The Vampire Armand
The Vampire Chronicles 6
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- 8,99 €
Publisher Description
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE COMES THE SWEEPING SIXTH INSTALLMENT OF THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES.
Armand; eternally young, with the face of a Botticelli angel.
From the Kiev Rus of his boyhood, in a ruined city under Mongol dominion, to ancient Constantinople, where Tartar raiders sell him into slavery, Armand’s story has been nothing short of magnificent.
And it is in a magnificent palazzo in the Venice of the Renaissance that we see him emotionally and intellectually enthral the great vampire Marius, a mysterious and reclusive painter who will bestow upon Armand the gift of vampiric blood.
And in luxury and elegance, of ambush, fire and devil worship, Armand is forced to choose between his twilight immortality and the salvation of his immortal soul.
Armand, who first appeared in all his dark glory more than twenty years ago in the now-classic Interview with the Vampire, the first of The Vampire Chronicles, the novel that established its author worldwide as a prolific storyteller and creator of magical realms.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fantasy's great advantage is that authors can make anything happen--even rewriting their own stories, as Rice does here. Readers of her 1995 novel, Memnoch the Devil, will recall that the vampire Armand ended his existence by stepping into the sun. Since he was a popular character from earlier tales, a resounding protest from fans followed. In response, Rice concocted a way in this, her seventh Vampire Chronicle since Interview with the Vampire (1976), to raise Armand from the dead. He is, in fact, the narrator of this story, in which he looks back on his earthly existence, revisiting his apprenticeship in 16th-century Venice to the regal vampire artist, Marius De Romanus, who saved his life with the kiss of immortality. Afterward, Armand returned to his Russian homeland, but when disaster parted him from Marius, he became the nihilistic leader of a pack of Parisian vampires. Rice offers exquisite details of erotic romps and political intrigues while reprising other material familiar to her fans, but finally returns to the pressing question of what happened to Armand in the sun's lethal rays. She supplies a vivid and resonant description of the experience, set against the counterpoint of Beethoven's Appassionata. Unfortunately, she dims the effect by dragging Armand through rambling scenes involving two odd children, Sybelle and Benji. Otherwise, this is a lavishly poetic recital in which Armand struggles with the fragility of religious belief. The final scene is a stunner. Editor, Victoria Wilson; agent, Lynn Nesbit. First printing 750,000; BOMC main selection; simultaneously available in audio and large-print editions.
