There is no God, Nature sufficeth unto herself; in no wise hath she need of an author. "Marquis de Sade"
Alright... I know I have done some horrendous things in my time... All the lives I've taken... Claudia... The nun I drove mad... David... And of course the televangelist... But I've changed... I've grown... Through the years and challenges... Akasha, The body thief, Memnoch, my imprisonment in Sadona, the Mayfairs... Please do not judge me so harshly... This is my story, the one Mater Gloriosa of New Orleans has extrapolated from, added too.... etc, etc.
The year was 1474, and it was a lovely day in the Avegnon as to the royal house Grimaldi an heir was born.... Jean Grimaldi II "Ellestad" Seigneur de Monaco.... (Ellestad is simply an old French term meaning well read in later years, Lestat, would become the name all immortals would use... to their discourse). I would in time become quite the royal pain.... Especially with such a high opinion of myself....
At the death of Henry the V in 1422, slightly before my time. France would still be battling for it's boarders, half the population loyal to an English King, the other still loyal to Dauphin who battled to expand France easterly to Genoa, which was then under rule of the Holy Roman Empire. The kingdom of France has been as it is today remotely since 1559.. Well.... there was Napoleon's little upheaval in 1812 when he acquired Spain, Switzerland, Germania, Bavaria, Saxony, Prussia, Warsaw, all of Italy, and was set to take the Russian Empire. (Big things do come in small packages, you see.) Well. That wouldn't have been my France, I was not even their. I was in America by the time.
So where was I, yes Born, 1474..... Growing up in the family manor easterly, in the Azure. My Father Laurent, and Mother Claudine (whom were cousins, quite droll isn't it?) decided to keep me from the horrors of court, and the Papal regent; By sending Lara my mouillez l'infirmire, and myself East of the Rhone to our families keeping in the Roman Empire. (At that time everything east of the Rhone belonged to the Romans). There was much talk of the greatness of Rome and a new uprising of the arts, a..... Renaissance. (I just had to be there for that.) With my family's power, and that all Kingdoms were tied to the church in some way or another I was always well cared for, and educated in the ways of the world.
There was an extensive Library in the Azure, The Book of Hours, Hamurabai's Code, a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The secret mathematics of Egypt, as well, Roman Mathematics or what is called The Book of Numbers, only three copies of that book in existence today. All, were made available. I was scholarly by 1489 and was much more interested in seeing, more than maps, mountains, stables, and the boredom of weights and measure...
Lara was wonderful through this portion of my life nourishing my curiosity. Occasionally we would venture into Penerolo or Nice for festival, or Castle Papal l'Avegnon for mass with my Parents... They liked to see what I had become, without the courtly gossip, and free tongues... My life for the main part was lived in solidarity....
Of course my first sexual experience was frightful at the age of 14 in back of the Avegnon (while I was supposed to be at mass). Proving once again I was never the perfect Billy Goat as my brothers would be......... It seems the young girl was menstruating, which was, for the most part, left out of my daily studies.... I saw blood on her garments after we had been going at it a while, and looked down..... The first thing I thought of was Jesus on the cross, bleeding away.... I gathered my self and rushed out of there without a word, the situation was frightful for a youth, and I found myself back in the church on my knees in prayer.... Hilarious I know...... certainly not a sin in these times.... It is amazing the evolution of Religion, of Philosophy, but this is another story.
My parents felt my promiscuity may be contagious, with my brother Lucien born just 7 years after I, and Honre' who would not be birthed into the world until 1501, some 20 years after . They found for me a wife.... Antoinette de Savoie, our relation was destined from 1486 onward, through letter by messenger only. (Nary a roll in the hey with that one, but in that time arranged marriages were natural and letter writing, an artform).
In the years to come, I would become increasingly curious as to the happenings in Rome. My parents would set in motion the way by which my curiosity would be satisfied. I would model for those painters and sculptors loyal to the church. Who would be the greatest of the era, of all era.... Leonardo would be my favorite body thief, he hallucinated often sleeping two hours working 6, sleeping two working 6 etc, which would certainly do it to you... I believe your medical doctors have this habit today. And Michelangelo was so passionate and saintly. If there was an open mind in Florence, he had it. The man could find beauty in anything you brought to his attention....
My last undertaking would be with him. "La Pieta" and by the terms of the contract, the young master (we were near the same age he and I, Michelangelo just a year older at 21) formed the body of Christ in the life-like proportions, and he made the head of the virgin from my Lara's saintly face in corresponding size. But should the statue rise, she would stand nearly seven feet in height. The sculptor had often said that the compass should be kept in the eye rather than the hand, because it is the eye that judges. With great cunning he deceives in the interest of presenting the piece. I'm just lucky to have been there.
To Michelangelo there was splendorous beauty in the human body. In depicting Christ he found "there was no need to conceal the human behind the divine." we began the piece in 1494 and Laura and I would be of no more use to him as of 1496........ During this time I had my curiosities as always, and too, the ambition of plastering my face all over Italia, immortality by production....
During this search, it had been brought to my attention by a peasant rumor, an artist of the name Aziraphale Marius working outside of Florence near the rock quarry who's mind was fast on impression. I supposed that would put me closer to home, and it had been years since I'd gone back to the Azure or Avegnon. If I could find this man and undertake a work with him, I would be a days walk of home. I asked of the aristocrats in my normal circles if they had word of this artist.... As none had, I would have to seek out the messenger who had my ear at the time.
I believe to this day I was being directed.... It was night in a tavern outside of Genoa when I happened upon the very same traveler, a peasant girl. She was ever so beautiful with skin like alabaster, I had never in my life come across a woman so pale, this I hadn't noticed in our first meeting. Yes, she was beautiful. She said she could take me to him, the artist near the city of Saluzzo between the North and South cities of Penerolo and Nice. ( The scope of distance? Florence to Genoa 150 miles, Genoa to Saluzzo 75 miles, Saluzzo to the ocean city of Nice 50 miles, Saluzzo to the North, Penerolo 20 miles, in the province of Savoy. 100 miles north of Penerolo you would find Geneva and the Swiss Alps) This Province would be called Le Cote de Azure (the blue dimension).
We would arrive in Saluzzo the mourning of the second day on horseback. It had been two days since I had eaten, but then I was used to going for at least five at time, truly I was more concerned with my companion... The inn provided us with cakes and ale, of which I had not noticed her partake, as she hid her beauty from mens eyes under cloak and shadow.....
We traveled to the Grotto belonging to my Maker.... The one who gave me this life. Aziraphale Marius born 238 BC, given the dark gift 200 BC one year after the Romans under Scipio Africanus defeated the Carthaginians under Hannibal and ended the sixteen-year-long Second Punic War. I know only of the four Imperium Vampyre elders of which he befriended and spoke of, in ancient Rome. Caius Livius, Marcus Livius, Ferrol Ulpius, and Drakus Domitius. (Who Inspired Brahm Stoker's fable)... But this is my story...... So..........
We talked of nothing really. In deed just blather of invention and the Basilica at St. Peter's.... Michelangelo's masterpiece in architecture, and as I spoke to him there, his eyes gathering my very nature, transferring all of me to the vellum before him with blinding appeal, and mastery. What would take a master an hour he could do in one quarter..... Still he had a way about him, a saunter as if he was afraid to disturb the air around him.... I got used to it, but not the lack of servants or light. It was always so dim and food was made ready to me of fresh demise........ I had to learn to cook..... I know..... You're not interested in the slightest of my recipe of Game Hen stuffed with Truffles on a bed of capellini, in white grape juice (fermented a bit, two weeks should do).
Though I do believe you must above all things remember your last meal and sunset.... Marius lent me leave of him, and it was wonderful, my heart welling up to see Antoinette (who unbeknownced to me, was the peasant in pallor) and catch up with Lara in the Azure who had left sometime before me from the service of Michelangelo as the model for the Virgin Mother.... If time permitted I would travel to the Avegnon were my Parents and younger Brother would be.....
As I began my journey, I could not help but feel the magnetism of the Grotto where I had been so long, it was deafening.... Yet the stars were inviting as the curtain of night began to draw itself closed. While I navigated the Azure, rock and gully.... I had began to realize something, I was being followed. Not by horseback or by foot, followed by some sort of beast.... I would turn to see nothing but smoke and shadows, and turn away, 100, 200 paces farther and stop, seeking this stalker in the night, only to turn away unfounded.... I had indeed become increasingly vexed in this progression, finally with a good look, I had realized I was being stalked by a wolf. Which gave rise to some concern as these animals tend, to travel in packs.....?
I began to run, what else could I do...... Though it seems this animal and his companions were much smarter than I, as one became many, herding me to their resting place. It was here I'd take my last breathe, though, not on this night, not for many more......
Out of the darkness and shadow flesh met fang. Paralyzed with fright yet knowing this was not a beast, it was something far more dispossessing.... It was a man..... As I fought helplessly, twilight gave way to the pitch, cold, darkness, of unconsciousness. I awoke that next morning in the cavern, that den of wolves, a single white beast of fang and paw, between me and freedom, sequestered outside in the light, and as I moved toward ad libitum, the beast met me with peering eyes, and a menacing growl. Cowering back to the shadows, hanging my head between my knees, seemed all I could do for the time being......
Quite frustrating waiting for dinner, knowing you're it..... Marius would feed on me evening upon evening. I threw rocks, I ran, I wrestled with wolves, and would just be drug back into the darkness of this pit of despair...... The lesson.... Would I fight for all the birthings of tomorrow, for that amaranthine dream, that one moment where all things are possible... or give in to death and despairage.
Marius needed to know this... If I had the will to survive the ages, or give into that secret hunger of death itself....... Somehow, he knew I had it me.... and to this very day, I have not met my better, let alone my match. Each night I fought, and each night as my consciousness dimmed, It was said to me; "You have been brave little one... Let us see what tomorrow brings... Death, or your undoing." After his feeding, he would disappear as fast and fleeting as he had come......
On the 7th day these words were mine, "No! You will kill me now! Or let me leave this place!" We had our battle, his strength, far too great for me to overcome... He knew how weak and frail I had become from all I'd been through, gathering in those last moments that I would fight to my death...... At that he pinned me down, and on this eve, I drank....... Given a new life, a better life. The year 1498....
I do suppose I'll be 24 years old forevermore... I stayed in Europe watching the century pass, becoming a student of it's history, it's atrocities, it's monstrous invention. Staying through the death of one of my favorite contributors to the revival, a Violin maker... Antonio Stradivari; I have always preferred the works and tone of Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi myself..... Though Stradivari's death symbolized the beginning, and an end of an era.. The death of the Renaissance Revival 1737. It was time for a new beginning, time for a new world...... The name of that world, America...
Jean Grimaldi "Ellestad" II Seigneur de Monaco.
Or more simply writ... The Vampire Lestat.
My Response to IWtV
Originally appearing in the New Yorker, October 8, 1994,
To Anne Rice
A Personal Statement by
Myself, The Vampire Lestat
Regarding the Novel
Interview With The Vampire
I finally got round to reading your novel, "Interview With The Vampire."
The book is, I am told, a worldwide success, but, as you know, the world has never interested me that much, and I have better things to do at bedtime than sit and read. When I think of all the novels recommended to me over the last two hundred years, I shudder at the hours I wasted in Mr. Stoker, with his quaint "effects," or that vulgar little tramp Mary Shelley.
But a few days ago, still recovering from my exertions at Milan fashion week, I spent the night in the company of your prose.
I am making this personal statement now for my victims, and for myself. It's not a news story. I paid for the space. O.K., I had to rip a couple of throats along the way, but you know publishing.
What I have to say is this:
I loved your book. I simply loved it. I read it to a couple of naval recruits, and they loved it, too. It surpassed my maddest expectations, although personally I would have cut back on the adjectives a teeny bit. But I was honored and stunned to discover how faithful this novel was to the spirit, the content, and the ambiance of my life. I was moved by your poignant sympathy, and touched by the good sense with which you banished the old mirror-and-garlic stuff. I mean, I have the sign of the cross on the front of my *car*. Having said that, I noticed you still buy all that crap about white faces, leeched lips, etc. Wake up, darling. Has Clinique not reached New Orleans, or what? And I know you think the books are "really" about guilt and suffering, and the plight of the outsider, but what did you expect me to do? Get married? Let me tell you, outside is a fun place to be. For one thing, I like to watch.
But these are just quibbles. Basically, I'm one lucky immortal. Anne, you are great. I wish every pansexual bloodsucker could know the happiness you gave to me. I love you for it. And I hope and pray, for our sake, that you never meet me.
And now I have a confession to make. I adored the first book so much that I went and bought the sequels, and I loved them, too. I loved their stamina, their restless intensity. And my undead friends in Hollywood tell me that a motion picture is on the way. At last! It must be *years* since I first made those polite inquiries. Never had much time for movies myself, not since von Stroheim died. But some while back, deep in my usher-and-bellhop phase, I spent an evening at the pictures, and there on screen was this juicy little piece called Cruise, and I thought, *yes*. If anyone ever wanted to play me--no, to become me--it would be that boy. I'm so moved that someone was kind enough to take an old vampire's advice.
So, did you see the movie? In a theatre, or only on tape? I hear you couldn't get to the screening because of a blood-related problem. Love it.
If I'm wrong, if you don't like the picture--let me know. Laugh in my face. Write me letters. Call me. I have to stick my neck out and say your book is great, and I'm sure the masses will have to say that the movie is great, too. Do forgive my having to skip the premiere; I had some traveling plans that could not be put off. As I always say, if you're destined to roam the earth for the rest of time, you might as well make a party of it--you know, really *roam*. It's so simple these days; who needs coffins in the hold when you can fly to Europe overnight and still arrive in the dark? I always travel Virgin myself. The stewards taste so fresh.
All my love to you,
Lestat
PAID FOR BY THE VAMPIRE LESTAT. PERMISSION IS GRANTED TO REPRINT THIS STATEMENT AS LONG AS IT IS REPRINTED IN THE BLOOD OF A RAT.
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