Vathek
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2022
Language: eng
Subjects: Fantasy fiction; Gothic fiction; Arab countries -- Fiction; Middle East -- Fiction; Fantasy
Description: <p>The titular Vathek is a powerful caliph who, though intelligent and capable, has a tendency to indulge in sensuality. A mysterious traveler arrives in his kingdom and mesmerizes Vathek with a promise of dark powers and hedonism beyond imagination. Vathek becomes obsessed with the supernatural possibilities, and, goaded on by his power-hungry mother, embarks on a journey of blasphemy and debauchery.</p> <p><i>Vathek</i> is one of the best-known Gothic novels, frequently referenced in literature of the era and beyond. <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-beckford">Beckford</a>, an English novelist, wrote it in French over the course of just several days at the age of twenty-one, after having hosted a three-day-long party in a lavish Orientalist style. European culture at the time was delighting in Orientalism, and Beckford capitalized on this by merging a fashionable Gothic narrative with a lush Orientalist setting. The novel’s emphasis on the supernatural and on the horror of ghosts, ghouls, efreets, and djinns, was something still new to many contemporary readers; and couching a familiar morality tale in the trappings of an exotic setting made the story both accessible and fresh, contributing greatly to its popularity.</p> <p>The story went on to inspire Romantic writers, including Lord Byron, Southey, Moore, and <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/john-keats">Keats</a>; <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/edgar-allan-poe">Edgar Allan Poe</a>, <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/h-p-lovecraft">H. P. Lovecraft</a>, and Clark Ashton Smith were also influenced by <i>Vathek</i>’s decadent and fantastic style.</p>