typical characteristics: “She set up the candles in front of the mirror and looked at her face” (p. 176).
Narrative situation and time level
The novel is written from the perspective of the first-person narrator whose role is played by the vampire Lestat: “I am the vampire Lestat. I am immortal ”(p. 9). This narrative situation creates a feeling of identity between the recipient and the narrator and lets him participate directly in the action. However, the narrator describes what happened from a temporal distance, which makes him more mature and more experienced than his “experiencing self” and gives the action a subjective character. The blurb speaks of a "[...] baroque-sensual reading pleasure from the fantastic world of night figures." Here, other first-person narrators appear in longer passages in the description of the actual first-person narrator, which causes a change of perspective.
These other narrators (Marius, Armand) cause flashbacks ( analepse ) within the time level of Lestat's narrative and contribute particularly to the understanding of the narrative characters and the context.
Historical references
In contrast to the first book, there are now several references to history. Lestat's origins from the impoverished petty nobility and Nicolas's family and friends, who belong to the rising bourgeoisie (see p. 78 f.), Reflect in two extremes the situation in France at the time in the 18th century. The murder of Lestat's brothers in Auvergne in the context of the French Revolution (see p. 377 f.) Is also presented. Furthermore, the location of the Théâtre des Vampires on Boulevard du Temple (see p. 77) corresponds to the importance of the square as a place of entertainment theaters at the time.
Cinematic implementation
The novel The Prince of Darkness was filmed together with The Queen of the Damned in 2001 with Aaliyah (Akasha) and Stuart Townsend (Lestat) under the title Queen of the Damned . The film differs greatly from the novel. Anne Rice said she did not see the film as part of her work.
Text output
- Rice, Anne: The Vampire Lestat . Alfred A. Knopf 1985.
- Rice, Anne: The Prince of Darkness . Goldmann 2006, ISBN 3-442-46239-8
Secondary literature
- Erwin Jänsch. “Softie-Vampire Lestat” in: Das Vampirlexikon , Munich: Knaur, 2000, pp. 232–239.
- Jennifer Smith. "The Vampire Lestat" in: Anne Rice - A Critical Companion . Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996. pp. 43-63.