Vathek (Nonsuch Classics) - Softcover

Beckford, William

3.25

6,652 ratings by Goodreads

9781845880606: Vathek (Nonsuch Classics)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1845880609 ISBN 13: 9781845880606

Publisher: Nonsuch Publishing, 2005

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Written in 1782 by the near-legendary hedonist William Beckford, Vathek was the first Oriental-Gothic horror novel in English literature. It tells the story of Vathek, the debauched and pleasure-seeking ninth Caliph of the Abassides, who decides to build a great tower to "penetrate the secrets of heaven." The appearance of an Indian magician arouses Vathek’s thirst for knowledge and he is willing to go to any lengths, including the sacrifice of 50 of the most beautiful boys in his kingdom, to gain access to the "Palace of Subterranean Fire," where the magician promises he will find treasures, intelligences and talismans that control the world. A rousing novel, Vathek is a classic tale of greed and lust for power containing magic, trickery, and betrayal all culminating in an age-old showdown between good and evil.

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From the Publisher:

The Broadview Literary Texts series is an effort to represent the ever-changing canon of literature in English by bringing together texts long regarded as classics with valuable, lesser-known literature. Newly type-set and produced on high-quality paper in trade paperback format, the Broadview Literary Texts series is a delight to handle as well as to read.

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.

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