If Bram Stoker could have read this book, he might have had trouble appreciating Louis's vacillating, self-absorbed character. Stoker presented his famous vampire as an evil force, not a personality. But he would have had no trouble recognizing the desolate Transylvanian landscape that Louis and Claudia visit in search of their roots.

The moldy tower, terrified peasantry, black capes, and carriage in this scene are direct descendants of Gothic tradition. In the midst of these melodramatic elements, however, Rice develops a psychology of vampirism. Her exploration of the fictional world of vampiric emotions, sexuality, spirituality and society is unique.

There is no sense of vampire community in Dracula (although the Count has some kind of bizarre family relationship with the three female vampires that live in his castle). Rice's undead, on the other hand, have a history, a code of behavior, and an entire society. The...