Vathek
Editorial OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Do you want to pick it up at the bookstore?
Mainland Spain
- Publisher OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
- ISBN13 9780199537228
- ISBN10 0199537224
- Type Book
- Pages 224
- Collection Oxford World's Classics
- Published 2009
- Language English
- Bookbinding Rustic
Sections
English LiteratureVathek
Editorial OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Do you want to pick it up at the bookstore?
Mainland Spain
Book Details
Vatheká(1786), originally written in French, remains one of the strangest eighteenth-century novels and one of the most difficult to classify. Perverse and grotesque comedy alternates with scenes of 'oriental' magnificence and evocative beauty in the story of the ruthless Caliph Vathek's journey to superb damnation among the subterranean treasures of Eblis. Underlying the elegant prose is a strong element of self-indulgent personal fantasy on the part of Beckford, youthful millionaire, dreamer, and eventually social outcast. Byron, Poe, Mallarme, and Swinburne are some of the literary figures who have admired Vathek's imaginative power. The text follows that of the 'Third Edition' of 1816, in which Beckford extensively revised and corrected Samuel Henley's original English translations from the French. The elaborate notes retained by Beckford in 1816 are also included.