The Witching Hour

The Witching Hour

Title: The Witching Hour Author: Anne Rice Copyright Date: 1990 Number

of Page Read: 1043

Three main elements classify the genre: Gothic, Mystery, and Romance. I

classify Gothic novels as stories pertaining to a dismal atmosphere, such as

Edgar Allan Poe's literature. .

Lovers who unlock thirteen generation's of Mayfair family secrets and incest;

discovering that their intervention becomes a more complex-intertwining destiny.

Our Antagonist Michael Curry, a 48-year old Irish man who had lost himself in

a world in which he had accomplished his dreams, experienced his emotional pain,

and yet he felt empty. Michael approached the rocks of the bay, thought of his

life and emptiness, then he slipped and fell to his fatal doom in the sea.

Found by a woman known as Rowan Mayfair , he discovered that he was dead for

over an hour as he rested in the hospital. Michael also discovered that he had

received the gift of seeing images by using his hands to touch objects, and

that he chose to come back. He was burdened by the images and the vision after

his death, that he had a purpose, that he was sent for a reason. Something that

had to do with a doorway, and the number thirteen.

After isolation from the press of the burden of his powers, he found himself

wanting to go back on the deck of the boat where he was rescued. He wanted to

talk to the woman who rescued him, for he thought that she would let him touch

the boat to recover images that night. He discovered that this neurosurgeon, Dr.

Rowan Mayfair, was the veritable love of his life. After he discovered how much

he deeply loved Rowan, he began to reminisce the images of his purpose; that

certain elements and images of his childhood hinted him to return to the house

he had been fascinated with in New Orleans as a child. Another major character

of the story, Englishmen Aaron Lightner, was a part of an archaic organization

known as the "Talamasca". Aaron studied a family called the Mayfairs in New

Orleans, because his organization had believed the Mayfairs to be witches. He

devoted his life to the history of the Mayfair witches, and his organization had

compiled a history of the Mayfairs since the days of the 17th century

inquisition in Europe. As he watched Michael and Rowan from the corners of

darkness, he intervened their lives to enlighten their knowledge of Rowan's

family history—and its dangerous potential. Rowan did not know a single thing

of her family history, as she was left in the dark her whole life by her aunt