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The Tale of the Body Thief (Vampire…
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The Tale of the Body Thief (Vampire Chronicles) (original 1992; edition 1992)

by Anne Rice

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9,28365933 (3.48)46
Fantasy. Fiction. Literature. HTML:NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In another feat of hypnotic storytelling, Anne Rice continues the extraordinary Vampire Chronicles that began with the now classic Interview with the Vampire and continued with The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned.

Lestat speaks.  Vampire-hero, enchanter, seducer of mortals.  For centuries he has been a courted prince in the dark and flourishing universe of the living dead. Lestat is alone.  And suddenly all his vampire rationale—everything he has come to believe and feel safe with—is called into question. In his overwhelming need to destroy his doubts and his loneliness, Lestat embarks on the most dangerous enterprise he has undertaken in all the danger-haunted years of his long existence.

The Tale of the Body Thief is told with the unique—and mesmerizing—passion, power, color, and invention that distinguish the novels of Anne Rice.
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Title:The Tale of the Body Thief (Vampire Chronicles)
Authors:Anne Rice
Info:Ballantine Books (1992), Paperback, 448 pages
Collections:Your library, Wishlist, Currently reading, To read, Read but unowned, Favorites
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The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice (Author) (1992)

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» See also 46 mentions

English (58)  Spanish (4)  Danish (1)  French (1)  All languages (64)
Showing 1-5 of 58 (next | show all)
I guess i spent so many time look for this book that I end up a little disappointed.

It has little vampire action to my taste.
I think that in my conception of the Vampire Chronicles universe is easier to believe in vampires than in soul migration.

I cant imagine Lestat as other than this bond arrogant French-American (I see him as a true immigrant).

But in the end it was a Lestat kind of story and it wasn't to hard to read. ( )
  Artemisa | Dec 30, 2024 |
The Tale of the Body Thief is the fourth in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. Most people would rate this book as the worst in the series (so far) and I would tend to agree.

Our main character, Lestat de Lioncourt, is now based in Florida. Since the last book, The Queen of the Damned, all the vampires, both old, and very old, have now gone their separate ways. Lestat is now alone again, and tiring of the life he is leading. As a result, he resolved to commit suicide by flying into the sun above the Gobi Desert.

Whilst other vampires would burn to nothing if they did the same thing, Lestat is not other vampires; he has drunk the blood from the first Vampire - Akasha - and is now more or less the most powerful of all the vampires alive. As a result, his attempt to kill himself, is a failure. Instead of dying, he gets a nice golden tan. Which, ironically, helps him to fit in with mortals.

Throughout the beginning of the book he is followed and accosted by a man who claims that he has the power to make Lestat human again. He explains that he is a body thief. In fact, the very body he is inhabiting has been stolen, and he is offering this body to Lestat as a trade.

Lestat's incredible vampire enhanced powers, for a human body. Suffice to say, he can't refuse. The deal is made, two full days where he and the body thief swap bodies. But, what will he do when the body thief lives up to his name and steals Lestat's body?

That's what the novel is about.

Whilst the book is well written, it meanders a lot. You find yourself wanting to skip through large chunks of the novel, not because you're desperate to know what happens, but because it's just, plain, boring.

If you've read the other vampire chronicles, you owe it to yourself to read this book, but don't expect the same grandeur or plot that you've read in the previous three books in the series. ( )
  dscox | Jul 16, 2024 |
Oh Anne Rice... How deliciously dark and mind boggling. After the dismal experience of trudging through Queen of the Damned, it took me a while to pick this one up. It didn't take long before I got sucked into it and I ended up really enjoying it. Maybe its a little bit more on the guilty pleasure side, but still a pleasure ;) ( )
  jskeltz | Nov 23, 2023 |
I love Anne Rice's writing and that kept me from a DNF. I just didn't like this. It was ok. It just wasn't great. ( )
  everettroberts | Oct 20, 2023 |
I think I was starting to loose interest by the time I got to this book in the series. ( )
  Kim.Sasso | Aug 27, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 58 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (18 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Rice, AnneAuthorprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Muller, FrankNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Goldmann (43400)

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Epigraph
Sailing to Byzantium
by W.B. Yeats

I.

THAT is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

II.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

III.

O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

IV.

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
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Dedication
For my parents,

Howard and Katherine O'Brien.

Your dreams and your courage will be with me alll of my days
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First words
The Vampire Lestat here. I have a story to tell you.
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Quotations
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Last words
Disambiguation notice
This is the 1992 novel The Tale of the Body Thief. Please do not combine it with any of the adaptations.
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References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

Fantasy. Fiction. Literature. HTML:NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In another feat of hypnotic storytelling, Anne Rice continues the extraordinary Vampire Chronicles that began with the now classic Interview with the Vampire and continued with The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned.

Lestat speaks.  Vampire-hero, enchanter, seducer of mortals.  For centuries he has been a courted prince in the dark and flourishing universe of the living dead. Lestat is alone.  And suddenly all his vampire rationale—everything he has come to believe and feel safe with—is called into question. In his overwhelming need to destroy his doubts and his loneliness, Lestat embarks on the most dangerous enterprise he has undertaken in all the danger-haunted years of his long existence.

The Tale of the Body Thief is told with the unique—and mesmerizing—passion, power, color, and invention that distinguish the novels of Anne Rice.

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