William Beckford (1) (1760–1844)

Completely preposterous and not in a good way. I can see why this orgy of Oriental tropes would have been exciting to an 18th century European reader high on the Arabian Nights and hungry for more genies, giaours, dives, and dwarfs. It's a nauseating banquet of sherbets and cordials, served by massed ranks of eunuchs, mystics, and sacrificial first-borns, a horrible literary carbuncle melting down into a bilious slurry where plot decoheres and characters implode under the weight of their own show more absurdity.

Here's Vathek's mom preparing a magic potion:

By secret stairs, known only to herself and her son, she first repaired to the mysterious recesses in which were deposited the mummies that had been brought from the catacombs of the ancient Pharaohs. Of these she ordered several to be taken. From thence she resorted to a gallery, where, under the guard of fifty female negroes, mute, and blind of the right eye, were preserved the oil of the most venomous serpents, rhinoceros’ horns, and woods of a subtle and penetrating odour, procured from the interior of the Indies, together with a thousand other horrible rarieties. This collection had been formed for a purpose like the present, by Carathis herself, from a presentiment that she might one day enjoy some intercourse with the infernal powers, to whom she had ever been passionately attached, and to whose taste she was no stranger. show less

I can't rate the book until I finish the next two stories, but without doubt The Castle of Otranto is an incredible piece of fiction. Whilst it's true much of literature dates its cues from Shakespeare, the Homer epics and other world mythologies, The Castle of Otranto (1764) whilst clearly inspired by the earlier Tudor plays, is the template that not only inspired a whole genre of romantic gothics, but set the structure, characters and themes for novels of dynastic fiction and grimdark we show more see today.

Chapter one alone packs in so much - from giant helmets crushing an heir, to a peasant arrested for helping and then imprisoned under the helmet; accusations of necromancy; a Prince trying to marry his daughter in law; a ghost in a painting and a chase through the lower catacombs.

Supplemented by a small amount comedy to introduce some levity; tragedy, deceit, treachery, secrets, revelations and passionate discourse adorn every paragraph and whilst some archaic sentence work is naturally employed given the time it was written, like a lot of late 18thC fiction of its ilk it lays down the need to be fast and readable. I should note that the theatrical excesses often repeat and alongside the cultural norms of its time and place, might be prove to be a poor takeaway for modern readers unused to classic stylisms.

For me though, this marks another fantastic gothic story in my run through of this genre.

(full rating to apply when the rest of the books in the volume are read) show less

Curiously impulsive. Vathek and his unending hunger for more propel forward through one massive atrocity after the other - hardly pausing for even a moment's reflection. Vathek often feels less like a character and more like a force. A story of a man told as one of a God... Until the final hell.

William Beckford wrote "The History of Caliph Vathek" in French in 1784, but it was first published in an English translation by Samuel Henley in 1786. Widely regarded as one of the seminal works of Gothic literature, this strange, unclassifiable novel recounts its eponymous protagonist's quest for esoteric knowledge and carnal pleasure, a quest which ultimately leads to his damnation.

"Vathek" combines exotic descriptions of the Orient with passages of grotesque comedy and a dollop of show more supernatural derring-do. Indeed, one of the challenges for modern sensibilities (and possibly its original readers as well) is to determine which passages should be taken at face value and which ones are to be read as self-parody. Even allowing for the genre's excesses, episodes such as that of a wizard being turned into a ball and kicked around Vathek's kingdom are clearly intended as black comedy. But what about Vathek's damnation, described in language of poetic intensity? Is the moralistic ending to be taken at face value or is Beckford being ironic? The author's letters suggest the former to be the case - which is rather surprising considering the atmosphere of decadence which permeates the novel.

If read purely for narrative pleasure, Vathek might disappoint. The plot is episodic, there are too many changes of gear, and the novel's ultimate message - if it does have one - is elusive and unclear. Yet, for anybody interested in early Romanticism, Orientalism, supernatural fiction or, for that matter, unusual literary fare, this is a must-read.

The Oxford World Classics text follows the 1816 English language version, prepared by Beckford himself. It includes an informative introduction by Roger Lonsdale which, interestingly, makes the case for *not* considering Vathek a Gothic novel. Also included are the erudite endnotes which Beckford included in the 1816 edition of Vathek (although first-time readers might prefer just reading through it and then consulting the notes on subsequent readings).

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2020/03/William-Beckford-Vathek.html show less