Bringing this 8 year old post back from the dead (lol sorry Burny!) cause I’m tired of the search engines showing the wrong date for Lestat’s birthday. It used to say the right date (1758) up until a couple years ago, but it switched to 1760 around when all the TV show hype started, and then someone changed it on the wiki and even on Wikipedia, and no. lol. We’re setting this back right again.
The vampire companion is incorrect.
Katherine Ramsland did a great job with some stuff, but there are many mistakes in the book that any simple reread of the chronicles will make immediately clear.
The bottom highlighted portion IS correct, and is based on this line from The Vampire Lestat: “Marius, the ancient one, Lestat is searching for you, it is the month of May in the year 1780,” which Lestat writes on a wall the night he leaves Paris (VERY shortly after making Nicki and Gabrille, so we can deduce they were also made in May).
Apparently Katherine Ramsland missed the part where Lestat spent many months living his vampire life between his own making and Gabrielle’s and that spring had well arrived by the time Gabrielle was able to make the journey to Paris.
Also, we know Magnus made Lestat a vampire in October, because he says so in the book. At least, he says he starts seeing Magnus’s face in the audience of the theatre in October, and we know Lestat is still 20 when he was made a vampire, so it had to have been before his 21st birthday on November 7 1779.
Lestat says he killed the wolves in the winter of his 21st year, and that he was 20 when he was made a vampire. He repeats the fact that he was 20 multiple times in TVL itself, and sticks to this number for the entire rest of the series.
Saying “twenty-first year” is not a contradiction or continuity error. We are in the twenty-first century, but we are in the 2000s. Just like when he was in the 1700s, he was in the 18th century. When you say it’s your 21st year, you subtract a number to get your actual age. In your first year, you’re not yet 1. When you turn 1, it’s the end of your first year. When you turn 21, it’s the end of your 21st year. Just like 1800 is the end of the 18th century, and 2100 will be the end of the 21st century, etc.
So in the winter of his 21st year (January 1779? December 1778? You choose), he killed some wolves. Then right after the first Sunday of Lent (March 1779) he and Nicki move to Paris.
Katherine Ramsland, you got the date right of when he moved to Paris, and when he left Paris and wrote his message to Marius on the wall… But if he was 20 in January of 1780 (and therefore born in 1760), then that means he killed the wolves when he was 19, and there is no way in ANY math that that is the winter of his 21st year.
So, indisputably, The Vampire Companion is wrong. He could not possibly have been born in 1760.
Lestat was born November 7, 1758
He turned 20 on November 7, 1778
He killed the wolves in December 1778 or January 1779
He and Nicki moved to Paris in March 1779
He became a vampire in October of 1779
He turned 21 on November 7, 1779
He made Nicki and Gabrielle and met Armand and went searching for Marius in May 1780
I have corrected all these dates on the VC fandom wiki lol
And I’ve also updated Wikipedia for the first time in my life 😅
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