With thanks to Lee for the prompt: Think of a character from any piece of literature that made you fall head over heels in love; as if you wanted to run away with said character and be his or her best friend forever. What was it that caused you to like this character so much? Strengths? Flaws?
Lestat de Lioncourt. The Vampire Lestat. As soon as I met him, between the battered pages of a second-hand copy of Interview with the Vampire, I was in love with him. He oozed charisma and charm; even when he was being pig-headed, stubborn and arrogant, he was captivating. His capricious nature and the sheer magnetism of his personality won me over even though I’m sure I was supposed to be rooting for Louis throughout the book. Oh, there were vampires before him, for sure, and there were vampires after him; there have been literary men and women who have touched me from the pages of books both before and since we met, but Lestat…well, there’s only one Lestat de Lioncourt. That’s probably a good thing, actually…
See, the thing with Lestat is he has a tendency to be…well, to be a bit of a bastard. But that’s part of his charm, honest; you find yourself simultaneously laughing at him and wanting to throttle him. But it’s his devil-may-care attitude and sheer bloody-minded arrogance that make him who he is; not for Lestat the life of hiding in the shadows, apologising for his existence and the truth of his nature, oh no. Monsieur de Lioncourt, seventh son of the Marquis d’Auvergne and the Brat Prince, apologises to no one for who and what he is. He may be the anti-hero of Interview, but don’t be fooled by his vanity or his attitude: underneath it all, Lestat has a heart of gold. He just doesn’t like to talk about it.
This is why I’m going to sing his praises instead. Underneath that prickly exterior and the selfish impulses, Lestat cares. When he realises that Louis is unhappy he turns the child, Claudia, into a vampire in order to bring love into the life of his companion. Some have seen this as a selfish act, a desperate attempt to keep Louis with him, and while I admit to a more than passing horror at the thought of an immortal child with a vampire’s appetite (and there is almost a none-more pitiful figure in the Vampire Chronicles than Claudia), there is some sort of method in Lestat’s madness. And he does love Louis, maybe because he reminds him of his first love, Nicholas, but it is love nonetheless. When his mother comes to him in Paris, dying of consumption and desperate to see her child one last time, Lestat turns her, too, keeping her with him and ultimately saving her from the lingering death that awaits her otherwise. He is generous to a fault; paying off the debts of the man who managed his acting career when he was still mortal, and buying the theatre he worked in to give to his friends. When the Revolution sweeps France and his petty-aristocratic family are all but wiped out, it is Lestat who takes pity on his old and sickly father and takes care of him, despite the distant relationship between the two. He is also fiercely brave, singlehandedly destroying a pack of wolves that had been terrorising his local village.
But as well as these heroic acts, Lestat has his faults. He is all but incapable of taking orders, advice or instruction and, thanks to him coming ‘out of the coffin’ with his autobiography and rock band, he is solely responsible for the events that take place in ‘The Queen of the Damned’; reviving the First Vampires and almost destroying both humanity and the vampires. Not for nothing was he named ‘The Brat Prince’ by an affectionate yet deeply exasperated Marius! Yet the events that he has unwittingly unleashed also give Lestat pause for thought, driving him to take a long, hard look at himself and what he has become. He may still be the irrepressible Brat Prince of old, but it is this moment that makes him realise that he is still deeply bewitched by humanity and spurs him to fight for some form of redemption. Lestat endures great trials in the next two books in the series, and yet he comes out of it a much wiser and, to my mind, nobler person. Of course, being Lestat, there are still moments when you could quite cheerily drive a stake through his heart without a second thought (not that that would kill him, but it would certainly go a long way to relieving your own tension); but the losses he experiences and the revelations he undergoes all serve to make him someone worth fighting for.
It was these hidden depths and his love for humanity, as well as his questioning mind and his spirit that made me fall for Lestat. Others may well be hypnotised by his beauty or drawn to his money and power, but for me it was his mind and his passions that excited me, and the overpowering desire to wrap him up and shield him from the evils of the ‘Savage Garden’. He’s not perfect, but then again he never professed to be and although I’m sure there would be times when I’d want to kill him, ultimately Lestat is one of life’s good guys. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend eternity with...
Lestat de Lioncourt. The Vampire Lestat. As soon as I met him, between the battered pages of a second-hand copy of Interview with the Vampire, I was in love with him. He oozed charisma and charm; even when he was being pig-headed, stubborn and arrogant, he was captivating. His capricious nature and the sheer magnetism of his personality won me over even though I’m sure I was supposed to be rooting for Louis throughout the book. Oh, there were vampires before him, for sure, and there were vampires after him; there have been literary men and women who have touched me from the pages of books both before and since we met, but Lestat…well, there’s only one Lestat de Lioncourt. That’s probably a good thing, actually…
See, the thing with Lestat is he has a tendency to be…well, to be a bit of a bastard. But that’s part of his charm, honest; you find yourself simultaneously laughing at him and wanting to throttle him. But it’s his devil-may-care attitude and sheer bloody-minded arrogance that make him who he is; not for Lestat the life of hiding in the shadows, apologising for his existence and the truth of his nature, oh no. Monsieur de Lioncourt, seventh son of the Marquis d’Auvergne and the Brat Prince, apologises to no one for who and what he is. He may be the anti-hero of Interview, but don’t be fooled by his vanity or his attitude: underneath it all, Lestat has a heart of gold. He just doesn’t like to talk about it.
This is why I’m going to sing his praises instead. Underneath that prickly exterior and the selfish impulses, Lestat cares. When he realises that Louis is unhappy he turns the child, Claudia, into a vampire in order to bring love into the life of his companion. Some have seen this as a selfish act, a desperate attempt to keep Louis with him, and while I admit to a more than passing horror at the thought of an immortal child with a vampire’s appetite (and there is almost a none-more pitiful figure in the Vampire Chronicles than Claudia), there is some sort of method in Lestat’s madness. And he does love Louis, maybe because he reminds him of his first love, Nicholas, but it is love nonetheless. When his mother comes to him in Paris, dying of consumption and desperate to see her child one last time, Lestat turns her, too, keeping her with him and ultimately saving her from the lingering death that awaits her otherwise. He is generous to a fault; paying off the debts of the man who managed his acting career when he was still mortal, and buying the theatre he worked in to give to his friends. When the Revolution sweeps France and his petty-aristocratic family are all but wiped out, it is Lestat who takes pity on his old and sickly father and takes care of him, despite the distant relationship between the two. He is also fiercely brave, singlehandedly destroying a pack of wolves that had been terrorising his local village.
But as well as these heroic acts, Lestat has his faults. He is all but incapable of taking orders, advice or instruction and, thanks to him coming ‘out of the coffin’ with his autobiography and rock band, he is solely responsible for the events that take place in ‘The Queen of the Damned’; reviving the First Vampires and almost destroying both humanity and the vampires. Not for nothing was he named ‘The Brat Prince’ by an affectionate yet deeply exasperated Marius! Yet the events that he has unwittingly unleashed also give Lestat pause for thought, driving him to take a long, hard look at himself and what he has become. He may still be the irrepressible Brat Prince of old, but it is this moment that makes him realise that he is still deeply bewitched by humanity and spurs him to fight for some form of redemption. Lestat endures great trials in the next two books in the series, and yet he comes out of it a much wiser and, to my mind, nobler person. Of course, being Lestat, there are still moments when you could quite cheerily drive a stake through his heart without a second thought (not that that would kill him, but it would certainly go a long way to relieving your own tension); but the losses he experiences and the revelations he undergoes all serve to make him someone worth fighting for.
It was these hidden depths and his love for humanity, as well as his questioning mind and his spirit that made me fall for Lestat. Others may well be hypnotised by his beauty or drawn to his money and power, but for me it was his mind and his passions that excited me, and the overpowering desire to wrap him up and shield him from the evils of the ‘Savage Garden’. He’s not perfect, but then again he never professed to be and although I’m sure there would be times when I’d want to kill him, ultimately Lestat is one of life’s good guys. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend eternity with...
1 comment:
All these other vampires are nothing compared...
"Lestat is where it's at!"
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