Overview – The hypnotic, deeply seductive novels of Anne Rice have captivated millions of fans around the globe or should I say, that what, we’re going to be able to say is that it is all over the world. It all began a quarter of a century ago with Interview with the Vampire, and then it continued with nine more books that made this writer the queen of our modern vampire blood drinkers that have captivated a lot of persons. Anyway, her third book in the series, The Queen of the Damned was so totally engrossing that i couldn’t bother to put the darn thing down until I’d read every word of it. And so far its been a lot of praises for our vampire mother, right? Well well, when I got into the fourth book, I decided to pause and try to get into the mind of Ms. Rice, so I asked myself who it could be that had influenced her writing. Then, out of the blue, i had my answer.
Remember when Lestat and his lover David went to retrieve his preternatural body from the Body Thief? Well, they used fake names: Sheridan Blackwood and Dr. Stoker yes? Well, that was Joseph Sheridan le Fanu and Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker. Welcome to our world.
The next question is, who were Anne Rice’s influences? What other writers gave her her stroke of genius? And then I delved into Henry Rider Haggard’s She series and I got a shock and a wonderful discovery. Remember Ayesha, the incomparable, sensationally terrifying She Who Must Be Obeyed? Well, it turned out that our lovely Anne Rice had done some summer reading eons ago. Have you read the Queen Of The Damned? Remember that deity-like Akasha who ruled the Undead? Remember her grandiose plans about cleaning up the earth and molding Man to what she wanted the human race to become? Well, you can recalled what happened in Ayesha The Return of She, how she had such terrible plans that Horace was filled within unmentionable horror. And what about the staggering, mind-numbing philosophical diatribe that they were engaged in about good and evil, life and death, love and immortality? Well well, our lovely Mr. Haggard had a lot to fill our consciousness with about these topics, so much so that I had a severe headache halfway into the Ayesha book. Ah, so now we’re getting down to our mama le vampire.
Akasha was also filled with great plans for her rule over the earth. I know that many will wonder why I am writing this, but the answer is that there is no other person who’s made the connection between Rice and Haggard pertaining to their works dealing with preternatural women, who’ve lived for thousands of years on, earth and now want to conquer the earth. Hmmmmmm. How delicious. Well, the summer is that Anne Rice was heavily influenced by Haggard’s work that when I was reading the two books, it was almost as if I was reading about identical twins that must have been separated at birth. God!!!! The two women were so, alike both in looks and in moral philosophy. Ah, but isn’t the mind a tricky thing?
Here we have the most widely acclaimed work in vampire fiction of our time and it turns out that this work, particularly thethird work in the series, borrowed_and please forgive my language _ heavily from the work of one other worldwide bestselling author of all time who lived and died before Ms Rice was even born. It is true_ all you, have to do is to read the two works and understand my point. I am not saying anything by this;0i merely pointed out what I was feeling and forced to notice when I read both books and discovered an avalanche of similarities between them.
The two of these writers are shinning stars in their own, world and in their own genres of niche that they chose to work on and there is no, anger or prejudice against them. Ah, but aren’t they wonderful? And isn’t it breathtaking that the link that tie Henry Rider Haggard’s work and that of vthe vampire chronicles, especially The Queen Of The Damned has been discovered? There is a link, between their world’s that is not deniable unless you haven’t perused their works, and discovered that link.
This is Kingsley Adrian, the voice of the world.
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