William Beckford

Presents a series of letters composed by the author as a result of a Grand Tour in 1780-81. Serving as a travel journal, this composition gives glimpses into the inner thoughts and dreams of the man who was to become known in later life as the 'Fool of Fonthill'.

The Gothic novel, which flourished from about 1765 until 1825, revels in the horrible and the supernatural, in suspense and exotic settings.This volume, with its erudite introduction by Mario Praz, presents three of the most celebrated Gothic novels: The Castle of Otranto, published pseudonymously in 1765, is one of the first of the genre and the most truly Gothic of the three. Vathek (1786), an oriental tale by an eccentric millionaire, exotically combines Gothic romanticism with the vivacity of The Arabian Nights and is a narrative tour de force. The story of Frankenstein (1818) and the monster he created is as spine-chilling today as it ever was; as in all Gothic novels, horror is the keynote.

Vathek, a virtual fantasy autobiography of William Beckford, was the first Oriental Gothic horror novel in English literature. First published in 1786, it relates the story of the villainous Caliph Vathek, a man devoted to sensual pleasures and obsessed with the acquisition of knowledge and beautiful objects alike, who builds a great tower to 'penetrate the secrets of heaven'. Set in the exotic surroundings of Arabia, Vathek is a classic tale of lust for riches and power, where magic, trickery and betrayal abound.

Life at Fonthill.

An enthralling work of Gothic fiction, modelled on the Arabian Nights, William Beckford's Vathek and Other Stories is edited with an introduction by Malcolm Jack in Penguin Classics.William Beckford was a novelist, travel writer, art critic and politician best known for his novel Vathek - a story with elaborate imagery, sardonic humour and an unforgettable gallery of grotesques - which describes a journey to the halls of Eblis, or Hell, in the pursuit of knowledge. This volume is arranged in three sections: 'Oriental Tales', comprising Vathek and The Long Story (also known as The Vision); 'Satires', which includes Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters, an ironical exposé of English art-collecting, and an essay on the exercises of the sentimental novel; and 'Travel Diaries', containing extracts from Beckford's intimate and entertaining travel journals. Together this collection of writing exhibits the author's exuberant day-dreaming imagination as well as the deeply emotional, aesthetic themes and detailed physical descriptions of his writing.In his introduction Malcolm Jack explores Beckford's 'journeying spirit', assesses his reputation as a stylist and innovator and discusses his life and work. This edition also includes a bibliography, an index and a chronology of Beckford's life.William Beckford (1760-1844) inherited an immense fortune on his tenth birthday, and spent the next fifty years wasting it with reckless abandon. At the age of nineteen, he was forced to flee the country after his passionate affair with the Earl of Devon was exposed by a scandalised relative. He was a Member of Parliament and a traveller who spent large sums of money collecting rare books, curiosities and paintings for the embellishment of his Gothic folly, Fonthill Abbey, where he lived in opulent seclusion until bankruptcy finally forced him to sell it, in 1822.If you enjoyed Vathek, you might also like H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories, available in Penguin Modern Classics.

Set in haunted castles or fantastic landscapes, Gothic tales became fashionable in the late 18th century with the publication of Walpole's "The Castle of Otranto". In addition to "Otranto", this volume contains editions of "Vathek", "The Monk" and "Frankenstein".

William Beckford, born in 1759, the year before the accession of King George the Third, was the son of an Alderman who became twice Lord Mayor of London. His family, originally of Gloucestershire, had thriven by the plantations in Jamaica; and his father, sent to school in England, and forming a school friendship at Westminster with Lord Mansfield, began the world in this country as a merchant, with inheritance of an enormous WestIndia fortune. William Beckford the elder became Magistrate, Member of Parliament, Alderman. Four years before the birth of William Beckford theyounger he became one of the Sheriffs of London, and three years after his son's birth he was Lord Mayor.