Anne Rice: A Mainstream Guide to Vampirism and BDSM

What do vampires, Brad Pitt, spanking and Tom Cruise all have in common? Anne Rice: veteran contemporary Gothic author with a penchant for the erotic. Still reluctant to fully accept her status in the mainstream, Rice's work has stoked the imaginations of votaries, as well as the ire of those in opposition. Basing works on vampires and crafting decadent erotic tales can easily place writers into obscurity and the field of restricted literary production. Since the publishing of her best seller Interview with the Vampire in 1976, Anne Rice has been an exception to the rule with her Gothic works, inasmuch as being able to achieve celebrity author status and mainstream notoriety despite her brand of fiction. Aside from her eight tales in the popular Vampire Chronicles (published from 1976 through 1999) and the tales of the Mayfair Witches, Rice developed The Beauty Series. The first book of the series, The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty, is a prime example of Rice's versatility and vision in the form of an adult, erotic retelling of the Sleeping Beauty myth.

When looking at Rice's considerable success as a writer of popular fiction and lesser-known erotic works, several questions arise: where does Rice stand in the literary canon? Has her work in the mainstream hindered the credibility and quality of her lesser-known works, or merely served to boost her status as a celebrity/star author? Anne Rice is a celebrity author who has made a name for herself by introducing literary works with unconventional, escapist themes to the mainstream marketplace. Along the road to literary stardom, Rice's celebrity status has benefited greatly by having some of her most well-known works adapted into motion pictures.