A review by wille44
Vathek by William Beckford
3.0
Vathek is eighteenth century fan fiction, William Beckford's attempt to write his own 1,001 Nights tale during the peak of the English's Oriental fascination. It's notability stems from his inversion of the heroic quest and his injection of gothic sensibilities and narrative elements into a fantastical tale, as such Vathek is a story that stands out as a building block in the history of literary horror.
As a novel it is slapdash, messy, and contradictory, in equal measure too slow and rushed, obviously not something that a great deal of editorial time (if any) was spent on. That being said, the prose itself flows nicely, especially relative to a contemporary such as Otranto, and Beckford's imagination crackles, as the reader is tossed into a series of escalating macabre absurdities, as the fickle, spineless hero Vathek constantly vacillates between begging forgiveness for his crimes and marching forward intent on entering the gates of hell itself.
The story serves as an early bellwether of both horror and fantasy, as chasms open and close in an instant, giant towers are built to read the stars, ghouls are raised from the dead, and the supernatural world is constantly comingling with the natural. Reading it now shows a blueprint of otherworldly events and flawed protagonists attempting to make sense of and sometimes take advantage of them that we later see in the works of Poe and Lovecraft, overall Vathek is a flawed but surprisingly fun story of terrible people insisting upon a karmic reward.
As a novel it is slapdash, messy, and contradictory, in equal measure too slow and rushed, obviously not something that a great deal of editorial time (if any) was spent on. That being said, the prose itself flows nicely, especially relative to a contemporary such as Otranto, and Beckford's imagination crackles, as the reader is tossed into a series of escalating macabre absurdities, as the fickle, spineless hero Vathek constantly vacillates between begging forgiveness for his crimes and marching forward intent on entering the gates of hell itself.
The story serves as an early bellwether of both horror and fantasy, as chasms open and close in an instant, giant towers are built to read the stars, ghouls are raised from the dead, and the supernatural world is constantly comingling with the natural. Reading it now shows a blueprint of otherworldly events and flawed protagonists attempting to make sense of and sometimes take advantage of them that we later see in the works of Poe and Lovecraft, overall Vathek is a flawed but surprisingly fun story of terrible people insisting upon a karmic reward.