Reading Order
Vathek Reading Order
Vathek (1786) by William Beckford is one of the strangest and most distinctive works of the eighteenth century — an Oriental tale written in French (and translated into English by Samuel Henley, in a translation Beckford spent the rest of his life resenting) that takes its protagonist, the Caliph Vathek, on a journey from worldly excess through supernatural transgression to final damnation in the Halls of Eblis (the Islamic Hell). Beckford wrote Vathek in three days in a state of creative exaltation when he was twenty-one; the result is simultaneously a Gothic tale, an Oriental fantasy, an investigation of the relationship between power and desire, and a sustained meditation on the attraction of the forbidden. Vathek's journey — from his palace with its five towers dedicated to pleasure, through his encounter with the demonic merchant Giaour, to his descent into the Halls of Eblis where the damned wander with their hearts on fire — is organized around the same Faustian theme as Marlowe, Goethe, and Maturin, but in the Oriental mode that distinguishes Vathek from all of them. Beckford's later life — his forty years of isolation at the Gothic fantasy Fonthill Abbey, surrounded by servants and books and objects — is itself a kind of Vathek story.
Where to start
Vathek (1786) — the complete text in Roger Lonsdale's Oxford World's Classics edition, which includes Beckford's three 'Episodes' (the companion tales he wrote as supplementary material). Best Beckford reading order: Vathek, then the Episodes of Vathek.
Complete Vathek Book List
- 1Buy
Vathek
William Beckford·1786·The complete text — Vathek, Nouronihar, Giaour, and the Halls of Eblis. The Oxford World's Classics edition with Roger Lonsdale's notes is the standard scholarly edition; it includes the three Episodes (supplementary tales) that Beckford wrote as companion material - 2Buy
The Arabian Nights
Various·1717·The companion — the source material. The companion as the inspiration: Beckford uses the conventions and atmosphere of the Arabian Nights (the Caliph, the palace, the djinns, the magical merchants) as the setting and mode for a tale that is organized around very different concerns (transgression, damnation, the Faustian bargain) - 3Buy
Melmoth the Wanderer
Charles Maturin·1820·Maturin's companion — the wanderer cursed by his supernatural pact. The companion as the Gothic heir: both Vathek and Melmoth the Wanderer are organized around a figure of extraordinary power who transgresses the moral and supernatural limits, and both end in supernatural punishment — Vathek in the Halls of Eblis, Melmoth in the Devil's grasp - 4Buy
The Monk
Matthew Lewis·1796·Lewis's companion — the monk Ambrosio's fall. The companion as the Western Gothic version of the same investigation: where Vathek uses the Oriental setting to investigate transgression and supernatural punishment, Lewis uses the Catholic setting to investigate the same themes - 5Buy
Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe·1808·The companion — Faust's bargain with Mephistopheles. The companion as the German investigation of the same Faustian theme: both Vathek and Faust are organized around the figure who desires transcendence, who bargains for supernatural power, and who discovers that the cost is damnation - 6Buy
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge·1798·Coleridge's companion — the mariner cursed to wander. The companion as the Romantic investigation of the same supernatural transgression and its consequences: both the Mariner and Vathek are figures who commit a transgression against the moral order (killing the albatross; abandoning human sympathy for supernatural power) and are punished with a form of supernatural wandering and isolation - 7Buy
Candide
Voltaire·1759·Voltaire's companion — the satirical philosophical tale. The companion as the French Enlightenment version of the same investigation: both Vathek and Candide are philosophical tales organized around a journey through a catastrophic or transgressive world, and both use the Oriental or foreign setting to investigate the relationship between power, desire, and human suffering - 8Buy
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde·1890·Wilde's companion — Dorian's aesthetic transgression and its supernatural consequence. The companion as the aestheticist heir: both Vathek and The Picture of Dorian Gray are organized around a beautiful, privileged figure who pursues aesthetic pleasure at the cost of moral constraint, and both end in a form of supernatural punishment that is also a revelation of the interior truth
Vathek — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Vathek about?
Vathek is about the Caliph Vathek, a ruler of extraordinary power and ambition who is obsessed with supernatural knowledge and who gradually abandons all moral constraint in its pursuit. He is tempted by the mysterious merchant Giaour (a demonic figure) with the promise of access to the pre-Adamite treasures of the Preadamite sultan Soliman Ben Daoud, which are guarded in the underground Halls of Eblis (the Islamic Hell). Vathek accepts Giaour's terms, commits increasingly terrible acts (including the sacrifice of fifty children), and travels across Arabia to the entrance of Eblis. There he and his companion Nouronihar (whom he loves) are received, see the wonders they sought, and discover that they have been damned: their hearts burst into flames that will burn for eternity. The novel ends with the moral that the pursuit of supernatural knowledge at the cost of human sympathy and moral constraint leads to damnation.
Was Vathek written in French?
Vathek was written originally in French by William Beckford, an English nobleman, when he was in his early twenties. Beckford claimed to have written it in French partly because he thought in French as well as English (he was educated partly in French), and partly because the Oriental tale was primarily a French literary genre (going back to Galland's translation of the Arabian Nights in 1704-17). The English translation was made by Samuel Henley without Beckford's authorization — Henley published it in 1786 claiming it was a translation from the Arabic, and the hoax (similar to Walpole's Castle of Otranto hoax) was maintained for about six months. Beckford was furious; he subsequently published his own French text (1787) and never forgave Henley. The standard English text is Henley's translation, which is considered a distinguished piece of English prose in its own right.
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