• Interview with the Vampire

  • By: Anne Rice
  • Narrated by: Simon Vance
  • Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (11,396 ratings)

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Interview with the Vampire  By  cover art

Interview with the Vampire

By: Anne Rice
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Publisher's summary

40th ANNIVERSARY EDITION • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author, "a magnificent, compulsively readable thriller...Rice begins where Bram Stoker and the Hollywood versions leave off and penetrates directly to the true fascination of the myth—the education of the vampire” (Chicago Tribune). • The inspiration for the hit television series

The time is now.

We are in a small room with the vampire, face to face, as he speaks--as he pours out the hypnotic, shocking, moving, and erotically charged confessions of his first two hundred years as one of the living dead. . .

He speaks quietly, plainly, even gently . . . carrying us back to the night when he departed human existence as heir--young, romantic, cultivated--to a great Louisiana plantation, and was inducted by the radiant and sinister Lestat into the other, the "endless," life . . . learning first to sustain himself on the blood of cocks and rats caught in the raffish streets of New Orleans, then on the blood of human beings . . . to the years when, moving away from his final human ties under the tutelage of the hated yet necessary Lestat, he gradually embraces the habits, hungers, feelings of vampirism: the detachment, the hardened will, the "superior" sensual pleasures.

He carries us back to the crucial moment in a dark New Orleans street when he finds the exquisite lost young child Claudia, wanting not to hurt but to comfort her, struggling against the last residue of human feeling within him . . .

We see how Claudia in turn is made a vampire--all her passion and intelligence trapped forever in the body of a small child--and how they arrive at their passionate and dangerous alliance, their French Quarter life of opulence: delicate Grecian statues, Chinese vases, crystal chandeliers, a butler, a maid, a stone nymph in the hidden garden court . . . night curving into night with their vampire senses heightened to the beauty of the world, thirsting for the beauty of death--a constant stream of vulnerable strangers awaiting them below . . .

We see them joined against the envious, dangerous Lestat, embarking on a perilous search across Europe for others like themselves, desperate to discover the world they belong to, the ways of survival, to know what they are and why, where they came from, what their future can be . . .

We follow them across Austria and Transylvania, encountering their kind in forms beyond their wildest imagining . . . to Paris, where footsteps behind them, in exact rhythm with their own, steer them to the doors of the Théâtre des Vampires--the beautiful, lewd, and febrile mime theatre whose posters of penny-dreadful vampires at once mask and reveal the horror within . . . to their meeting with the eerily magnetic Armand, who brings them, at last, into intimacy with a whole brilliant and decadent society of vampires, an intimacy that becomes sudden terror when they are compelled to confront what they have feared and fled . . .

In its unceasing flow of spellbinding storytelling, of danger and flight, of loyalty and treachery, Interview with the Vampire bears witness of a literary imagination of the first order.

©1976 Anne Rice (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"[A] magnificent, compulsively readable thriller...Rice begins where Bram Stoker and the Hollywood versions leave off and penetrates directly to the true fascination of the myth - the education of the vampire.” (Chicago Tribune)

“Unrelentingly erotic...sometimes beautiful, and always unforgettable.” (Washington Post)

“If you surrender and go with her...you have surrendered to enchantment, as in a voluptuous dream.” (Boston Globe)

Featured Article: Listen Before You Watch—The Biggest Page-to-Screen Adaptations in Fall/Winter 2022


It’s not just crunchy leaves and cozy vibes that autumn brings. This fall and winter, television and movie fans also have a lot to look forward to, with major page-to-screen adaptations slated from streaming and theatrical releases. So, as your next listen, consider tuning in to the original works that have inspired what are sure to be our new book-to-movie and book-to-television obsessions.

What listeners say about Interview with the Vampire

Average customer ratings
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    7,646
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  • 3 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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New Editions!

This new recording of Anne Rice's classic book is welcome and thrilling. It's most important to know that these audiobooks (including "Vampire Lestat" and "Queen of the Damned") are not reissues of the unabridged CDs that were made years ago with Frank Muller doing the reading. I know that many listeners enjoy Mr. Muller's work, but I found his reading of The Vampire Chronicles to be far too mannered and "affected." I listened to the earlier CDs primarily because I'm a big fan of the Chronicles; but I always had a hard time getting past Mr. Muller's voice. I don't wish to be cruel about Mr. Muller - as I said, I know he has many fans, and has had a long and successful career as a voice actor - it's just that personally, I cannot appreciate the vocal mannerisms he uses and the type of performance he gives.

Now, thankfully, and at last, we have another award-winning Master Storyteller (Simon Vance) re-telling these tales! Within the first few minutes of listening, I knew that this would be the version that I could love and listen to over and over again. Mr. Vance easily evokes the "correct" atmosphere in his narrative, and moves between dialects as if he were a "Complete Cast" on his own. Sections that seemed awkward poetically in Mr. Muller's performance, now are rich, imaginative and evocative.

I am thrilled to recommend this to fans and first-timers alike. If you've heard the previous recording - even if you like it - you will love this new one. Fingers tightly crossed in the hope that Mr. Vance will also record "Tales of the Body Thief" and finally give us an unabridged recording of "Memnoch the Devil" (which has only ever been recorded in an abridged format).

Finally, I've heard Anne Rice say that she thinks that "The Witching Hour" (and probably "Lasher" and "Taltos") will be recorded in an unabridged format soon. Now THAT'S something to look forward to!! (Please, please, please....let it happen!)

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151 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Unabridged at last - First class

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice can only be fully enjoyed in the unabridged versions as the unfolding stories of the whole series are so complex and interconnected. Facts and incidents missing from any of the first books detract from the understanding and enjoyment of those following on.

Simon Vance is as always an excellent narrator and in" Interview with the Vampire", strikes just the right voices for the characters. Serious, sad Louis and wild irresponsible Lestat came to life perfectly as I had imagined. If audible brings us the "Mayfair Witches" in unabridged versions also that will be an added bonus.
Highly recommended to those already addicted and to listeners new to Anne Rice's work - these are the true vampires - don't expect tender romance or vegetarian vamps here!

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64 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Apropos!

I've been cursing (to my uninterested wife) Audible, for at least the last year for not having Anne Rice's quintessential books unabridged. Audible has definitively and irrevocably solved that problem today. Simon Vance is a brilliant orator who satisfies this burgeoning classic for audiobookephiles (yes I [may have] just coined a new English word) of the most discriminating variety. This is a beautiful title in many facets, purchase without hesitation.

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58 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

an old favorite, much loved!

I went through a phase in my very early twenties that would now be called goth...but 26 years ago it was just called weird! In a span of about two weeks of unemployment I read about 8 vampire novels including The Hunger, Salem's Lot, Dracula, etc, one of the best reading periods of my life! The book that started it all was finding a used copy on an old bookstore shelf of Anne Rice's 'Interview with the Vampire'....I still remember reading late into the night until the sun came up and my initial and abiding love for the world and the characters....so....now we have this new interpredation of the novel and I was so excited to see it, but I have some problems with it....
While the novel holds up, I think the naration is not true to the story and actually ruins significant subliminal parts of it. This is, to my mind, a great 'American' horror novel - so, the British tone and feel by Simon Vance is off key. Also, this is a novel of eternal youth at the pinical of it's strength and beauty - the 25 year old Louis done by Vance makes Louis sound 45-55 years of age and that throws that sensation out the window. The accents are wrong, and as someone that loves Louisanna and New Orleans, I was very disappointed to lose that slow and beautiful accent of the French American Creole culture - it's part of the beauty and facination of the novel and it's not here. It is why so many tourists and fans of the novel still flock to NOLA to experience a wee taste of the sensations of reading Rice.
I am sorry for those who will only do the audio in this instance and miss all the things that make the emotions and imagination run wild when reading it in book form.
I am sorry for the person that only listened to 45 minutes and gave up - boy, did they miss a wonderful read!
I am sorry that the very talented but mis-cast Simon Vance did this naration.
I am not sorry that so many new readers will be absorbed into the wonderful and imaginative world of the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles - welcome!

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41 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Standard Bearer for the Genre

As we approach the 'Teens there is, in my experience, an inordinate interest in the Vampire genre - Twilight, True Blood, Dark Shadows and even Hotel Transalvania are some examples. All of these (though I admit to having seen only the 1st Season of True Blood) pale into comparison with this excellent book. There are many things to like about it. Among my list are its level of detail,its lack of tasteless romance and pointless sensuality and its true Gothic insight. There is, of course, an element of romanticism and sensuality, but they are not at the forefront of the narrative. That narrative is dominated by Louis, Lestat, Armand and Claudia.
If you have read Dracula, or Frankenstein, or Golem and enjoyed them, then you will probably enjoy this too.
I waited a while to write the review. First I wanted to re-watch the film. I had remembered Lestat as a nicer character. He was in the Tom Cruise played role, but he is not in the book. I had remembered Christina as older (played by a very young Kirsten Dunst), but she is not in the book. This apart, the movie is a reasonably faithful adaptation and I enjoyed it again, as I did revisiting the book.
And then for the performance; Simon Vance gives a super performance, again. He reprises some of his Dracula style (from the audio I listened to earlier this year and I have reviewed elsewhere). For me he held the book together when it was beginning to drain me (no pun intended). I think the book is a tad too long (hence the 3 stars for Story). The accent at the beginning was a bit hard to appreciate, but by the end it was absolutely right. Armand was pitched beautifully, too. Perhaps Claudia was the least effective character, but I suspect that is the tone of the book rather than the voice interpretation.
Overall, I think the book a true standard bearer. I look forward to The Vampire Lestat in the not too distant future.

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29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Compelling, Simon Vance does it again!

I had only seen the movie. It was good, but listening to the book narrated by Simon Vance is great. Immediately bought Lestat.

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Enough of Anne Rice

I gave this book two stars because it's well written. This I can appreciate. I keep thinking that there must be something else to make it worthy of recommendation, but nothing has come to mind. I don't object to vampire, supernatural, or sci/fi themes. I enjoyed all of Stephanie Meyer's books, including The Host, as well as Deborah Harkness's A Discovery of Witches. If you are looking for suspense, depth, humor, humanity, and a glimmer of light somewhere in the darkness, take your pick of these. If you prefer page after page of grisly violence and unrelenting despair, then spend your money on Interview with a Vampire.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Spellbinding

The narrator brings this classic alive. At times it was so real, I caught myself crouching down, looking from side to side out of fear. Much better than the movie.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A great start to a great series

If you are from a generation where Anne Rice is unknown to you, expect for a Pitt/Cruise blockbuster you may have seen, buckle up buttercup and jump head first into this book and series. Throw what you may know completely out the window about Lestat and Louie. This is a deep and rich story, full of heartache, love, passion, horror, and mayhem of vampires coming into the new American world of New Orleans and trying to understand their place while generally doing as they please. This is the backbone and base for several characters, including Lestat, who will be your favorite in the end, no matter how hard you try to avoid him. Simon Vance gives a great performance, and his voice adds a certain authenticity to the performance that really makes it stand out. He also continues narration of the series, so make sure to check out "The Vampire Lestat" when this book is finished and you need more

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9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Spooky Fun

An interesting book that stays one step ahead of you the whole time. Different takes on the Vampire legends are always fun and entertaining to read.

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9 people found this helpful