The Witching Hour

By Anne Rice

Book Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the beloved author of the Vampire Chronicles, the first installation of her spellbinding Mayfair Chronicles--the inspiration for the hit television series!

"Extraordinary . . . Anne Rice offers more than just a story; she creates myth."--The Washington Post Book World

Rowan Mayfair, a beautiful woman, a brilliant practitioner of neurosurgery--aware that she has special powers but unaware that she comes from an ancient line of witches--finds the drowned body of a man off the coast of California and brings him to life. He is Michael Curry, who was born in New Orleans and orphaned in childhood by fire on Christmas Eve, who pulled himself up from poverty, and who now, in his brief interval of death, has acquired a sensory power that mystifies and frightens him. As these two, fiercely drawn to each other, fall in love and--in passionate alliance--set out to solve the mystery of her past and his unwelcome gift, an intricate tale of evil unfolds.

Moving through time from today's New Orleans and San Francisco to long-ago Amsterdam and a ch?teau in the Louis XIV's France, and from the coffee plantations of Port au Prince, where the great Mayfair fortune is made and the legacy of their dark power is almost destroyed, to Civil War New Orleans, The Witching Hour is a luminous, deeply enchanting novel.

The magic of the Mayfairs continues:
THE WITCHING HOUR - LASHER - TALTOS

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345367898
• ISBN13: 9780345367891
• Release Date: September 1991
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 976 Pages
• Weight: 2.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A brilliant take on wizards and home decor.

We follow great characters like Rowan Mayfair, Michael Curry and several other characters. We follow Rowan and Michael and other bystanders as they describe mysteries and Rowan Mayfair's mother. If you love detail, and history of families you will get all in this story. It's the first book in the trilogy.

Great copy

I adore the Witching hour series. If you like a good supernatural Gothic series then this is the series for you. I love all books by Anne rice so of course this was a reread and an addition to my collection. I recieve a great library copy of this book and am pleased with the quality.

This is a favorite of mine that I'll reread.

I'm not a huge Anne Rice fan but there's something about this trilogy that grabs you. It pulled me in I had to finish. I recommend this set to all.

All time favorite!

I am an avid reader. I have read everything from Horror, syfy, romance, mystery, historical. And this is my all time favorite book. I has all of the above and so much more. If you are a fan of history, mystery, horror, and suspense. This is gonna be a page turner for you. Don’t start it unless you have time to finish it because you won’t be able to put it down.

Massive and overwhelming, but beautifully realistic

I have to start by saying, Bravo! Miss Rice for your attention to detail, your vivid depictions, and your excellent character development. This is an excellent read for those who have the patience to sit through a 1000 plus page book. Like most of Anne's books she starts of with a little foreshadowing and some excellent imagery to set the mood of the story. Yet, you had better be prepared once you set off on this journey. Unless you have a photographic memory, I would suggest grabbing a notebook in which you can briefly list the characters in this book, or else you can look forward to some confusion down the road. This may sound like it would take the fun out of reading this book, but you will thank me once you finally finish this epic adventure.Anne takes you through the history of the Mayfair Witches one by one, explaining just how each contributed to the families' wealth and standing, at the same time weaving a tale of betrayal, incest, and mystery. There are times when the story drags, but for the most part you are kept on the edge of your seat trying to predict every twist that this intense plot throws at you.Besides giving an expansive family history, Miss Rice also masterfully creates a realistic world in which the story takes place. As with the Vampire Chronicles, The Witching Hour also takes place in Anne's beloved New Orleans. As the story unfolds you become more and more familiar with this magical city as if you had lived there and each of the characters' experiences begin to feel as if the were your own. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the Vampire Chronicles or is just looking for a good book.To sum up: -Great depth and beautiful imagery-Excellent character development-Story tends to drag, but is filled with twists-Requires patience and time to complete

Master Storytelling

Anne Rice proves to be a master storyteller in her Mayfair Witches Chronicles. I attempted to read Interview With a Vampire and also Lestat but found the whole vampire history a little uninteresting. However, the witches series is a masterpiece! Having read the sequels Lasher and Taltos, I can say this is a superb trilogy. The characters are lush and complex, which I love. Anyone who hates when a book ends will love these long detailed novels. Being a fan of Stephen King and Dean Koontz, horror is my specialty and I can say that with this series Anne Rice ranks right up there with the King (Stephen that is). She makes New Orleans sound wonderful and mysterious without being boring and long winded. I highly recommend this trilogy to anyone who enjoys horror.

Excellent, and disturbing in a good way...

Though I am twelve years old, (if you have read this book than you know that I should not have read it) I enjoy the quality of Anne Rice's novels. The scenes in which her charcters live are wonderfully described, and they become real. I bought this book at the mall with a friend who said ever so rudely to me that I was insane for trying to read a book that size, and it would take me a least a year, but I assured her that the critics were always right, at least about Anne Rice, and I devoured this book in an impressive amount of time. I deeply adore this book now, and am very excited to start Lasher, the next book. The suprise ending hurt me, because it was most definately not what I was expecting! This is now one of my favorite books, and I will most likely purchase the others in the very near future. It's sad romance was a little more than I could endure. I found it sadistic and romantic. If you believe nothing else, believe me when I say this. Anne Rice will not dissapoint you!

Dark Chocolate Laced With Arsenic

Rich and dark, sultry and humid, dusty and musty and perfumed with the sweet scent of decay... the story between the covers of _Witching Hour_ is all of these things. It's a decadent toxin, luxurious and chilling all in one heavy blow.What does this book have going for it? The better question is, what doesn't it have going for it? Elegant prose--that's there. Vivid description? In abundance! Strong characters? You'll have to read it to believe it; not only are we presented with the magnetic couple Rowan and Michael in their modern-day psychic glory (and the reappearance of the intriguing Talamasca), but the history of the Mayfairs treats the reader to one tantalizing personality after another. Sensuality? If you know anything about Anne Rice, you really don't need to ask. Suspense, horror, creepiness? Oh, *yes*--these things coat almost every page, seeping into your mind like a slow contact poison. Good plot? Good enough to keep me turning the pages long into the night, though I'll admit it faltered and dragged in places while zooming ludicrously fast in others. An excellent ending... well, no book is perfect.In truth, all of the problems in this book seemed tied to the pacing and the ending. The former was good, but not in keeping with the quality of the rest of the book; the latter seemed pure and simply too abrupt, too unbelievable. It had an element of deus ex machina. The change in Rowan's character seemed unbelievable to me. Still, it's a good lead-in to the next novel in the saga, which is probably part of what Rice wanted.I give _Witching Hour_ five stars despite these faults due to its sheer spellbinding intensity and power, which I believe more than compensate. This is a dense, thick, heavy book, rich to the senses and the mind; while it would make an excellent introduction to the works of Rice, or fresh new fare for those familiar with her well-known vampires, it isn't something I'd suggest picking up for a light read. Prepare instead to be mesmerized for hours by the intricate world and sense of mystery that Anne Rice will build for you.

A long worthwhile read

This is probably not a book for everyone, as it is long in detail and long on developing the plot. If you love novels like these, you will love this.If not, do not even pick this up.The story of the Mayfair witches starts in the present, moves to the past and back to the present with some loops thrown in.Anne Rice made beautiful usage of the language and description. I felt half the time that I was there in New Orleans (and it being over 90 degrees here helped =) watching a ghost story unfold. The ending is definitely a shocker, however, if you take the time to read the second and third book it all makes sense. This was not written to be a one book novel. Anne spent a lot of time developing the characters in this novel, which explained why certain characters do and react the way they do. It also made me feel that I knew each individual character very well. I almost cried at points, and got very angry in others.To me it was well worth the read (it grabbed my attention immediately, I didn't put it down for 2 days thank god it was the weekend!) and then I had to run out and by the next two books, which I will not go into details on here.