Memnoch the Devil: The Vampire Chronicles

SUMMARY: In Anne Rice's extraordinary novel, the Vampire Lestat--outsides, canny monster, hero-wanderer--is at last offered the chance to be redeemed.He is brought into direct confrontation with both God and the Devil, and into the land of Death.We are in New York. The city is blanketed in snow. Through the whiteness Lestat is searching for Dora, the beautiful and charismatic daughter of a drug lord, the woman who arouses Lestat's tenderness as no mortal ever has.While torn between his vampire passions and his overwhelming love for Dora, Lestat is confronted by the most dangerous of adversaries he has yet known.He is snatched from the world itself by the mysterious Memnoch, who claims to be the Devil. He is invited to be a witness at the Creation. He is taken like the ancient prophets into the heavenly realm and is ushered into Purgatory.He must decide if he can believe in the Devil or in God. And finally, he must decide which, if either, he will serve.In the first four Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice summoned up for us worlds that are fantastic and distant, making them as resonant, real, and immediate as our own. In this, her most daring and darkest novel, she takes us, with Lestat, into the mythical world that is most important to us--into the realms of our own theology. Fiction,General,General & Literary Fiction,Horror,Horror - General,Fiction - Horror,Horror fiction,Modern fiction,Occult,Horror tales,Vampires,Lestat (Fictitious character),Rice; Anne - Prose & Criticism

In Anne Rice's extraordinary novel, the Vampire Lestat--outsides, canny monster, hero-wanderer--is at last offered the chance to be redeemed.

He is brought into direct confrontation with both God and the Devil, and into the land of Death.

We are in New York.  The city is blanketed in snow.  Through the whiteness Lestat is searching for Dora, the beautiful and charismatic daughter of a drug lord, the woman who arouses Lestat's tenderness as no mortal ever has.

While torn between his vampire passions and his overwhelming love for Dora, Lestat is  confronted by the most dangerous of adversaries he has yet known.

He is snatched from the world itself by the mysterious Memnoch, who claims to be the Devil. He is invited to be a witness at the Creation.  He is taken like the ancient prophets into the heavenly realm and is ushered into Purgatory.

He must decide if he can believe in the Devil or in God.  And finally, he must decide which, if either, he will serve.

In the first four Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice summoned up for us worlds that are fantastic and distant, making them as resonant, real, and immediate as our own.  In this, her most daring and darkest novel, she takes us, with Lestat, into the mythical world that is most important to us--into the realms of our own theology.

Rolling Stone

"Like Interview with the Vampire, Memnoch has a half-maddened, fever-pitch intensity. . . . Narrated by Rice's most cherished character, the vampire Lestat, Memnoch tells a tale as old as Scripture's legends and as modern as today's religious strife."

In Anne Rice's new novel, the Vampire Lestat - outsider, canny monster, hero-wanderer - is at last offered the chance to be redeemed. He is brought into direct confrontation with both God and the Devil, and into the land of Death. We are in New York. The city is blanketed in snow. Through the whiteness Lestat is searching for Dora, the beautiful and charismatic daughter of a drug lord, the woman who arouses Lestat's tenderness as no mortal ever has. While torn between his vampire passions and his overwhelming love for Dora, Lestat is confronted by the most dangerous adversaries he has yet known. He is snatched from the world itself by the mysterious Memnoch, who claims to be the Devil. He is invited to be a witness at the Creation. He is taken like the ancient prophets into the heavenly realm and is ushered into Purgatory. He must decide if he can believe in the Devil or in God. And finally, he must decide which, if either, he will serve. Memnoch the Devil (1995) is a horror novel by American writer Anne Rice, the fifth in her Vampire Chronicles series, following The Tale of the Body Thief. Many of the themes of this novel and in large part the title are re-borrowed from the 19th-century gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer by Irish author Charles Maturin. In this story, Lestat is approached by the Devil and offered a job at his side. A vampire is offered work by both God and the Devil. He is Lestat, a man of action who just bumped off a billionaire for smuggling cocaine. The job interviews yield quite a bit of information on his prospective employers, including why God expelled the Devil from Paradise at the time of the Creation. It appears the Devil was against God's scheme to make suffering a regular part of life In Anne Rice's extraordinary fifth novel of "The Vampire Chronicles", irresistible antihero Lestat encounters his most dangerous adversary--the mysterious being Memnoch, who claims to be the Devil. Ushered through the realms of Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell, Lestat must finally decide if he can believe in the Devil or God--and which, if either, he will serve Edward and Helene. When they met it was more than coincidence. When they fell in love it was more than passion. When they thought they'd lost it all, they should have known they were wrong--they should have known it was Destiny.From the Paperback edition.