- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; New edition edition (26 Nov 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0192836560
- ISBN-13: 978-0192836564
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.6 x 1.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 493,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Vathek (Oxford World's Classics)
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Product Description
Sydney Conger, Western Illinois University
"With its careful editing, its appendices, maps, and bibliography, this new, expanded edition of Vathek is, all in all, superb."
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
Beckford's Gothic novel, "Vathek", an Arabian tale, was originally written in French when the author was 21. It is the story of Caliph Vathek, whose eye can kill at a glance, who makes a pact with the Devil, Eblis.
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VATHEK, ninth Caliph of the race of the Abassides, was the son of Motassem, and the grandson of Haroun al Raschid. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
VATHEK, ninth Caliph of the race of the Abassides, was the son of Motassem, and the grandson of Haroun al Raschid. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'Vathek' the novel is peverse, twisted and politically incorrect to the extreme. The main protagonist himslef is likewise viscious and completely 'evil' if such a thing does exist. Yet it is perhaps these two facets that help to make 'Vathek' so compelling, so fresh and so orignal and down-right funny. That's right, if you have a wicked sense of humour and enjoy the odd toilet joke then this book is certainly for you.
However, it would be wrong to suggets that 'Vathek' is nothing more than a series of smutty jokes and grusome scenes. It is much more. Beckford supposedly wrote the novel within 48hrs - without sleep! In spite of this he has somehow managed to create a world that pushes the imaginative envelope to the extreme. This book will live with me for life. READ IT!
19 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read Vathek in my late teens when I had a fascination with all things macabre. I was not dissapointed with Vathek on this point but what irritated me then, and still does now, is the rather contrived and inpenetrable style in which it is written (or possibly translated). There is not much of a story to it, but some of the episodes are entertaining- I was particularly amused by the one about someone having half their beard burned off.
If you are a big fan of the gothic genre then you'll probably take great delight in Vathek, but for the more general reader it is something of a pain. The elements are there, it's just not done with enough finesse.
I read an unillustrated edition myself- I'm sure that Redon's illustrations add a lot to the reading experience.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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9 reviews
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
The Price of Knowledge
27 Jun 2000
Format:Paperback
Beckford's "Vathek" is the tale of Vathek, a Caliph from the near east, for whom gluttony is a way of life. He partakes of everything to extremes in his marvelous palace - food, wine, women, and most importantly, knowledge. His mother Catharis encourages and fosters his love of the dark arts, by which he comes to summon a Giaour, a foul demon.
The Giaour promises the voracious Vathek to grant him access to the realm of Eblis and Soliman, where he will command all demonic forces and be privy to enough knowledge to satisfy his curiosity. To this end, Vathek engages in wanton and reckless murders, seductions, and blasphemies against the patient divinity 'Mahomet' and his benificent spirits.
One sees in "Vathek" a comparable theme with Montesquieu's "Persian Letters". In both, we have a tyrant, (Montesquieu's Usbek is a domestic tyrant) who abandons, and ultimately relinquishes all capacity to control their dominions or themselves - All for the pursuit of knowledge.
Vathek can thus be seen as a critique of the Enlightenment and of enlightened despotism, so much the rage in Europe in the late 18th century. Beckford seems to rail at knowledge being held above respect for a common humanity. Overall a very interesting novel in many respects and aside from Beckford's unnecessary authorial interruptions, a solid read.
36 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Beckford's Soulscape?
7 Mar 2007
Format:Paperback
The tale of Vathek is undeniably a wonderful oriental fable, where enlightenment ethics are presented and critiqued. If read in conjunction with Samuel Johnson "Rasselas", Montesquieu's Persian Letters and "Arabian Nights" one may be able to better understand the landscape upon which orientalism (a term used by Beckford himself to illuminate the period's infatuation with the orient, not to be confused with Said's) and enlightenment values where divulged. Beckford's tale however speaks of a more prescient sphere where the author's inner struggles and thwarted tragic desultoriness devolves. As with all literature this compact gem stands on her own; however many have tried to extract a moral import and some have even described a mystique of knowledge and a system of ethics with undue fastidiousness. In a more likely scenario we have a wonton fable whimsical and indulgent, crafted as a parody of "orientalism". Knowledge of Beckford's life may serve the reader well but should not hinder her enjoyment. The author's disquietude trumps an increasing distance from the absurd drive and hedonistic tendencies of the protagonist, while we feel a sympathetic kinship laxed the more into the novella we proceed. The author wrote this fable in French and supervised the translation as best he could. The grotesque and the sublime are here married insolubly but tend to find a balance suspended over a void that derides and insinuates the emptiness of a spiritual fantasy in turmoil.
The ending paragraphs are singed with a sad glow that seems to recriminate as much as it moralizes: much like a father that punishes a child only to feel remorse over the fact that his own blood cannot enjoy what is most enjoyable. He is not convinced and Beckford created a wonderful fable where much is exposed, but the simplicity, the arrogance and the conviction are to be regaled with the same comic grotesque sprightliness with which he infuses his narrative.
A quick fun read that demands little of us, but in degrees can disclose a sensibility we may be dismissive of if we are to package it as a tale where orientalism meets enlightenment values.
The ending paragraphs are singed with a sad glow that seems to recriminate as much as it moralizes: much like a father that punishes a child only to feel remorse over the fact that his own blood cannot enjoy what is most enjoyable. He is not convinced and Beckford created a wonderful fable where much is exposed, but the simplicity, the arrogance and the conviction are to be regaled with the same comic grotesque sprightliness with which he infuses his narrative.
A quick fun read that demands little of us, but in degrees can disclose a sensibility we may be dismissive of if we are to package it as a tale where orientalism meets enlightenment values.
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
An exotic dark fantasy
14 Jan 2002
Format:Paperback
Leaving aside the question of whether this book is a 'gothic' novel or not, it is a dark fantasy. It shares with its more conventionally gothic brethren a tale of dark deeds in an exotic setting, where an alien and exciting religion is practised.
In the standard Gothic tale, allusions to Roman Catholicism, thought of by respectable Englishmen as a dark, oppressive, and half-pagan faith, were part of the conventional apparatus. Beckford chose instead to imagine the world of Islam, an even more exotic milieu that added some flashes of bright colours to the dark and sorcerous background of his book. His choice of an even more exotic setting allowed him greater freedom in portraying characters who defied social convention and fell into exotic habits of mind.
My understanding is that it is a matter of some debate to what extent the English text of -Vathek- is a translation from the French, or an original English composition. I do not have the French text in front of me, but it has been represented to me that Beckford's "original" French is rather like the French of Oscar Wilde's -Salome-, and needed extensive editing to be acceptable to a French readership.
At any rate, -Vathek- is a prime example of early dark fantasy. The description, of course, will be richer than you are used to, but Beckford's prose actually seems to move quite quickly. Fans of H. P. Lovecraft or Clark Ashton Smith will find that it is quite easy to slip into. And the tale is indeed a vivid one, right up to the exceptional ending when Vathek and Carathis are damned to the halls of Eblis, their hearts seared with unquenchable fire.
This is a good edition of the story, and the notes and maps are helpful.
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