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Vathek Kindle Edition
Vathek, the ninth Caliph of the Abassides, took the throne at a young age. He debates the most knowledgeable scholars of the day, jailing them if they disagree with him. He possesses an evil eye that can kill lesser men with a single look. He is proud, and he is powerful. Still, he wants more—more knowledge, more power, more women. When a hideous merchant from India arrives in his court bearing glowing swords, Vathek sees an opportunity to take everything he’s ever wanted. So begins his journey east in search of ultimate sovereignty.
Vathek is a feverish account of debauchery and ambition that has inspired the likes of Lord Byron, H. P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith.
This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOpen Road Media Mystery & Thriller
- Publication dateMarch 31, 2015
- File size1717 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Sympathetic to Beckford’s odd and yet unexpectedly typical position as a member of the ruling class with progressive attitudes and often rebellious tastes, Graham offers us the first true appreciation of Beckford as a literary innovator, oriental scholar, social visionary, and plain old curious character. The first volume to take Beckford in all his sardonic comedy truly seriously, Graham’s Vathek with The Episodes of Vathek is certain to remain the standard edition of, and commentary on, Beckford for decades to come.” ― Kevin L. Cope, Louisiana State University
“Kenneth W. Graham’s introduction to William beckford’s Vathek with The Episodes is simply packed with information, and includes one of the finest discussions of Oriental Tales I’ve encountered. With its careful editing, its appendices, maps, and bibliography, this new, expanded edition of Vathek is, all in all, superb.” ― Sydney Conger, Western Illinois University
From the Publisher
Each volume includes a full introduction, chronology, bibliography, and explanatory notes along with a variety of documents from the period, giving readers a rich sense of the world from which the work emerged.
From the Back Cover
William Beckford’s Vathek is a touchstone of eighteenth-century Orientalism and of the Gothic novel. Beckford’s later work, The Episodes of Vathek, shares Vathek’s irreverent and decadent style, and an edition that unites the two has long been overdue. The Broadview edition includes a newly discovered early version of the first episode, never before in print, that centres on male-male love, as well as the previously published version that was re-written by Beckford as a heterosexual narrative. Based on the 1823 edition―the last one edited by the author himself―the Broadview Edition also introduces The Episodes in the order Beckford planned, and incorporates his final corrections.
About the Author
Kenneth W Graham teaches at the University of Guelph. He has written widely on eighteenth-century literature. His books include Gothic Fictions: Prohibition/Transgression, and “Vathek” and the Escape from Time: Bicentenary Revalutations.
Product details
- ASIN : B00UGOJVD2
- Publisher : Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller (March 31, 2015)
- Publication date : March 31, 2015
- Language : English
- File size : 1717 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 110 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,153,713 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2,135 in Classic Action & Adventure (Books)
- #4,066 in Gothic Fiction
- #12,945 in Fiction Classics
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Vathek builds a tower onto his palaces that gets close to heaven where supernatural forces are watching him, deciding what to do. A servant of evil disguised as a beggar comes to the palace with wondrous things Vathek has never seen before. When Vathek beholds them he is shocked. He asks the beggar many times what his name is and where the items came from. The beggar never replies. They kick the beggar repeatedly and throw him in jail. The next morning, the guards are dead and the beggar is gone. Mom does a divination and determines the beggar was more than he seems, and must be the key to power and riches of the preadimite kings. This is the path to evil, but the rewards are extravagantly outrageous. So, Mom pushes Junior to do some really rotten deeds, but he wasn't complaining. He does every rotten thing she asks.
The body of the story consists of Vathek at home and on the road indulging himself, repenting, indulging, repenting, etc. Until finally, well you will have to read the book to find out. I really enjoyed the ending. It was very creative in a cruel, everlasting way.
If you like fairytales and want a HEA, skip this one. This is more a Grimm type fairytale. Death, burned beards, lots of kicking and everlasting torment are not your average happenings for a Disney story, so don't read it to younger kids, unless you want to give them nightmares. You do get two dwarves, some geniis afrits and evil Dives(?) I'm not quite sure what an evil Dive is, but they cause untold amounts of evil, so leave them alone.
The moral of the story: be humble, be frugal, think of others before yourself.
I think I would be doing anyone a disservice to spoil the plot, especially since it doesn't make much sense anyway. I will give away that it is basically a variation of the Faust legend, with huge helpings of oriental exoticism. The story's mood is sometimes dark and moralistic, sometimes light and fantastic, sometimes ironic. Sometimes the narrator seems to sympathize, or to want us to sympathize, with the anti-hero; other times we are clearly to be repulsed or, at the least, startled.
Who should read this book?
First of all, any fan of early gothic. Its mood is less consistently dark than the genuinely gothic novels, but I'm sure the relations are obvious. The deepest sympathy, I think, between Vathek and more famous gothic stories, is in the mingling of attraction and disgust at the superstition and cosmic moral drama found outside the orthodox Protestant or rationalistic Enlightenment worldviews. The reader should indulge in a Catholic or orientalist fantasy for awhile, come to appreciate its danger, and return gratefully to the supposedly well-ordered English society. Escapist literature at its best! Beyond that, however, the similarities pretty much end.
If you are a fan of early gothic novels, of course you should read whatever you feel like, but I would gently recommend reading The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story , The Monk (Penguin Classics) , The Romance of the Forest , and of course Frankenstein (Norton Critical Editions) , maybe even (for some lighter fun) Northanger Abbey (Penguin Classics) before turning to Vathek. They are each more famous, more coherent and arguably more entertaining.
Fans of H. P. Lovecraft might enjoy Vathek as well.
Secondly, anyone interested in the later stages of the Enlightenment, or early romanticism. Here again I would suggest Faust: A Tragedy (Norton Critical Editions) , and I agree with the reviewer who suggested The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abissinia (Oxford World's Classics) as works that you might like to read along with, and probably before, Vathek.
Thirdly, anyone interested in orientalism. Here of course the key thing to read first is The Arabian Nights, Volume I: The Marvels and Wonders of The Thousand and One Nights (Signet Classics) is the place to start, and Johnson's Rasselas would be a good follow-up, and then Vathek's place will be well appreciated.
The connections to gothic, romanticism and orientalism are obvious, but I'll go out on a limb that may surprise: Kafka fans will probably enjoy this. Now Kafka's stories have brilliant subtleties that Vathek lacks, but I believe there is a definite affinity here in spirit, if not in technical execution. Kafka couldn't have written the way he did in the 18th century, but if he'd been there to try, perhaps he would have come up with something like Vathek.
So, in sum, there are a number of works with a greater claim to most people's time and attention than Vathek; however, there are a large number of readers out there who are unfortunately missing a work that they would certainly relish. By all means, give this fascinating little book a shot.