

Transcribed from the 1887 Cassell & Company edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

                        CASSELL'S NATIONAL LIBRARY

                                * * * * *





                               THE HISTORY
                                  OF THE
                              CALIPH VATHEK


                                    BY
                            WILLIAM BECKFORD.

                        [Picture: Printer's mark]

                       CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:
                _LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_.
                                  1887.




INTRODUCTION


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 West
India fortune.  William Beckford the elder became Magistrate, Member of
Parliament, Alderman.  Four years before the birth of William Beckford
the younger he became one of the Sheriffs of London, and three years
after his son's birth he was Lord Mayor.  As Mayor he gave very sumptuous
dinners that made epochs in the lives of feeding men.  His son's famous
"History of the Caliph Vathek" looks as if it had been planned for an
Alderman's dream after a very heavy dinner at the Mansion House.  There
is devotion in it to the senses, emphasis on heavy dining.  Vathek piqued
himself on being the greatest eater alive; but when the Indian dined with