Ever since I was little, the idea of vampires has utterly captivated me. Their aesthetic beauty; their omniscient presences that warns people "beware" with just looking at them; their speed and agility and their ability to be other-worldly when luring an individual in. Maybe I love them because I pity their inability to step into the sunlight without becoming cinder.
For the vampires in Anne Rice's novels, all of what I previously just said is utterly true. Rice has a series of vampire stories, all falling under the category of the Vampire Chronicles. Books within this series include: Interview with the Vampire (1976), The Vampire Lestat (1985), The Queen of the Damned (1988), The Tale of the Body Thief (1992), Memnoch the Devil (1995), The Vampire Armand (1998), Merrick (2000), Blood and Gold (2001), Blackwood Farm (2002) and Blood Canticle (2003).
Now, just how does Edward Cullen and the Cullen clan of Twilight stack up to Lestat and his vampire counterparts? Well, really, they don't stack up at all.
The main vampires in Twilight (the Cullens) are all vegetarians, living solely from the blood of animals. Lestat, not satisfied with the blood of animals, drinks the blood of evil-doers (usually rapist and murderers) hoping to ease his conscious of his killings. Prior to drinking only the blood of evil-doers, Lestat was mindless and gluttonous, drinking from any human he fancied.
Lestat and all his other vampire counterparts are unable to enter into the daylight (be it over-cast or sunshine). Upon entering into daylight, the vampires are turned to cinder. This cannot be said of the vampires in Twilight, for they are very able to be out during the day, as long as it is always over-cast. The need of over-cast weather stemming from their bodies sparking like a million facades of diamonds, if put into direct sunlight.
Both sets of vampires are aesthetically beautiful. Rice's vampires, as well as Meyer's have an omniscient presence that silently shouts to human beings to be careful. While something inside the humans scream for them to be careful, everything about the vampires lures the human beings in.
An entity known as the Volturi looms over the vampires of Twilight. The Volturi is the official headquarters of vampires and they are all seeing and knowing; they see to it that the vampire population does not become out of control. Rice's vampires have no higher entity they must follow but rather run rampant and make vampires of others as they so choose.
When it comes down to it, Meyer's vampires add a new, refreshing twist to the usual stereotypes placed on vampires. Meyer's story is something new and Rice's is just a retelling of the usual vampire: death by means of stake or fire, instant death upon entering sunlight, generally evil and self-absorbed beings and aesthetically appealing.
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