Having no commissions or tutorials to busy myself with at this time, I simply browsed about my books trying to kill time. It was upon browsing The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice that I came upon what I feel is a minor historical inaccuracy. In the chapter known as "Viaticum for the Marquise" where Lestat turns his mother Gabrielle de Lioncourt into a vampire, there is a certain line which describes (I cannot quote fully, since I do not have the book with me at the moment) them as idling about in a cafe', Gabrielle looking at the wisps of cigarette smoke. It struck me how it went past me even after re-reading the books many times now. What went past me unnoticed you ask? Cigarettes in the 1700's. Somehow, I was too enraptured in my imaginings of Gabrielle that my befuddled brain couldn't notice this inaccuracy, that is, until now. I find it highly unlikely that the cigarette would have been in mainstream use by that time (perhaps around 1780's). We are given an idea that Lestat's father fondly talked of the glory days of the Sun King Louis XIV (b 1638; d 1715 - ruled from 1643 until his death), and that Lestat himself was born on the 7th of November, 1760 (45 years after Louis XIV reign). By the 1780's he would have been 20 years old or so, and that would have been the time that the vampire Magnus would have abducted and turned him. In turn, he would make Gabrielle a vampire, being unable to see her die due to consumption, at around 1784 to '85. If we are to look towards the history of smoking, it is highly unlikely that cigarettes would have been smoked by the French then, because the pipe was the most common paraphernalia used to smoke the herb tobacco. During those times, clay pipes were most commonly used. I did some research in regards to the cigarette, and found many conflicting data in regards to the time of its conception.

According to one source, this one being somewhat more reliable than most, the cigarette was invented on 1832, by an Egyptian artilleryman during the siege of Acre. Their only pipe was broken, so they took to rolling the pipe tobacco in the paper tubes.

Source: [link]

This theory fits highly with the fact that it was not until the 1800's that the cigarette became in vogue, and thus became absorbed into mainstream use, thereby obsoleting the pipe.

Still, there are other contradictory theories, especially in regards to the Spanish regions. In which case, it is stated that as early as the 16th century, the poor of Seville, a region in Spain collected cigar butts from rubbish and rolled the remaining tobacco in pieces of discarded paper. These were called cigarillos, Spanish for "little cigars". (Although it must not be confused with a type of tiny cigar with the same name).

Source: [link]

Still a more unlikely date is 1743, where, according to once source an English beggar by the name of Horrey Thornfield propositioned a local butcher for some scraps. After enjoying the scraps, Horrey decided to have a smoke, yet discovered that his previous nights' drunken gambling rampage had caused him to lose his favorite smoking pipe in a card game. With nothing on him but his butcher scraps' paper, Horrey ripped off a slice of the wax butcher paper and rolled the world's first cigarette.

Source: [link]

I find the last one highly unlikely, because during the 1700's, snuff was all the rage in England, and it is well known that the English made the long clay pipes and churchwardens famous during that time. (Just read some of Dickens's work!)It should also be noted that there was some tension brewing during those times between the English and French, so even if the cigarette had been made and was produced in some numbers by the 1750's and onwards, after it's subsequent "invention", I find it highly unlikely that it would be shipped to France and be used by the French populace. Although there will always be the possibility that some random person thought of lining paper with tobacco, rolling it, and lighting it, as far as history is concerned, there is no mention of it ever being done in European countries before the 1800's. The natives in some regions in Micronesia perhaps, or even the Aztecs, perhaps rolled tobacco in leaves and smoked them. Then again, it might not have been tobacco at all. Native Americans rolled tobacco leaves, or put them into their calumets. It is only in Spain and in a few regions near it that what we now know today as a cigarette was used and made, (and even then, it was not in the favour of the masses), prior to the 1800's.

Just a little trivia. ^_^ Thank you for reading.

Your friend,

Lia.