The History of the Caliph Vathek/ & Rasselas

The first novel is a Gothic novel written by William 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Samuel Henley in which form it was first published in 1786 without Beckford's name as 'An Arabian Tale, From an Unpublished Manuscript, claiming to be translated directly from Arabic. The first French edition, titled simply as Vathek, was published in December 1786. The second novel Rasselas, is a story about bliss and ignorance by Samuel Johnson. The book's original working title was 'The Choice of Life'. The book was first published in April 1759 in England. Early readers considered Rasselas to be a work of philosophical and practical imp.