The Vampire Lestat

Within The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice alludes to some of the works of literature that influenced her conception of the vampire. Lestat thinks about and discusses these sources in the novel, which are also used as names of vampire bars. One of the oldest works of vampire literature that Rice references is John Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819) and its character of “Lord Ruthven, the creation of Dr. Polidori” (500). Lord Ruthven is an original model of the romantic type of vampire, or “Gentleman Death in silk and lace” (229), as Lestat calls this figure. Rice also mentions the “magnificent and sensuous Countess Carmilla Karnstein” (500), which alludes to Carmilla (1872) by Sheridan Le Fanu. Unlike Polidori’s story, which tracks a relationship between men (one human, one vampire), the story of Carmilla is about the relationship between two women (one human, one vampire). Rice also mentions the most famous vampire, the “big ape of the vampires” (500), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). Stoker’s vampire is a violent force of nature who preys on women and antagonizes men. Lestat is also often an aggressive, violent force, but he is more refined than Dracula.