Vathek
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 cover of a later edition |
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| Author | William Thomas Beckford |
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| Translator | Reverend Samuel Henley |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | French |
| Genre(s) | Gothic novel |
| Publisher | J. Johnson (English) |
| Released | 1786 (English), 1787 (French) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | vii, 334 pp (English) |
| ISBN | ISBN 1-84588-060-9 (recent paperback edition) |
Vathek (alternatively titled Vathek, an Arabian Tale or The History of the Caliph Vathek) is a Gothic novel written by William Thomas Beckford. It was composed in French beginning in 1782, and then translated into English by Reverend Samuel Henley, in which form it was first published in 1786 without Beckford's name as An Arabian Tale, From an Unpublished Manuscript. The first French edition was published in 1787.[1]
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[edit] Plot introduction
Vathek capitalised on the 18th century obsession with all things Oriental (see Orientalism), which was inspired by Antoine Galland's translation of The Arabian Nights (itself re-translated, into English, in 1708). Beckford was also influenced by similar works from the French writer Voltaire. His originality lay in combining the popular Oriental elements with the Gothic stylings of Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764). The result stands alongside Walpole's novel and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) in the first rank of early Gothic fiction.
[edit] Plot summary
The novel chronicles the fall from power of the Caliph Vathek (a fictionalized version of the historical Al-Wathiq), who renounces Islam and engages with his ally Nouronihar in a series of licentious and deplorable activities designed to gain him supernatural powers. At the end of the novel, instead of attaining these powers, Vathek descends into a hell ruled by the demon Eblis where he is doomed to wander endlessly and speechlessly.
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
H. P. Lovecraft cited Vathek as the inspiration for his never-finished novel Azathoth.[2] Vathek is also believed to have been a model for Lovecraft's completed novel The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.[3] George Gordon, Lord Byron also cited Vathek as a source for his poem, The Giaour.
[edit] Allusions/references to other works
Eblis, the architect of Vathek's damnation, was modelled on Iblis or Azazel; Beckford's use of the name is derived from John Milton's Paradise Lost (see Fallen angel).
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent, 35. ISBN 0-911682-20-1.
- ^ Robert M. Price, The Azathoth Cycle, pp. vi-ix.
- ^ S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, "Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The", An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, p. 74.
[edit] References
William Thomas Beckford: Vathek on Wikisource
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