A light in the literary world has gone out.
On Saturday, December 11th, 2021, Anne Rice, award-winning author of more than thirty Gothic novels, passed away. Today, we remember her and some of the beloved works she brought to life.
Interview with the Vampire
One the more popular books Anne Rice is known for authoring, this book follows a reporter as he interviews Louis, a 200-year-old vampire, and learns about his life, his loves, and his heartbreaks. Though Rice is best known for writing this novel (thanks, in part, to the 1994 movie featuring heart-throbs Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt) did you know there are twelve more books in her Vampire Chronicles series? Check them out here.
Angel Time
The first in a series of two books, Angel Time is the story of Toby O’Dare, a hired assassin who is given the chance to forge a new path when he meets a mysterious seraph. Set in thirteenth-century England, when children are vanishing and turning up dead amongst accusations of religious involvement, this book explores such topics as faith and loyalty, love and sacrifice.
Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt
In this novel about the early years of Jesus of Nazareth, based on the Gospels, Anne Rice explores the life of Jesus as a child. Narrated by Yeshua himself, the novel follows a year of his life during which his family finally return to Nazareth after a year in exile in Egypt during the reign of King Herod. It is the first of two novels in this series.
Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession
In this memoir, the author leads us from her Irish Catholic roots in New Orleans, through the beginning of her writing career, as she explored her own battles to understand her faith and lack thereof. Rice also presents an intimate look into the grief that overcame her when she lost both her daughter and later her husband. Finally, Rice walks the reader through her later decision to return to her Catholic faith, and how it impacted her writing thereafter.
The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned
In this book, the first of two in the series, Rice brings Egyptian pharoah, Ramses, back to life. In Edwardian London, Ramses is reawakened and takes on the personage of Dr. Ramsey, Egyptology specialist. But having drunk the elixer of life, he is forever damned to live for eternity, incapable of fulfilling his unquenchable desire for food, for women, for wine.