Vathek. Translated from the Original French. Fourth Edition, Revised and Corrected.

8vo. (18.5 x 12 cm). pp.284. Smartly bound by Morrell in later half calf over sandy cloth boards, spine with raised bands and richly gilt-decorated compartments, red morocco label, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Engraved frontispiece by C. Warren after an oriental painting by R. Westall. Although unstated, this copy from the collection of Roger Lonsdale (1934-2022), for many years a fellow Balliol, Oxford. He edited the Oxford English Novels edition of Vathek (1970). Some light partial sunning to upper portion of leather on front cover, generally an excellent copy in a very pretty binding. A close reprint of the corrected issue of the 1816 edition. A classic work of British Gothic fiction, hugely influential and much imitated among the Romantic poets. Byron described himself as its "strenuous and public admirer" and reveals this influence in his own "Turkish Tales". "European literature has no Oriental fiction which impresses the imagination so powerfully and permanently as 'Vathek'" (DNB). Beckford originally composed his manuscript in French in 1782. The English translation, executed by Samuel Henley, was published in June 1786 before the release of the French text, despite the author's instructions that "I would not on any account have him precede the French edition" (Chapman & Hodkgin, p. 20). Though angered by Henley's move, Beckford still appreciated his expertise as an orientalist and retained his extensive notes in later editions. The first French edition was published in Lausanne the following December (but post-dated 1787). As the original manuscript was by that time lost, the Lausanne edition was in fact a hurried translation of the English. Beckford then corrected the Lausanne text, smoothing over Henley's lingering anglicisms, for the Paris edition of December 1787. Chapman & Hodgkin 3 A (iv).…