Interview with the Vampire

After Claudia attempts to murder Lestat—poisoning him and cutting his throat before dumping his body in a swamp—she and Louis prepare to flee New Orleans for Europe. Lestat, badly burned but alive, confronts them before they can leave; Louis sets their home ablaze and escapes with Claudia, believing Lestat is finally dead. In Europe they search for others of their kind, finding only mindless, feral corpses in the east, until they reach Paris and discover a true vampire society at the Théâtre des Vampires, led by the thean ancient, magnetic vampire Armand. Claudia is repelled by the theatre's cruel games, but Louis is drawn to Armand, and Claudia, fearing abandonment, pushes Louis to turn a grieving Parisian doll maker, Madeleine, into a vampire companion for her.

The fragile new household is shattered when Armand's coven abducts Louis, Claudia, and Madeleine. Lestat reappears, alive after all, scarred and enraged, demanding that Claudia answer for trying to kill him—though he begs the coven to spare Louis. The coven ignores him: Louis is sealed in a coffin to starve while Claudia and Madeleine are left exposed in an open courtyard. Armand frees Louis afterward, but he is too late for the others—Claudia and Madeleine have been burned to ash by the sun. Louis glimpses Lestat weeping over the remains of Claudia's dress before losing sight of him again.

Consumed by grief and rage, Louis returns to the theatre the next night and burns it to the ground, killing the entire coven inside, and leaves Paris with Armand. The two travel together for years, but Louis is emotionally hollowed out by Claudia's death, and the relationship curdles; eventually they separate, each finding the other has nothing left to offer. Louis wanders back to New Orleans in the early twentieth century and settles into a solitary, joyless existence, feeding on whoever crosses his path but never again creating a companion. He recounts one final meeting with Lestat, whom he finds decayed and disoriented, hiding in a crumbling mansion, unmoored from time and no longer the commanding figure he once was.

The novel closes on the frame story: having finished his 200-year confession, Louis is weary of immortality and the destruction it has brought him. The young reporter who has been recording his story, however, is captivated only by the power vampirism promises and begs Louis to turn him. Furious that his listener has understood nothing of the tale's sorrow, Louis attacks him and disappears into the night. The boy, undeterred and thrilled rather than frightened, sets off to find Lestat himself, hoping to be made a vampire.

Interview with the Vampire is narrated by Louis de Pointe du Lac, a vampire recounting his 200-year life story to a young modern-day interviewer. Louis was a grieving Louisiana plantation owner in 1791 when the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt turned him, promising release from human sorrow. Louis found Lestat charismatic but morally empty, and the two had an increasingly strained partnership: Lestat fed on humans without conscience, while Louis struggled with guilt and initially fed on animals.

After fleeing their burned plantation for New Orleans, Louis fed on a dying five-year-old girl; Lestat then turned her into a vampire, Claudia, hoping to bind Louis to him through fatherhood. Claudia grew into a woman mentally over decades while remaining trapped in a child's body, and she came to despise Lestat for condemning her to that fate. After sixty years together as an eerie found family, Claudia attempted to kill Lestat, and she and Louis fled toward Europe believing him dead.

In Paris they found a real vampire society at the Théâtre des Vampires, ruled by the ancient Armand. Louis grew close to Armand, threatening Claudia's bond with him, so Claudia had Louis turn a doll maker, Madeleine, to be her new companion. It emerged that Lestat had survived and reached the coven, which then punished the group for Claudia's attempted murder: Claudia and Madeleine were burned to death in sunlight, while Louis was freed by Armand. Louis retaliated by burning the theatre and its entire coven to the ground.

Louis then traveled with Armand for years, but their bond decayed under the weight of Louis's grief over Claudia, and they eventually parted. Louis returned to New Orleans, living alone and detached, feeding without forming new attachments. He describes one last visit to Lestat, now a decayed, reclusive figure lost in a crumbling mansion, seemingly diminished from the vampire he once was. As the interview ends, Louis is weary of eternity, but the human boy interviewing him is instead enthralled and demands to be turned. Louis refuses and attacks him in anger before vanishing.

Going into the next book, the open threads are: Lestat is alive but was last seen weakened, decrepit, and detached from time in his New Orleans hideaway; Armand's current whereabouts and state after parting from Louis are unknown; Louis is alone in New Orleans, disillusioned with immortality; and the human boy, undeterred by Louis's warning, has set off to find Lestat himself in hopes of becoming a vampire.