Resumen
Resumen de Vathek
Para quién es
For readers who love dark fairy tales, Gothic atmosphere and sharp irony, and anyone curious about the roots of horror and fantasy.
De qué trata este libro
Vathek is a short tale of a ruler who wants every pleasure and then wants more. William Beckford, a young and very rich Englishman, wrote it in French in the early 1780s. It first appeared in English in 1786, and it grew from his love of the Arabian Nights and from his taste for the strange and the extravagant. The story is set in the Abbasid court of the caliphate, and it mixes comedy, horror and splendor in a way that few books have matched.
The hero is the caliph Vathek, a grandson of the great Haroun al Raschid. He has palaces, feasts, astrologers and a fierce mother, and still he is not content. Then a hideous stranger comes with a promise of power beyond anything on earth. You will meet a proud ruler, a sorceress mother, a pair of young lovers and a long road to a place of fire. Let us begin with the caliph himself and the court he has built to feed his appetites.
En este resumen
- 1A caliph who cannot be satisfiedFree
- 2A stranger sells wonders and vanishes
- 3A bargain that demands blood
- 4The road to Istakhar and Nouronihar
- 5What the tale says about appetite and power
- 6A tale told with irony and splendor
Idea clave 1 de 6
A caliph who cannot be satisfied
The tale opens in Samarah, the capital of the caliph Vathek. He is the ninth of the Abbasid line and the grandson of Haroun al Raschid. He is young, handsome and rich, and his looks are so striking that a single angry glance is said to be enough to make a man faint. For that reason he rarely allows himself to look angry at all, since he fears he might do harm without meaning to.
Vathek is a man of appetite. He builds five palaces, one for each of the five senses. In them the tables are crowded with dishes, the air is thick with perfume, and musicians and dancers never rest. Scholars and poets are kept near him, but he cares for their company only when they flatter him. He believes that the world was made for his comfort, and he behaves as though nothing could ever say no to him.
He is also curious, and not only about pleasure. He builds a tower of eleven thousand steps so that he may study the stars from its top. He hopes to read his own fortune in the sky. What he sees there pleases him, because the stars seem to promise marvels. Yet the learning he gathers there is thin, and it serves his pride more than his mind.
Behind him stands his mother, Carathis. She is a Greek by birth, and she is wise in the dark sciences, with a taste for chemistry and for magic. She does not discourage her son from wanting more. She wants him to be a power greater than any caliph before him, and her ambition is as large as his. From the start, then, the reader sees a man who has everything and a mother who tells him he deserves more. That is the soil in which the rest of the story grows.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Questions about Vathek
What is Vathek about?
Vathek is about a proud, pleasure-seeking caliph who is tempted by a mysterious stranger with promises of hidden treasure and great power. He makes terrible choices on the way, and the tale follows his journey and its warnings.
Who wrote Vathek and when?
William Beckford wrote it in French in the early 1780s, when he was still a young man. It was first published in English in 1786, and a French edition followed soon after.
Who is the Giaour in Vathek?
The Giaour is a repulsive and silent stranger who comes to the caliph's court with strange sabres. The word giaour was used by Muslims for an unbeliever. He later offers Vathek access to great treasures.
Is Vathek a Gothic novel?
Yes, it is often called both a Gothic tale and an oriental fantasy. It has dark towers, magic and growing dread, and it is set in an imagined Abbasid court, drawn from the Arabian Nights.
Is Vathek hard to read?
No. The story runs along one straight road, from the caliph's court to a far destination, with episodes strung along it like beads. The narrator smiles along with you, so the tale is short, quick and easy to follow.