Vathek

Rating:
Summary: The Price of Knowledge
Review: Beckford's "Vathek" is the tale of Vathek, a Caliph from the near east, for whom gluttony is a way of life. He partakes of everything to extremes in his marvelous palace - food, wine, women, and most importantly, knowledge. His mother Catharis encourages and fosters his love of the dark arts, by which he comes to summon a Giaour, a foul demon.

The Giaour promises the voracious Vathek to grant him access to the realm of Eblis and Soliman, where he will command all demonic forces and be privy to enough knowledge to satisfy his curiosity. To this end, Vathek engages in wanton and reckless murders, seductions, and blasphemies against the patient divinity 'Mahomet' and his benificent spirits.

One sees in "Vathek" a comparable theme with Montesquieu's "Persian Letters". In both, we have a tyrant, (Montesquieu's Usbek is a domestic tyrant) who abandons, and ultimately relinquishes all capacity to control their dominions or themselves - All for the pursuit of knowledge.

Vathek can thus be seen as a critique of the Enlightenment and of enlightened despotism, so much the rage in Europe in the late 18th century. Beckford seems to rail at knowledge being held above respect for a common humanity. Overall a very interesting novel in many respects and aside from Beckford's unnecessary authorial interruptions, a solid read.

Rating:
Summary: The Price of Knowledge
Review: Beckford's "Vathek" is the tale of Vathek, a Caliph from the near east, for whom gluttony is a way of life. He partakes of everything to extremes in his marvelous palace - food, wine, women, and most importantly, knowledge. His mother Catharis encourages and fosters his love of the dark arts, by which he comes to summon a Giaour, a foul demon.

The Giaour promises the voracious Vathek to grant him access to the realm of Eblis and Soliman, where he will command all demonic forces and be privy to enough knowledge to satisfy his curiosity. To this end, Vathek engages in wanton and reckless murders, seductions, and blasphemies against the patient divinity 'Mahomet' and his benificent spirits.

One sees in "Vathek" a comparable theme with Montesquieu's "Persian Letters". In both, we have a tyrant, (Montesquieu's Usbek is a domestic tyrant) who abandons, and ultimately relinquishes all capacity to control their dominions or themselves - All for the pursuit of knowledge.

Vathek can thus be seen as a critique of the Enlightenment and of enlightened despotism, so much the rage in Europe in the late 18th century. Beckford seems to rail at knowledge being held above respect for a common humanity. Overall a very interesting novel in many respects and aside from Beckford's unnecessary authorial interruptions, a solid read.

Rating:
Summary: Unusual, sensational
Review: Beckford's story is what is known as an Oriental tale; it falls into the sub-division known as 'Satanic.' The reader will easily see why. Vathek kills casually, his mother Carathis positively gleefully; they hold traffic with evil spirits, Carathis raising them up when necessary. What they do, they do to gain access to the Palace of Subterranean Fire. This story moves along well, with plenty of darkly humourous comments. The translation process does not seem to have impaired the book's readability; if so, it was probably due to the fact that Beckford and a colleague only worked on it sporadically--Beckford kept on having to remove himself from England to prevent unpleasantness. His tastes are reflected in his fiction.

Rating:
Summary: An exotic dark fantasy
Review: Leaving aside the question of whether this book is a 'gothic' novel or not, it is a dark fantasy. It shares with its more conventionally gothic brethren a tale of dark deeds in an exotic setting, where an alien and exciting religion is practised.

In the standard Gothic tale, allusions to Roman Catholicism, thought of by respectable Englishmen as a dark, oppressive, and half-pagan faith, were part of the conventional apparatus. Beckford chose instead to imagine the world of Islam, an even more exotic milieu that added some flashes of bright colours to the dark and sorcerous background of his book. His choice of an even more exotic setting allowed him greater freedom in portraying characters who defied social convention and fell into exotic habits of mind.

My understanding is that it is a matter of some debate to what extent the English text of -Vathek- is a translation from the French, or an original English composition. I do not have the French text in front of me, but it has been represented to me that Beckford's "original" French is rather like the French of Oscar Wilde's -Salome-, and needed extensive editing to be acceptable to a French readership.

At any rate, -Vathek- is a prime example of early dark fantasy. The description, of course, will be richer than you are used to, but Beckford's prose actually seems to move quite quickly. Fans of H. P. Lovecraft or Clark Ashton Smith will find that it is quite easy to slip into. And the tale is indeed a vivid one, right up to the exceptional ending when Vathek and Carathis are damned to the halls of Eblis, their hearts seared with unquenchable fire.

This is a good edition of the story, and the notes and maps are helpful.

Rating:
Summary: An exotic dark fantasy
Review: Leaving aside the question of whether this book is a 'gothic' novel or not, it is a dark fantasy. It shares with its more conventionally gothic brethren a tale of dark deeds in an exotic setting, where an alien and exciting religion is practised.

In the standard Gothic tale, allusions to Roman Catholicism, thought of by respectable Englishmen as a dark, oppressive, and half-pagan faith, were part of the conventional apparatus. Beckford chose instead to imagine the world of Islam, an even more exotic milieu that added some flashes of bright colours to the dark and sorcerous background of his book. His choice of an even more exotic setting allowed him greater freedom in portraying characters who defied social convention and fell into exotic habits of mind.

My understanding is that it is a matter of some debate to what extent the English text of -Vathek- is a translation from the French, or an original English composition. I do not have the French text in front of me, but it has been represented to me that Beckford's "original" French is rather like the French of Oscar Wilde's -Salome-, and needed extensive editing to be acceptable to a French readership.

At any rate, -Vathek- is a prime example of early dark fantasy. The description, of course, will be richer than you are used to, but Beckford's prose actually seems to move quite quickly. Fans of H. P. Lovecraft or Clark Ashton Smith will find that it is quite easy to slip into. And the tale is indeed a vivid one, right up to the exceptional ending when Vathek and Carathis are damned to the halls of Eblis, their hearts seared with unquenchable fire.

This is a good edition of the story, and the notes and maps are helpful.

Rating:
Summary: A good book...but I don't know how it got the title 'gothic'
Review: The book itself is absolutely wonderful, and I'd reccomend it to anyone. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because the readability (if that's actually a word) is somewhat damaged by the fact that it's a translation from French. I also would warn anybody who is attracted to 'gothic' novels (i.e. The Monk, The Castle of Otranto). It's set in the Middle East and, although there are certain moments of gothic quality horror, over all, the setting somewhat ruined the classification under which it was reccomended to me, and, as any true gothic fan will know, setting is crucial to such novels.

Rating:
Summary: FANTASY / GOTHIC / ARABIAN NIGHTS
Review: Those are the three categories that I've seen this story put in. Vathek tells the tale about a man with an exceedingly high tower. This man named Vathek is very greedy. The reading can be a little rough at times, which is why I took off one star, but there are some very memorable scenes. Two that really stick out in my mind are: When the stranger in the dungeon escapes. And when Vathek ascends his tall tower, thinking how tall he stands over his minions--then he looks up at the stars and grimaces, because the stars are still the same distance away. Both of these scenes are towards the beginning, which I think is the best part of the book. The middle details Vathek's journey to some far off place. But then it picks up again towards the end. I don't normally read Gothics--if this IS a Gothic, opinions vary--but it is a very good book and definitely one I plan on adding to my permanent collection. Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges gave enthusiastic mention to this book in one of his works.

Rating:
Summary: HOW COME YOU DO SO MUCH WRONG VATHEK?
Review: Vathek is another work in an endless series with the Faust myth as its backbone. Except here, instead of being set in Germany, the setting is the ancient middle east in which genies and devils inhabit the land.

Vathek is a caliph who is loved but also feared by his people. In fact, if he really loses his temper, just the sight of his gaze can cause death. His court makes The Satyricon look like a sunday school with its voluptuousness and excess. There are even five wings of his palace, with each one dedicated to a sense with names such as "The Delight of the Eyes" and "The Palace of Perfumes". Oh, the decadence! Of course someone as attached to physical gratification as Vathek is sure to stomp on the moral and religious boundaries of Allah and get in trouble.

Much like God and Yahweh in the Book of Job, Allah allows Vathek to be tempted and tried by demons as a bizarre test of his faith. Actually, maybe in both cases it was a test of God's faith in man. The faith that man will do the right thing in the end. That he will turn away from evil. That he will have an epiphany which will redeem him. Vathek isn't so lucky.

An evil being in the disguise of a man, called the Gaiour, comes to Vathek's court with all sorts of magical artifacts which seem to give their bearer otherworldy powers. Vathek becomes entranced by the thought of having powers over spirits and other men and begins to follow a direct line to eternal hell. In order to court evil spirits, Vathek becomes a mass murderer, a blasphemer, a betrayer, a killer of his own people. He is helped in this by his mother, Carathis, who hasn't even heard the word goodness. She constructs a tower much like the Tower of Babel, in order to reach to the gods and to serve as storage for her arcane items.

The book, much like Dante's Inferno, becomes a little much at times. I mean, how many deeds of evil can we experience before we go, "ok, he's going to Hell now!" Sometimes you sense that some of this is intentional and tongue in cheek. At other times, you're horrified at the evil that most of the characters do. Any characters that are good are trampled upon by the evil. The last couple of pages are truly disturbing. I liked this book and would recommend it to anyone that keeps an open mind about fantasy or who is interested in the question of how much knowledge is too much knowledge.