cludes that he has somehow become invisible. His
bewilderment increases when he stumbles upon his
own gravestone, leading to the revelation that he
has died and somehow been resurrected countless
centuries in the future. Although there is very lit-
tle actual plot, the dead narrator and the graveyard
setting became a staple of early weird fiction, most
notably in THE KING IN YELLOW(1895) by Robert
W. Chambers and even some heroic fantasy. Bierce
used deceased narrators in other stories as well, in-
cluding his much better-known “AN OCCURRENCE
AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE” (1891).
Interview with the VampireAnne Rice(1976)
It is not likely to surprise any of her readers to
learn that Anne RICEhad already successfully writ-
ten erotic fiction before turning her hand to vam-
pires with this, the first in her popular and
long-running series. Although she was not the first
to transform the unclean, undead, soulless blood
drinkers of Bram STOKERand J. Sheridan LE FANU
into mysterious, romantic figures, she is certainly
the single writer most responsible for popularizing
this revisionist characterization and promoting
them to the best-seller lists. The romantic or mis-
understood vampire is now so firmly entrenched
that it is virtually a subgenre of its own.
The success of the Lestat series lies in the depth
of Rice’s characterization, the intricacies of the
vampire subculture she describes in great detail,
portraying it as a separate and distinct society living
concealed inside our own, and the evocative por-
traits of New Orleans and other historical locations.
Lestat is an older vampire, while his companion,
Louis, is a more recent convert, but in many ways
the most interesting character from the first novel is
Claudia, an immortal trapped in the body of a child.
The plot is framed as Louis’s conversation with a
contemporary journalist, and Lestat appears as an
almost peripheral character, although he becomes
more fully developed in the sequels. Although
Rice’s vampires are evil in the sense that they prey
on humans without remorse, there is also an ele-
ment of nobility and honor. The overlay of sexual
tension is sometimes extraordinarily powerful.
Many of Rice’s subsequent novels continue
the story of Lestat and his vampire kindred. In
order of publication they are The Vampire Lestat
(1985), Queen of the Damned(1988), The Tale of
the Body Thief(1992), Memnoch the Devil(1995),
Pandora(1998), Vittorio the Vampire(1999), Mer-
rick(2000), Blood and Gold (2001), Blackwood
Farm(2002), and Blood Canticle (2003). Many
other writers have attempted to blend vampires
and romance fiction, some quite successfully, but
none have ever rivaled Rice’s popularity. Interview
with the Vampirewas filmed in 1994, and Queen of
the Damnedin 2002.ItStephen King(1986)
It has been obvious for some time that Stephen
KINGis highly skilled at capturing the essence of
childhood. Stories such as “The Body” and some of
the early scenes in ’Salem’s Lot(1975) describe the
interactions of children with a degree of verisimili-
tude and with such obviously affectionate nostalgia
that many of these portions of his stories are more
vivid and memorable than the climactic scenes of
horror. In none of his work is this more clearly dis-
played than in It,which alternates between the
past in which the various protagonists were child-
hood friends and the present in which they are re-
called by an old promise to a final battle with an
ancient evil being who they once defeated, but
never destroyed, when they were younger.
At intervals of several years, the small town of
Derry, Maine, is troubled by the unsolved disap-
pearances of children. The agent of their abduction
manifests itself as Pennywise the Clown, certainly
one of King’s most memorable monsters. Horror
writers and filmmakers have known for years that
clowns are a rich source of troubling images, but
few have done as effective a job of exploiting that
asset. Pennywise can alter the perceptions of his
victims, bring static figures to life, change the size
and shape of his own body, and perhaps even
read minds.
King does a superb job of showing two differ-
ent slices of each character’s life. A girl raised by
an abusive father seeks out abusive lovers as an
adult. A boy with a frustrating stutter pursues life
as a stage comedian, and an introverted intellec-
tual becomes a professional writer of horror stories.
As children, they banded together against a gangIt 177