

This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.





                                 VATHEK;


                             AN ARABIAN TALE,

                                * * * * *

                                    BY

                          WILLIAM BECKFORD, ESQ.

                                * * * * *

                                   WITH

                     NOTES, CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY.

                                * * * * *

                                 LONDON:
                       GEORGE SLATER, 252, STRAND.

                                * * * * *

                                  1849.




MEMOIR.
BY WILLIAM NORTH.


WILLIAM BECKFORD, the author of the following celebrated Eastern tale,
was born in 1760, and died in the spring of 1844, at the advanced age of
eighty-four years.  It is to be regretted, that a man of so remarkable a
character, did not leave the world some record of a life offering points
of interest different from that of any of his contemporaries, from the
peculiarly studious retirement and eccentric avocations in which it was
chiefly passed.  Such a memoir would have formed a curious contrast with
that of the late M. de Chateaubriand, who, born nearly at the same
period, outlived but by a few years, the strange Englishman, whose famous
romance forms a brilliant ornament to French literature, which even Atala
is unlikely to outlive in the memory of Chateaubriand’s countrymen.  All
men of genius should write autobiographies.  Such works are inestimable
lessons to posterity.  As it is, there are few men, of whom it is more
difficult to compose an elaborate and detailed history than the author of
“Vathek.”  From such scanty sources as are open to us, the reader must be
content with a few striking facts and illustrations, which may serve to
convey some idea of the idiosyncrasy of a man, whose whole life was a
sort of mystery, even to his personal acquaintances.

His great-great-grandfather was lieutenant-governor and commander of the
forces in Jamaica; and his grandfather president of the council in the
same island.  His father, though not a merchant, as has been represented,
but a large landed proprietor, both in England and the West Indies, was
lord mayor of London, and distinguished himself in presenting an address
to the king, George the Third,—by a spirited retort to his majesty,—who
had the ill-breeding to treat discourteously a deputation which the lord
mayor headed.  The portraits of Alderman Beckford, and his more
celebrated son, were painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds.  The former died in
1770, leaving the subject of this memoir the wealthiest commoner in
England.

No pains were spared on the education of the young Croesus—the lords
Chatham and Camden being consulted by his father on that subject.
Besides Latin and Greek, he spoke five modern languages, and wrote three
with facility and elegance.  He read Persian and Arabic, designed with
great skill, and studied the science of music under the great Mozart.

At the age of eighteen he visited Paris, and was introduced to Voltaire.
“On taking leave of me,” said Beckford, “he placed his hand on my head,
saying, ‘There, young Englishman, I give you the blessing of a very old
man.’  Voltaire was a mere skeleton—a bony anatomy.  His countenance I
shall never forget.”

His first literary production, “Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters,” was
written at the early age of seventeen.  It would appear, that the old
housekeeper at Fonthill, was in the habit of edifying visitors to its
picture gallery by a description of the paintings, mainly derived from
her own fertile imagination.  This suggested to our author, the humorous
idea of composing a catalogue of suppositious painters with histories of
each, equally fanciful and grotesque.  Henceforward, the old housekeeper
had a printed guide (or rather, mis-guider) to go by, and could discourse
at large on the merits of Og of Bashan! Waterslouchy of Amsterdam! and
Herr Sucrewasser of Vienna! their wives and styles!  As for the country
squires, etc., “they,” Beckford tells us, “took all for gospel.”

“Vathek,”—the superb “Vathek,” which Lord Byron so much admired, and on
which he so frequently complimented the author,—“Vathek,” the finest of
Oriental romances, as “Lallah Rookh” is the first of Oriental poems, by
the pen of a “Frank,” was written and published before our author had
completed his twentieth year, it having been composed at a _single
sitting_!  Yes, for three days and two nights did the indefatigable
author persevere in his task.  He completed it, and a serious illness was
the result.  What other literary man ever equalled this feat of rapidity
and genius?

“Vathek” was originally written in French, of which its style is a model.
The translation which follows, is not by the author himself, though he
expressed perfect satisfaction with it.  It was originally published in
1786.  For splendour of description, exquisite humour, and supernatural
interest and grandeur, it stands without a rival in romance.  In as
thoroughly Oriental keeping, Hope’s “Anastasius, or Memoirs of a Modern
Greek,” which Beckford himself highly admired, can alone be compared with
it.

Much of the description of Vathek’s palace, and even the renowned “Hall
of Eblis,” was afterwards visibly embodied in the real Fonthill Abbey, of
which wonders, almost as fabulous, were at one time reported and
believed.

Fonthill Abbey, which had been destroyed by fire, and re-built during the
life-time of the elder Beckford, was on account of its bad site
demolished, and again re-built under the superintendence of our author
himself, assisted by James Wyatt, Esq., the architect, with a
magnificence that excited the greatest attention and wonder at the time.
The total outlay of building Fonthill, including furniture, articles of
virtu, etc., must have been enormous, not much within the million, as
estimated by the “Times.”  A writer in the “Athenæum” mentions £400,000
as the sum.  Beckford informed Mr. Cyrus Redding, that the exact cost of
building Fonthill was £273,000.

The distinguishing architectural peculiarity of Fonthill Abbey, was a
lofty tower, 280 feet in height.  This tower was prominently shadowed
forth in “Vathek,” and shows how strong a hold the idea had upon his
mind.  Such was his impatience to see Fonthill completed, that he had the
works continued by torchlight, with relays of workmen.  During the