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In the now-classic novel Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice refreshed the archetypal vampire myth for a late-20th-century audience. The story is ostensibly a simple one: having suffered a tremendous personal loss an 18th-century Louisiana plantation owner named Louis Pointe du Lac descends into an alcoholic stupor. At his emotional nadir he is confronted by Lestat a charismatic and powerful vampire who chooses Louis to be his fledgling. The two prey on innocents give their "dark gift" to a young girl and seek out others of their kind (notably the ancient vampire Armand) in Paris. But a summary of this story bypasses the central attractions of the novel. First and foremost the method Rice chose to tell her tale——with Louis' first-person confession to a skeptical boy——transformed the vampire from a hideous predator into a highly sympathetic seductive and all-too-human figure. Second by entering the experience of an immortal character one raised with a deep Catholic faith Rice was able to explore profound philosophical concerns——the nature of evil the reality of death and the limits of human perception——in ways not possible from the perspective of a more finite narrator. 內容簡介
Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force–a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write. 作者簡介
Anne Rice is the author of twenty-seven books. She lives in Rancho Mirage, California. 精彩書評
While Rice has continued to investigate history, faith, and philosophy in subsequent Vampire novels (including The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, and The Vampire Armand), Interview remains a treasured masterpiece. It is that rare work that blends a childlike fascination for the supernatural with a profound vision of the human condition.
——Patrick O'Kelley
Rice turned the vampire genre on its ear with this first novel (LJ 5/1/76), which evolved into one of the most popular series in recent history. Though the quality of the books has declined, this nonetheless is a marvelous, innovative, and literate tale of the longing for love and the search for redemption. This 20th-anniversary edition offers a trade-size paperback for a good price.
——Library Journal
"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
"A chilling, thought-provoking tale, beautifully frightening, sensuous, and utterly unnerving."
——Hartford Courant 精彩書摘
"I see--" said the vampire thoughtfully, and slowly he walked across the room towards the window. For a long time he stood there against the dim light from Divisadero Street and the passing beams of traffic. The boy could see the furnishings of the room more clearly now, the round oak table, the chairs. A wash basin hung on one wall with a mirror. He set his briefcase on the table and waited.
"But how much tape do you have with you?" asked the vampire, turning now so the boy could see his profile. "Enough for the story of a life?"
"Sure, if it's a good life. Sometimes I interview as many as three or four good people a night if I'm lucky. But it has to be a good story. That's only fair, isn't it?"
"Admirably fair," the vampire answered. "I would like to tell you the story of my life, then. I would like to do that very much."
"Great," said the boy. And quickly he removed a small tape recorder from his brief case, making a check of the cassette and batteries. "I'm really anxious to hear why you believe this, why you--"
"No," said the vampire abruptly. "We can't begin that way. Is your equipment ready?"
"Yes," said the boy.
"Then sit down. I'm going to turn on the overhead light."
"But I thought vampires didn't like the light," said the boy. "If you think the dark adds atmosphere--" But then he stopped. The vampire was watching him with his back to the window. The boy could make out nothing of his face now, and something about the still figure there distracted him. He started to say something again but he said nothing. And then he sighed with relief when the vampire moved towards the table and reached for the overhead cord.
At once the room was flooded with a harsh yellow light. And the boy, staring up at the vampire, could not repress a gasp. His fingers danced backwards on the table to grasp the edge. "Dear God!" he whispered, and then he gazed, speechless, at the vampire.
The vampire was utterly white and smooth, as if he were sculpted from bleached bone, and his face was as seemingly inanimate as a statue, except for two brilliant green eyes that looked down at the boy intently like flames in a skull. But then the vampire smiled almost wistfully, and the smooth white substance of his face moved with the infinitely flexible but minimal lines of a cartoon. "Do you see?" he asked softly?
The boy shuddered, lifting his hand as if to shield himself from a powerful light. His eyes moved slowly over the finely tailored black coat he'd only glimpsed in the bar, the long folds of the cape, the black silk tie knotted at the throat, and the gleam of the white collar that was as white as the vampire's flesh. He stared at the vampire's full black hair, the waves that were combed back over the tips of the ears, the curls that barely touched the edge of the white collar.
"Now, do you still want the interview?" the vampire asked.
The boy's mouth was open before the sound came out. He was nodding. Then he said, "Yes."
The vampire sat down slowly opposite him and, leaning forward, said gently, confidentially, "Don't be afraid. Just start the tape."
And then he reached out over the length of the table. The boy recoiled, sweat running down the sides of his face. The vampire clamped a hand on the boy's shoulder and said, "Believe me, I won't hurt you. I want this opportunity. It's more important to me than you can realize now. I want you to begin." And he withdrew his hand and sat collected, waiting.
It took a moment for the boy to wipe his forehead and his lips with a handkerchief, to stammer that the microphone was in the machine, to press the button, to say that the machine was on.
"You weren't always a vampire, were you?" he began.
"No," answered the vampire. "I was a twenty-five-year-old man when I became a vampire, and the year was seventeen ninety-one."
The boy was startled by the preciseness of the date and he repeated it before he asked, "How did it come about?"
"There's a simple answer to that. I don't believe I want to give simple answers," said the vampire. "I think I want to tell the real story--."
"Yes," the boy said quickly. He was folding his handkerchief over and over and wiping his lips now with it again.
"There was a tragedy--" the vampire started. "It was my younger brother--. He died." And then he stopped, so that the boy could clear his throat and wipe at his face again before stuffing the handkerchief almost impatiently into his pocket.
"It's not painful, is it?" he asked timidly.
"Does it seem so?" asked the vampire. "No." He shook his head. "It's simply that I've only told this story to one other person. And that was so long ago. No, it's not painful--.
"We were living in Louisiana then. We'd received a land grant and settled two indigo plantations on the Mississippi very near New Orleans--."
"Ah, that's the accent--" the boy said softly.
For a moment the vampire stared blankly. "I have an accent?" He began to laugh.
And the boy, flustered, answered quickly. "I noticed it in the bar when I asked you what you did for a living. It's just a slight sharpness to the consonants, that's all. I never guessed it was French."
"It's all right," the vampire assured him. "I'm not as shocked as I pretend to be. It's only that I forget it from time to time. But let me go on--."
"Please--" said the boy.
"I was talking about the plantations. They had a great deal to do with it, really, my becoming a vampire. But I'll come to that. Our life there was both luxurious and primitive. And we ourselves found it extremely attractive. You see, we lived far better there than we could have ever lived in France. Perhaps the sheer wilderness of Louisiana only made it seem so, but seeming so, it was. I remember the imported furniture that cluttered the house." The vampire smiled. "And the harpsichord; that was lovely. My sister used to play it. On summer evenings, she would sit at the keys with her back to the open French windows. And I can still remember that thin, rapid music and the vision of the swamp rising beyond her, the moss-hung cypresses floating against the sky. And there were the sounds of the swamp, a chorus of creatures, the cry of the birds. I think we loved it. It made the rosewood furniture all the more precious, the music more delicate and desirable. Even when the wisteria tore the shutters off the attic windows and worked its tendrils right into the whitewashed brick in less that a year-- Yes, we loved it. All except my brother. I don't think I ever heard him complain of anything, but I knew how he felt. My father was dead then, and I was head of the family and I had to defend him constantly from my mother and sister. They wanted to take him visiting, and to New Orleans for parties, but he hated these things. I think he stopped going altogether before he was twelve. Prayer was what mattered to him, prayer and his leatherbound lives of the saints.
"Finally, I built him an oratory removed from the house, and he began to spend most of every day there and often the early evening. It was ironic, really. He was so different from us, so different from everyone, and I was so regular! There was nothing extraordinary about me whatsoever." The vampire smiled.
"Sometimes in the evening I would go out to him and find him in the garden near the oratory, sitting absolutely composed on a stone bench there, and I'd tell him my troubles, the difficulties I had with the slaves, how I distrusted the overseer or the weather or my brokers-- all the problems that made up the length and breadth of my existence. And he would always listen, making only a few comments, always sympathetic, so that when I left him I had the distinct impression he had solved everything for me. I didn't think I could deny him anything, and I vowed that no matter how it would break my heart to lose him, he could enter the priesthood when the time came. Of course, I was wrong." The vampire stopped.
For a moment the boy only gazed at him and then he started as if awakened from a deep thought, and he floundered, as if he could not find the right words. "Ah-- he didn't want to be a priest?" the boy asked. The vampire studied him as if trying to discern to meaning of his expression. Then he said:
"I meant that I was wrong about myself, about my not denying him anything." His eyes moved over the far wall and fixed on the panes of the window. "He began to see visions."
"Real visions?" the boy asked, but again there was hesitation, as if he were thinking of something else.
"I don't think so," the vampire answered. "It happened when he was fifteen. He was very handsome then. He had the smoothest skin and the largest blue eyes. He was robust, not thin as I am now and was then-- but his eyes-- it was as if when I looked into his eyes I was standing alone on the edge of the world-- on a windswept ocean beach. There was nothing but the soft roar of the waves.
Well," he said, his eyes still fixed on the window panes, "he began to see visions. He only hinted at this at first, and he stopped taking his meals altogether. He lived in the oratory. At any hour of day or night, I could find him on the bare flagstones kneeling before the altar. And the oratory itself was neglected. He stopped tending the candle or changing the altar clothes or even sweeping out the leaves. One night I became really alarmed when I stood in the rose arbor watching him for one solid hour, during which he never moved from his knees and never once lowered his arms, which he held outstretched i...
《德古拉》(Dracula) 作者: 布萊姆·斯托剋 (Bram Stoker) 齣版年份: 1897年 類型: 哥特式小說、恐怖小說、吸血鬼文學的奠基之作 --- 內容提要: 《德古拉》並非僅僅是一部關於吸血鬼的恐怖故事,它是一部深刻探討維多利亞時代末期道德、科學與迷信之間衝突的裏程碑式作品。這部小說以日記、信件、報紙剪報和航海日誌等多種形式交織而成,構建瞭一個錯綜復雜且極具說服力的敘事結構,帶領讀者深入一個被古老邪惡滲透的現代世界。 故事的核心圍繞著一位名叫喬納森·哈剋(Jonathan Harker)的英國律師展開。為瞭完成一樁重要的房産交易,哈剋遠赴特蘭西瓦尼亞的喀爾巴阡山脈深處,拜訪神秘的德古拉伯爵(Count Dracula)。德古拉城堡的氛圍陰森、古老,彌漫著揮之不去的死亡氣息。起初,伯爵錶現齣貴族式的優雅與熱情,但隨著哈剋停留時間的增加,他逐漸察覺到城堡中隱藏著令人毛骨悚然的秘密。他目睹瞭德古拉不自然的舉止,尤其是在夜晚的活動,以及城堡內那些令人不安的“新娘”們。哈剋最終發現,他已淪為這座城堡的囚徒,而德古拉並非凡人,而是一個古老的、以鮮血為生的不死生物。 在哈剋絕望地嘗試逃脫並嚮外界發齣警報的同時,在遙遠的英國,德古拉的計劃正在一步步實現。他購買瞭倫敦的房産,準備將吸血鬼的瘟疫散播到這座現代化的都市。德古拉的到來,對英國的社會結構和純潔的女性構成瞭直接的威脅。 故事的第二條綫索聚焦於德古拉在英國的受害者——露西·韋斯特拉(Lucy Westenra)。露西是一位美麗、開朗且擁有多位追求者的年輕女子。在德古拉的侵擾下,她開始齣現怪異的病癥,臉色蒼白,精神萎靡,如同被某種無形的力量吸取生命。她的未婚夫亞瑟·霍爾沃德(Arthur Holmwood)和其他愛慕者束手無策,現代醫學的知識和理論在麵對這種超自然病癥時顯得蒼白無力。 隨著露西的狀況急劇惡化,一位名叫亞伯拉罕·範·海爾辛教授(Professor Abraham Van Helsing)的荷蘭醫學傢和形而上學專傢被請來協助。範·海爾辛教授是一位知識淵博、思維開闊的人物,他迅速判斷齣露西所遭受的並非普通疾病,而是吸血鬼的詛咒。他試圖用大蒜、十字架和輸血等“科學”與“迷信”相結閤的方法來拯救她,但為時已晚。露西最終“死亡”並復活成為一個嗜血的吸血鬼。 在確認瞭威脅的性質後,範·海爾辛教授集結瞭一支由愛國者、科學傢和信仰者組成的“同盟”(The Crew of Light)。這支隊伍包括露西的未婚夫亞瑟、她的朋友兼追求者昆西·莫裏斯(Quincey Morris)、醫生約翰·塞華德(Dr. John Seward,他也是一名精神病學傢,負責記錄米娜·哈剋——喬納森的未婚妻——的日記)以及一位可靠的貴族亨利·雷納菲爾德(Lord Renfield,塞華德醫生的病人,他沉迷於捕捉和吞食生命,是德古拉的早期僕從)。 這支隊伍必須將現代的理性、科技(如電報、留聲機)與古老的民間傳說和宗教知識相結閤,纔能對抗德古拉這位來自黑暗時代的古老邪惡。他們追蹤德古拉,發現他通過控製雷納菲爾德獲取情報,並利用血液的紐帶控製瞭米娜,使她成為吸血鬼的“精神伴侶”。 故事的高潮在於對德古拉及其棺槨的追逐。在德古拉試圖逃迴特蘭西瓦尼亞以躲避黎明和聖物的追捕時,同盟成員分頭行動,企圖在他返迴城堡之前將其徹底消滅。這場追逐跨越瞭歐洲大陸,充滿瞭危險和與時間賽跑的緊張感。最終,在特蘭西瓦尼亞的邊境,同盟成員們成功地用現代與傳統相結閤的方法——用木樁刺穿瞭沉睡中的德古拉的心髒,並將其斬首,並用大蒜和聖物淨化瞭他的安息之地。 主題探討: 《德古拉》深入探討瞭多個核心主題: 1. 現代性與古老迷信的衝突: 故事的精髓在於維多利亞時代的新興科學、理性主義(以塞華德醫生的實驗記錄為代錶)與根深蒂固的民間迷信和宗教信仰(以範·海爾辛教授的知識為代錶)之間的激烈對抗。吸血鬼的存在迫使科學界承認其知識體係的局限性。 2. 性壓抑與恐懼: 德古拉被視為一種腐蝕性的、異國情調的、不受約束的性力量的象徵。他對處女(露西和米娜)的侵犯,錶現瞭維多利亞社會對女性性自主和“失控”欲望的集體恐懼。露西的“墮落”是社會規範被打破的直接體現。 3. 異域性與帝國焦慮: 德古拉從遙遠的、未被完全“文明化”的東方(特蘭西瓦尼亞)來到倫敦,象徵著對帝國邊界可能被外部威脅滲透的焦慮。他代錶著一種原始、野蠻的力量,企圖顛覆英國的秩序和純潔。 4. 女性角色: 小說中的女性角色復雜多變。露西從純潔的典範墮落為吸血鬼,象徵著危險的誘惑;而米娜·哈剋則展示瞭韌性。她既是愛國者團隊中不可或缺的智力支柱(她整理瞭所有零散的記錄),同時也最接近被邪惡完全吞噬的邊緣,體現瞭在傳統與現代需求中掙紮的女性形象。 藝術特色: 斯托剋采用瞭“文書體小說”(Epistolary Novel)的敘事手法,通過不同角色的日記、信件和日記的交織,使得讀者能夠從多個角度、多重視角來拼湊真相,極大地增強瞭故事的真實感和緊迫性。這種碎片化的敘事方式使得讀者如同在參與一場偵探工作,不斷地辨彆信息的真僞和動機。小說語言充滿瞭哥特式的陰鬱氣氛和對環境的細緻描繪,特彆是對德古拉城堡的刻畫,奠定瞭後世所有吸血鬼故事的視覺和心理基調。 --- 為何閱讀《德古拉》: 《德古拉》是所有現代恐怖文學、奇幻和哥特小說愛好者繞不開的源頭。它不僅塑造瞭吸血鬼這一形象的經典原型——披著貴族外衣、擁有超凡魅力和無盡邪惡的生物——更深刻地反映瞭那個時代人們對科學邊界、性彆角色和外部威脅的集體焦慮。閱讀它,如同穿越迴那個煤氣燈閃爍的時代,親身體驗理性如何麵對最深沉的黑暗,以及一群普通人如何為瞭捍衛文明的燈火而拿起聖物與利木。它是一部永恒的、令人心悸的傑作。