Franklin Library leather edition of Anne Rice's "Vittorio the Vampire: New Tales of the Vanpires," Illustrated by Cary Henrie, a Limited edition, one of the SIGNED FIRST EDITION series, Personally signed by ANNE RICE, published in 1999.  Bound in brown leather, the book has decorative end leaves, acid-free paper, a satin book marker, hubbed spine, Symth-sewn binding, gold gilding on three edges---in FINE condition---NEW in SHRINK WRAP. Born in 1941 to Irish Catholic parents in New Orleans, Rice is noted as a gothic fiction author.  She later lived in Texas and in San Francisco.  While living in California, Rice became an agnostic, but later returned to the Catholic faith and in the mid 2000s became a secular humanist.  On the first page, Rice wrote: "My name is Vittorio, and I write this now in the tallest tower of the ruined mountaintop castle in which I was born, in the northernmost part of Tuscany, that most beautiful of lands in the very center of Italy. By anyone's standards, I am a remarkable vampire, most powerful, having lived five hundred years from the great days of Cosimo de' Medici.  In 1450, Vittorio Raniari wrote: I was sixteen year old when I died.  I have good height, thick brown hair down to the shoulders, hazel eyes, a desirable narrow nose, medium-sized mouth, a beautiful boy for the time.  I would not be alive now if I hadn't been. My body is overmuscular, strong, broad-chested, my arms powerful. . . we were incalculably rich, my father having bought up all kinds of luxury items on his trips to Florence. Vittorio's family is murdered by a powerful and ancient coven of vampires.  The image of his siblings' severed heads with eyes staring fixedly at him strikes him permanently.  Vittorio, however, escapes such a dreadful ending because of a vampire's intervention.  After taking care of his family's burial, Vittorio gathers what riches he can and prepares himself for adventure as he flees toward Florence, away from the perilous crowd of vampires. He soon realizes that someone is stalking him and worried he seeks shelter at an inn.  Ursula, the Vampire who prevented the other members of her coven from killing Vittorio lurks behind his room's windows. A sensuous novel that presents a variation on the Romeo and Juliet story, Ursula seduces Vittorio, all the while draining blood from him and giving him some of her own.  Ursula takes Vittorio to the coven's lair and attempts to make him part of their gatherings. It is an ancient castle, where he discovers its many gardens. Later as he is walking he sees two angels arguing in a doorway, Ramiel and Setheus. Vittorio plots his revenge against them. Helping Vittorio are the two guardian angels of the great---and scandulous---Florentine painter, Fra Fillipo Lippi, for in the novel Vittorio has gained the power to see angels. Ultimately, Vittorio is tricked into becoming a vampire performing as an age-old Bonnie and Clyde, killing and drinking, with his lover, Ursula. 292 pages, including a Selected and Annotated Bibliography. I offer combined shipping.

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