Boekverslag Anne Rice

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Titel:	Pandora
Auteur:	Anne Rice
Jaar van uitgave:	1998
Aantal pagina's:	368

Auteur:	Anne Rice
Pseudoniem voor:	O'brien, Howard Allen
Geslacht:	vrouw
Nationaliteit:	Engels
Geboren:	4 oktober 1941
Populaire titels:	1994Interview with the vampire (3) 1985The vampire Lestat (1) 1998The vampire Armand (1) 1998Pandora (1)

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Title: Pandora
Author: Anna Rice
Pages: 353

Summary

“Pandora is born with the name Lydia in the Roman Republic, a few years before the birth of Christ, to a Senatorial family. She is tall, with rippling brown hair and gold-brown eyes. Like many Patrician Roman females of the time Pandora was taught how to read and write and is well versed in epic poems, especially Ovid's works. She meets Marius for the first time when he is twenty-five and she is ten. Marius asks for Lydia's hand in marriage, but her father rejects Marius' offer. Five years later, Lydia sees Marius at a festival and begs her father to allow her to marry Marius. Her father again refuses.
Pandora's father holds a high rank as a Senator. But when a new emperor takes power, her family is betrayed by her own brother and killed. Only Pandora and her traitorous brother survived the massacre, and she was taken to Antioch (after changing her name to Pandora) by a man who was very close to her father. There she meets Marius again, twenty years after their last encounter. Unbeknownst to her, Marius is now a vampire.
She eventually finds out what Marius has become, and also that he protects and hides the Queen and King of all Vampires. The two care for the Royal Couple together for a while before a vampire, Akabar, tries to steal the Queen's powerful and ancient blood. Marius and Pandora prevent him from carrying out his plan. To spite Marius, Akabar drains Pandora to the point of death. In order to save her, Marius is forced to make Pandora into a vampire. The pair stays together for the next two hundred years before arguing and separating. Marius later characterized the breakup (of which he left her and she spent six months or more waiting for him to return) as being entirely his fault: He considers himself a teacher who longs to impart what he knows upon his pupils, but Pandora -being as free-spirited and highly educated as she was -had no patience to be his student. During their time together, against his objection, she did turn one of her beloved slaves into a vampire. As soon as he was turned he left the pair and was not seen again.
The next time they meet again is in a Dresden ballroom in the early to mid-1700s. Marius tries in vain to make Pandora leave her companion and fledgling, Arjun, and come back to him. Pandora's relationship with Arjun is of great concern to Marius, who fears Pandora is being held against her will. While she outwardly denies this, Pandora overcomes her embarrassment and admits to David in her writing that she could not bring herself to leave Arjun, citing that his stronger will propelled them both through time.
The next and last time that they meet is in 1985, when she is among thirteen vampires who survived Akasha's killing spree and gathered at Maharet's house in the Sonoma compound to battle against Akasha. Pandora remains quiet and withdrawn throughout the whole ordeal, staring out the windows and saying little, rousing herself only once to say that Akasha is trying to justify deplorable "reasons" for a holocaust.
Like many vampires, Pandora is a morose, despairing immortal who initially wanted immortality but soon regretted her choice and turns into a dark, indifferent cynic. Lestat thinks that Pandora was troubled in some deep, fundamental way even before she became a vampire, because she's the only vampire who doesn't receive visions of Maharet and Mekare in her dreams. During the confrontation in Sonoma, when Akasha directly asks Pandora to join with her or die, Pandora merely responds in a quiet, indifferent voice that she can't do what Akasha is asking of her, and stoically accepts the idea of being killed.
Even after Akasha herself is destroyed and the thirteen vampires regroup in Armand's Night Island in Florida, Pandora still acts withdrawn from her fellow vampire kin, watching music videos all day long and completely ignoring Marius, who dotes on her lovingly. There is no sense of recovery or security in her as there is with the other vampires, and she departs from Night Island alone, still just as morose as ever.
David Talbot encounters her in Paris shortly after the events of Memnoch the Devil and before the story of The vampire Armand. He asks her to write the story of her life, which she does in a cafe by writing in some notebooks he gave her. She recalls the details of her life before becoming a vampire and briefly discusses the period when she was with Marius. After she has finished, she writes that she plans to go to New Orleans to look for Marius and to look into the eyes of Lestat, and try to understand what it is he saw.”

Themes: Love, Vampires and History
Genre: Mystery and Fantasy

The message of the story

This book doesn’t contain a strong message but it does show the incredible connection between Pandora and Marius. They seem destined for eachother and when they see eachother in Antioch, Marius turns Pandora into a vampire in order to save her.
They have their differences but they seem made for eachother. Eventually they part ways, but they never stop loving one another. The books shows that some people are destined for eachother and that love will be able to stay strong over so many years.

Place and Time

The story takes place in the ancient cities of Rome and Antioch from the year 15 B.C. which is mentioned in the book. But the beginning and ending of the book takes place in the year 2000, which is the year that Pandora writes her story down on paper.
There’s some other locations, for example when Pandora was on the boat from Rome to Antioch, but these location are not important in the story.




Main Characters

Pandora (Lydia)
She’s a strong, independant woman who is the main character in this fantasy book. The reader gets to know her as Lydia when she’s only a child but immediately you can see how mature she is. Later in the book she changes her name to Pandora to start over in a new place where she doesnt want to be recognized. Pandora is incredibly stubborn and very into philosophy and history. She is fond of reading and with the help of her knowledge she can get herself out of complicated situations. (e.g. when Lucius tries to kill her, but he ends up getting killed himself)
Pandora was born around 15 B.C. and is more than 2000 years old.

Marius
Charming, intelligent and with the capability to read minds, Marius is Pandora’s love interest in the story. He’s a vampire and had his eye on Pandora ever since she was a kid. He actually asked her her hand in marriage when she was 15 but he was turned down by Pandora’s father.
All in all, Marius is a strong and courageous immortal who has been walking earth for quite some time, killing other blood drinkers in order to protect the king and queen who takes care of.

Information about the author

The author of the book is Anne Rice.
She was born with the name Howard Allen Frances O'Brien on October 4th, 1941. At the Catholic school Anne O'Brien attended, she never felt that she fit in. Her family was poorer than most of the other families, and her large vocabulary, her knowledge of literature, and her individuality made her stand out.
Anne Rice is a best-selling American author of gothic and religious-themed books. She was married to poet Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history.
Her first book was: Interview with the vampire, which was finished in 1973 and published in 1976. It was one of her most succesfull novels.
She has also written under the name: Anne Ramping and A.N. Roquelaure.
A couple of her novels are: The Feast of All Saints, Cry to Heaven, The vampire Lestat, The Mummy, Violin, Blood Canticle and Taltos.

My Evaluation of the Story

I started reading this book because I recently read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and I was very fond of this vampire book. When my friend told me about this book I was eager to hear that we were allowed to use it for our bookreports.
The first chapter didn’t seem all that bad and I immediately noticed how Anne Rice described the settings so well.

“You do have a story inside you; it lies articulate and waiting to be written -- behind your silence and your suffering.”(Page 34)

This quote, said by David, spoke to me as I read the first pages of this book. She didn’t believe him at first but when she started writing, there was indeed a story waiting to be written. In the end she thanks David for motivate her to write her story.

“I shall always thank you. No matter what suffering is to come, you have quickened me.” (Page 353)

However, when Pandora started to tell her story and it went back to Rome in 15 B.C. it got a little bit boring because it was mainly about Pandora’s childhood and a bit history of Rome. Because the story was in such an early time setting, I found myself having a hard time picturing the surroundings. On top of that, Anne Rice took a long time with descriptions and it bored me fast.
When there would be a part with action, it would pull me back into the story and I’d enjoy these scenes.

The connection between the two vampires is so strong and the moment that Pandora turns into a vampire, brings a smile to my face. It means that they can finally be together. A quote of after this happening, said by Marius: ”Oh to have you with me,” Marius said, “to have you here; not to be alone, but to be with you, my beauty, you of all souls! You.”(Page 264)

It’s too bad that there wasn’t a clear message in this story but overall it was a beautiful story and it was very well written. It could be a little less boring and more action since the book is about vampires. There was a lot of history involved, poets and writers which doesnt interest me at all.
I expected more of Anne Rice, since I read some really positive reviews. Next time I’ll try to find a book with a deeper message, since this book was purely meant for amusement.


Internet References

1. Pandora (novel) ‡ Plot summary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(novel)
November 28, 2008

2. Anne Rice ‡ Early years, Writing career
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Rice
November 28, 2008

The quotes in my evaluation are taken from the book. (Pandora, by Anne Rice)