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Vathek (Oxford World's Classics (Paperback)) (Paperback)
$10.56 - Save $0.55 (4%) - RRP $11.11 Free delivery worldwide (to United States and
all these other countries) Usually dispatched within 48 hours | |Short Description for VathekVathek (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 stron...
Full description- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Published: 15 March 2009
- Format: Paperback 224 pages
- See: Full bibliographic data
- Categories: Contemporary Fiction | Classics
- ISBN 13: 9780199537228 ISBN 10: 0199537224
- Sales rank: 68,812
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Full description for Vathek
Vathek (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.

