The Vampire Lestat (1985) is a novel by Anne Rice, which was published as a sequel to her 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire. The novel follows the experiences of Lestat de Lioncourt, an 18th-century French nobleman who becomes a vampire. Throughout the work, Rice explores such themes as The Performance of Vampirism and Humanity, The Tensions Between Good and Evil, and The Importance of the Arts. After The Vampire Lestat was published, Rice’s titular character continued to feature as the protagonist of several more vampire novels, including Queen of the Damned. Parts of The Vampire Lestat were included in the 2002 film Queen of the Damned, and in the 2022 AMC television show Interview with the Vampire. Rice won the lifetime achievement award from the Bram Stoker Awards, and The Vampire Lestat was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. It remains an influential work of vampire fiction.

This guide uses the 1986 Ballantine paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material includes enslavement, incarceration, death by suicide, fantasy violence, and abusive relationships.

Plot Summary

The Vampire Lestat begins in the 1980s when Lestat rises after sleeping under the earth while healing from being attacked in Interview with the Vampire. He hears a band, Satan’s Night Out, and wants to become a rock star, as well as write an autobiography in response to Louis’s interview.

His autobiography begins in the mid-1700s. Lestat is born to a Marquis in France who holds ancestral lands but has no money. Lestat hunts to feed the family and rids the nearby village of a wolf menace. A rich merchant’s son, Nicolas, represents the villagers in thanking Lestat, and they become close companions. Lestat’s mother, Gabrielle, sells some of her family jewels to send Lestat and Nicolas to Paris. They join Renaud’s theater, and Lestat’s performances inspire the old vampire Magnus to turn Lestat into a vampire against his wishes.

Lestat turns Gabrielle, who is dying, and Nicolas, who is angry, into vampires. They meet the Children of Darkness, a Parisian coven run by Armand. Lestat flouts all the coven’s rules, causing the coven to fall apart. After killing some coven members, Armand agrees to run a new coven, the Theater of the Vampires, in Renaud’s theater.

Lestat and Gabrielle travel the world in search of other vampires, including the ancient Roman vampire who created Armand: Marius. Eventually, Gabrielle leaves Lestat to wander in remote jungles and forests. Nicolas can’t handle being a vampire and dies by suicide. These events cause Lestat to go underground and stop feeding. Marius rescues Lestat from this state and they exchange blood. Marius introduces Lestat to Akasha and Enkil, the first vampires, and tells Lestat how they were created.

Akasha and Enkil, also known as Those Who Must Be Kept, were born in ancient Egypt. While investigating a haunted house, they were attacked. The mortal wounds they sustained allowed a demon to enter their bodies, which turned them into vampires. They were first revered as gods, then imprisoned by their rivals, and eventually became immobile, but living, statues. A vampire called the Elder tired of caring for them and left Akasha and Enkil in the sun. This gave the original vampires a deep tan, and severely burned many of their descendants. One of these burnt descendants is the God of the Grove, who turned Marius into a vampire as part of a Druid ritual, with the assistance of Mael. Vampires stopped being worshiped as gods when Christianity was invented, and the Children of Darkness created rules for vampires to worship Satan.

Lestat plays Nicolas’s violin for Akasha and Enkil. The music causes Akasha to stand, sing, and give Lestat her blood. The blood exchange enrages Enkil, who attempts to kill Lestat. Marius sends Lestat away and Those Who Must Be Kept return to their stone-like state. Lestat moves to New Orleans, which is where his father relocated to after the French Revolution. After his father dies, Lestat creates a new vampire family, Louis and Claudia. Marius made Lestat swear to keep the history of Akasha and the vampires a secret, and Lestat’s withholding of this information causes Louis and Claudia to attempt to kill Lestat. However, infused with the blood of Akasha, Lestat is only horribly maimed.

Lestat goes to Armand for help, but Armand imprisons Lestat while Armand’s coven kills Claudia for attempting to kill Lestat. Armand tells Lestat that Louis is also dead; Louis and Armand become companions for a while. After haunting his own home in New Orleans, Lestat goes underground in the 1920s.

When he rises in the 1980s, Lestat creates an album and music videos with his band that reveal all the vampire secrets. The band, now called The Vampire Lestat, is wildly successful and puts on a concert in San Francisco. Louis and Lestat reunite shortly before the concert, and Gabrielle joins them at the concert. After Lestat’s performance, Akasha imprisons Marius in the ice and kidnaps Lestat. The novel ends on this cliffhanger, to be continued in Queen of the Damned.