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Madelaine de Montalia #1
Out of the House of Life
More than a third of Saint-Germain's long, long life was spent in the shadow of the Pyramids, in service to the temples of Egypt--but the tale of those years has never been told before.
In Out of the House of Life, readers of Yarbro's series can at last discover how a bloodthirsty demon, captured and enslaved by the high priests of the temple of Imhotep, was transformed into priest and physician and then, finally, into an immortal being of great power and greater wisdom.
In Out of the House of Life, readers of Yarbro's series can at last discover how a bloodthirsty demon, captured and enslaved by the high priests of the temple of Imhotep, was transformed into priest and physician and then, finally, into an immortal being of great power and greater wisdom.
464 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1990
About the author
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
262 books478 followersA professional writer for more than forty years, Yarbro has sold over eighty books, more than seventy works of short fiction, and more than three dozen essays, introductions, and reviews. She also composes serious music. Her first professional writing - in 1961-1962 - was as a playwright for a now long-defunct children's theater company. By the mid-60s she had switched to writing stories and hasn't stopped yet.
After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.
She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.
In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.
She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.
Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.
Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.
Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.
After leaving college in 1963 and until she became a full-time writer in 1970, she worked as a demographic cartographer, and still often drafts maps for her books, and occasionally for the books of other writers.
She has a large reference library with books on a wide range of subjects, everything from food and fashion to weapons and trade routes to religion and law. She is constantly adding to it as part of her on-going fascination with history and culture; she reads incessantly, searching for interesting people and places that might provide fodder for stories.
In 1997 the Transylvanian Society of Dracula bestowed a literary knighthood on Yarbro, and in 2003 the World Horror Association presented her with a Grand Master award. In 2006 the International Horror Guild enrolled her among their Living Legends, the first woman to be so honored; the Horror Writers Association gave her a Life Achievement Award in 2009. In 2014 she won a Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
A skeptical occultist for forty years, she has studied everything from alchemy to zoomancy, and in the late 1970s worked occasionally as a professional tarot card reader and palmist at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco.
She has two domestic accomplishments: she is a good cook and an experienced seamstress. The rest is catch-as-catch-can.
Divorced, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area - with two cats: the irrepressible Butterscotch and Crumpet, the Gang of Two. When not busy writing, she enjoys the symphony or opera.
Her Saint-Germain series is now the longest vampire series ever. The books range widely over time and place, and were not published in historical order. They are numbered in published order.
Known pseudonyms include Vanessa Pryor, Quinn Fawcett, T.C.F. Hopkins, Trystam Kith, Camille Gabor.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 28, 2010
I've never really liked Madelaine. I find her a poor second to Olivia. Yet, Madeline is likable here. In many ways, she is more likable when she isn't romantically attached to someone. Her relationship with Falke seems forced and in many ways, the story is poorer for it.
The most intersting part of the story is Madeline's adventures in Egypt as she digs up ancient temples. Yarbro touches on cultural differences as well as sexism.
The Count's story is well thought out, especially in terms of what he doesn't say.
Old Review
This was the second or third St. Germain book I read. The ancient Egyptian detail is well done. Yarbro presents the two stories in a wonderful way. One story is that of Madeline who is in Egypt working on a dig; the second story is that of the Count when he first came to Egypt during the time of the Pharaohs. As Madeline uncovers the buried past of Ancient Egypt, so does St. Germain uncover his own long buried past to both Madeline and the reader. Yarbro works this two-fold plot extremely well. This is also the only book where I really like Madeline. I usually find her a spoiled brat, but I liked her here.
The most intersting part of the story is Madeline's adventures in Egypt as she digs up ancient temples. Yarbro touches on cultural differences as well as sexism.
The Count's story is well thought out, especially in terms of what he doesn't say.
Old Review
This was the second or third St. Germain book I read. The ancient Egyptian detail is well done. Yarbro presents the two stories in a wonderful way. One story is that of Madeline who is in Egypt working on a dig; the second story is that of the Count when he first came to Egypt during the time of the Pharaohs. As Madeline uncovers the buried past of Ancient Egypt, so does St. Germain uncover his own long buried past to both Madeline and the reader. Yarbro works this two-fold plot extremely well. This is also the only book where I really like Madeline. I usually find her a spoiled brat, but I liked her here.
January 3, 2023
At last, the origins of the Comte St. Germain! The book is set in Egypt, and shifts back and forth between a group of mid-19th-century Victorians undertaking an archaeological "dig" to an era more than four thousand years earlier, when Egyptian priests found and imprisoned a so-called demon. Among the Victorians is Madeleine de Montalia, born a century earlier in France; the demon is, of course, the man she has come to know as the Comte St. Germain. Madeleine's insistence on independence and self-determination, set against the rigid gender stratification of Victorian society, parallels the earlier St. Germain's imprisonment. Yarbro's research is solid, as always, and the epistolary format (yay!) a suitable one for the time and place. One of my favorite books in the series.
April 6, 2009
Madelaine de Montalia became a vampire in early 1700's France and has devoted her long life to archeology. In this novel, set 100 years later, she travels to Egypt as a member of a French archeological team, braving an environment that is hostile to Europeans, and especially to women.
Her team is exploring an area of Egypt where the vampire Saint-Germain spent some centuries of his early life, first as a slave and later as a physician and priest, and his story is intertwined with her 19th-century experiences.
This book has several fascinating scenes and is worth a read for fans of this series, but overall I was a little frustrated with it. Both storylines deserved a full-length novel and I felt particularly cheated of details of Saint-Germain's story.
Her team is exploring an area of Egypt where the vampire Saint-Germain spent some centuries of his early life, first as a slave and later as a physician and priest, and his story is intertwined with her 19th-century experiences.
This book has several fascinating scenes and is worth a read for fans of this series, but overall I was a little frustrated with it. Both storylines deserved a full-length novel and I felt particularly cheated of details of Saint-Germain's story.
April 21, 2007
Now *this* is a good book!
Madelaine is an archaeologist working in Egypt. While she faces the challenges of a woman in a man's field there, she learns a great deal about the history of Egypt through letters from her beloved Saint-Germain, where he tells her about how he came to live in Egypt and the things that happened to him and to those around him while he was there. In the process, he also reveals his journey from angry vampire/demon, to priest, to the man he is now, and how the people around him have been instrumental in making him the way he is today.
Madelaine is an archaeologist working in Egypt. While she faces the challenges of a woman in a man's field there, she learns a great deal about the history of Egypt through letters from her beloved Saint-Germain, where he tells her about how he came to live in Egypt and the things that happened to him and to those around him while he was there. In the process, he also reveals his journey from angry vampire/demon, to priest, to the man he is now, and how the people around him have been instrumental in making him the way he is today.
June 22, 2010
Technically, a Madelaine de Montalia book (first met in Hotel Transylvania), as she is on an archaelogical dig in 1820s Egypt, but the Comte writes her letters about his life in ancient Egypt and how he became a healer in the Temple of Imhotep, thereby changing from the savage, ravening vampire he had been since he "came into the life" to the compassionate vampire we know and love. One of my favorites.
February 23, 2009
This is the one books of the series that concerns one of St. Germain's loves that I completely enjoyed. It gives more of the history of St. Germain, and helps to bring his life into perspective.
A super read.
A super read.
December 3, 2008
St. Germaine's genesis story, or as much as he remembers.
September 20, 2017
The book where we finally get to see Saint-Germain's origins.
March 2, 2015
Good Points: Well-written and researched. I loved the descriptions of Egypt, especially the flashbacks with Saint-Germain. It describes his early years as if I'm reading fragments of papyrus scroll from a vampire's VERY early life. Being submerged in his letters which describe his long (VERY LONG) memory were the best part of the whole book. The changing politics and the havoc wreaked by unstoppable plagues seemed really believable. Yarbro was right about severe xenophobia being one major reason why ancient Egyptian society could not last forever.
Bad Points: There's less than half a dozen flashbacks into Saint-Germain's Egyptian records. The rest is a lot of Madelaine de Montalia and her feminist fight with antiquarian men, none of which are impressed with her, even the ones who purport to be her friends (and one her lover). I found that rather annoying. I'm so used to Anne Rice's devil-may-care vampires that I didn't understand why Montalia wouldn't just snap Baundilet's neck the first minute he was too forward with her. Last but not least: where is my plot?
Bad Points: There's less than half a dozen flashbacks into Saint-Germain's Egyptian records. The rest is a lot of Madelaine de Montalia and her feminist fight with antiquarian men, none of which are impressed with her, even the ones who purport to be her friends (and one her lover). I found that rather annoying. I'm so used to Anne Rice's devil-may-care vampires that I didn't understand why Montalia wouldn't just snap Baundilet's neck the first minute he was too forward with her. Last but not least: where is my plot?
May 28, 2015
Yarbro writes excellent historical fiction, on par with Judith Tarr in my estimation (keeping in mind I write that as a reader, not a critic or fellow writer.) Perhaps I am in a minority, but I truly appreciate the subtleness of the vampires in Yarbro's books. The focus is more on dealing with the struggles associated with the darker sides of human nature. Which leads me to my favorite parts of this book, Saint-Germain's descriptions of his early life and transformation from a blindly raging "creature" to a calm healer. His transformation was in part based on his service to those "out of the 'House of Life'". At this stage of my life, I found that to be quite powerful. I am a devoted fan of Atta Olivia Clemens and so have a hard time with the Madelaine novels, but I appreciate the strength and determination she shows throughout the story.
March 1, 2016
I read one Yarbro's St. Germain books many years ago and I found this when packing for a recent move. This book goes back to St. Germain's origins but the main character is Madeline de Montalia. The novel is set in 19th century Egypt and concerns an "antiquarian" expedition that Madeline is part of. It's was an engaging enough read that I want to read the first St. Germain book where the Madeline character is introduced which is Hotel Transylvania.
February 10, 2015
Ik ben bij bladzijde 316 gestopt met het boek te lezen. Ik heb nog genoeg leuke en spannende boeken te lezen. Ik lees alleen nog het verhaal van Saint Germain uit, maar het verhaal van Madelaine kan me niet meer boeien. Dus breng ik het morgen terug naar Boekhandel de Slegte zodat ik weer meer ruimte heb in mijn boeken kast voor andere leuke boeken.
October 22, 2023
More insight into the Count's early life
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 March 2014
I really like these books and the history that each story includes. Additionally, we get more of Madelaine and her adventures in Egypt.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 March 2014
I really like these books and the history that each story includes. Additionally, we get more of Madelaine and her adventures in Egypt.
September 16, 2008
Still working on this one and so far it is awesome. I love Egyptian stuff and you add some vampire lore and you got a winner.
May 29, 2009
This is a wonderful look into St. Germain's early history. Stories we've waited years to read!
Read
September 1, 2013St. Germain (1825-1828) Book 7 /Madelaine Book 1
September 24, 2014
Might be one of my top three Saint Germain tales, wow! Madelaine's adventures in Egypt paired with Saint Germain's memories of living there made for excellent reading!
June 27, 2020
E-Book edition available at Open Library https://openlibrary.org
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews