The Mayfair Witches Galleries
These galleries are collections of some of the approaches I've taken in trying to see if I could recreate
the Mayfair Witches the way Anne Rice described them in the novels.
As more and more novels have made their way to the screen, more and more fans have used a wide range of newer technology to
return to the source material--the novels themselves. We've seen some amazing graphics shared by users across various platforms
showing the characters as described by their authors. The Game of Thrones series, including House of the Dragon,
is one notable example.
There have been many fans who have taken this approach to the Vampire Chronicles, as well. The Parlor does have a
newer section opened for discussing this series, which is far more well-known than the Mayfair Witches, yes. Lestat's Parlor
opened during Season 2 of the recent AMC series, but also aims to provide more background on the publication history of Anne
Rice's novel, and some of the graphics created that seemed to later inspire the screen adaptations of the novel and its many
sequels.
The Mayfair Witches Parlor, however, remains primarily focused on the Lives of the Mayfair Witches. There is one page
below that is a little different, though. The Mayfair emerald necklace. Many of us over the years have created images or
graphics of what this piece of jewelry might look like. Then, I went back to the novel, The Witching Hour.
This is the wonderful part of things like Amazon Kindle. Once it indexes the books you buy, you can do a search like it's
a concordance. And you can get an exact reference to include that will give the location in the ebook and, if the publisher
includes this data, the corresponding page number in the Mass Market edition of the novel. So, I did a search for the emerald
necklace.
Putting together a detailed description of the emerald necklace straight from the novel, I wanted to see what such a piece
of jewelry would have looked like. An Internet search showed me a great deal, and gave me a much clearer idea of what an
emerald necklace, a pendant necklace, might have looked like as Anne Rice described it. So, I put together the page below
that discusses the Mayfair emerald of the novels. It includes some of the images I managed to find online. The necklace
is such an integral part of the Mayfair Witches that I think it deserves discussion in its own right.
Please enjoy the galleries and projects, and everything else the Parlor has to offer. I hope it will help to bring more readers
to discover and appreciate Anne Rice's extraordinary Lives of the Mayfair Witches novels.
The Mayfair Witches Vintage Gallery
Suzanne Mayfair
Deborah Mayfair
Charlotte Mayfair
Jeanne-Louise Mayfair
Angelique Mayfair
Marie Claudette Mayfair
Marguerite Mayfair
Julien Mayfair
Katherine Mayfair
Mary Beth Mayfair
Stella Mayfair
Antha Mayfair
Deirdre Mayfair
Rowan Mayfair
Mona Mayfair
The Mayfair Witches still images with the 3D Mayfair Emerald, each in a vintage oval frame
These were made from the Mayfair Witches designed by Jennifer Harris for MAYFAIR: Stories of the Mayfair Witches (Idle Rogue)
Page to Screen Galleries
So what did the Mayfair Witches look like? Other characters? It might be fun
to add more to this page, especially as (I hope) more characters in the Mayfair Witches series make it to the screen themselves...
Mary Beth Mayfair was said to resemble Joan Crawford.
Stella Mayfair was said to resemble Clara Bow.
My Choice of Actress to Play Rowan Mayfair (several years ago):
Ashley Judd.
One of my favorite actresses, Ashley Judd has the deep voice, great beauty and presence that makes me think "Rowan Mayfair".
To try to imagine what Rowan Mayfair actually looks like based upon the descriptions of her in the books, I think Ashley Judd
is the closest physical model of her. She is also the actress who would be able to portray her accurately and intelligently.
So, who did end up playing Rowan Mayfair?
Page to the Small Screen
In January 2023, AMC and AMC+ released Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches as a television series.
Season 1, based mostly on The Witching Hour, the first novel in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches series, cast
Alexandra Daddario as the main character, Rowan. However, the show does have some marked differences from the source material.
The first is that instead of naming the main character Rowan Mayfair in keeping with the novels, she was named Rowan Fielding.
The character retained the profession of neurosurgeon, making her Dr. Rowan Fielding. The image above shows Dr. Rowan Fielding
standing outside the Mayfair crypt during the entombment of her birth mother, Dierdre Mayfair. Behind her, you can see names
of other Mayfairs entombed in the crypt, and the name of one who is not.
Rowan Mayfair.
Dierdre and the rest of the Mayfair family were told Rowan had died at birth, though this was not true. Still, it was still
a moment that had an oddly chilling effect when I first saw the name of the character as it had been in the novels engraved
on the crypt.
What of the rest of the Mayfair Witches, then? Other characters in the novels? To answer that question, a study of Anne
Rice's Mayfair Witches on AMC is in order. The Parlor does have pages that discuss the AMC series, but if the only page
anyone (human, that is) is interested in is the Soria Creel house (which is NOT the home of Rowan Mayfair in the novels),
there's really no point.
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