Background
Beckford was born at Fonthill, Wiltshire, on September 29, 1760. His parents were William Beckford and Maria Hamilton.
( First published in 1796, Modern Novel Writing is a sati...)
First published in 1796, Modern Novel Writing is a satirical attack on the sentimental and sensational novels of the day, as well as William Pitt the Younger, the war with France, repressive legislation, and government neglect of the poor. Edited with an introduction and notes by Robert Gemmett, professor of English at SUNY Brockport and an acknowledged expert on William Beckford, it is the first scholarly edition of this novel.
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( "Woe to the rash mortal who seeks to know that of which ...)
"Woe to the rash mortal who seeks to know that of which he should remain ignorant; and to undertake that which surpasseth his power!" One of the strangest and most unforgettable eighteenth-century novels, Vathek is a wild Gothic fantasy whose sensuous imagination and grotesque comedy have inspired writers from Byron to Lovecraft. The Caliph Vathek is dissolute and debauched, and hungry for knowledge. When the mysterious Giaour offers him boundless treasure and unrivalled power he is willing to sacrifice his god, the lives of innocent children, and his own soul to satisfy his obsession. Vathek's extraordinary journey to the subterranean palace of Eblis, and the terrifying fate that there awaits him, is a captivating tale of magic and oriental fantasy, sudden violence and corrupted love, whose mix of moral fable, grotesque comedy, and evocative beauty defies classification. This new edition reprints Beckford's authorized English text of 1816 with its elaborate and entertaining notes. In his new Introduction, Thomas Keymer pays special attention to the novel's literary qualities, its hybrid nature and its connections with oriental fiction and the Gothic as well as to its origins and Beckford's scandalous public persona. Completely reset, the second edition includes new, fuller notes, an up-to-date bibliography, and a new chronology of the author. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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critic novelist politician art collector travel writer
Beckford was born at Fonthill, Wiltshire, on September 29, 1760. His parents were William Beckford and Maria Hamilton.
He was briefly trained in music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but his drawing master, Alexander Cozens, was a greater influence, and Beckford continued to correspond with him for some years until they fell out.
From 1806 to 1820 he sat in Parliament. In 1822 financial difficulties forced him to sell Fonthill. Immediately afterward, however, he built another great house near Bath, where he died, a recluse, May 2, 1844. Beckford's fame rests largely on his authorship of Vathek (1786), an Oriental tale that exploits the exotic and the bizarre. In this story the Caliph Vathek, a monstrous compound of wickedness and folly dominated by his vicious mother Catharis, falls into the clutches of the demon Eblis. After a journey studded with incidents that illustrate Vathek's inordinate cruelty, he is admitted to the cavernous halls of Eblis, where a terrible doom awaits him and his fellow transgressors. Beckford's other works include Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters (1780), a satirical treatment of the English painters of the day; Dreams, Waking Thoughts and Incidents (1783); Modern Novel Writing (1796); Azemia (1797); Italy, With Sketches of Spain and Portugal (1834); and Recollections of an Excursion to the Monasteries of Alcobaca and Batalha (1835).
( "Woe to the rash mortal who seeks to know that of which ...)
( First published in 1796, Modern Novel Writing is a sati...)
On 5 May 1783 Beckford married Lady Margaret Gordon, a daughter of the fourth Earl of Aboyne. However, he was bisexual and had relations with William Courtenay, later 9th Earl of Devon, were intercepted by the boy's uncle, who advertised the affair in the newspapers. Courtenay was just ten years old on first meeting Beckford, who was eight years older. They had 2 daughter.