I read this in italian translation (i don't know based on which version, but it didn't contain the additional episodes) and really loved it. You're right, it really is sublime near the end!
Nice! I bet it was the Mondadori edition, which was part of Jorge Luis Borges's Biblioteca de Babel (Library of Babel) that came out initially with Siruela in Spain (pretty sure on that) and Mondadori in Italy, not sure when it started but I bought a few of them in the 90s. A fantastic series of 33 books, Vathek was one of them! That series is something I'd love to get to :) Thanks for watching & commenting!
Really interesting! I've been reading a fair amount of the American weird fiction author Clark Ashton Smith, and apparently Vathek was a big inspiration to him. I also recently finished "the Abbassid Caliphate" by Tayeb El Hibri, and its interesting how Medieval Arab ideas filtered down to early modern Britain.
Thank you! I think it's telling that the Blaine-illustrated edition that I feature here was published in 1928, and the Grimsditch translation in 1929--which is right about the time that Weird as a genre starts to get going as well. (Not saying that Vathek caused this "boom," but was an early & influential part of it.) I put the El Hibri in my cart--I'm more familiar with the Umayyad branch that fled to Spain, but would like to know more about the Abbasids. Cheers!
Beckford is a very interesting character, and very much representative of the dangerous excesses and indecencies (as well as romanticism) of the hyper rich in 18th and early 19th century European societies. Great video, thanks for putting it together!
Glad you enjoyed it! I'm planning on doing a deeper dive on Beckford at some point, so I can dig into some of these contradictions, as well as his massive book collection.
As a fan of Vathek and the incredible crap the book gets up to, I inferred even before reaching the author's name in the title, "This is probably Vathek."
100% true. I was really comparing him more to Beckford the author than to Vathek the character, but just because both were really rich doesn't make them the same--there's a big difference between inheriting a fortune and making one, absolutely. I had a section where I compared the two men in more detail, but the video was already getting way too long! Thanks!
Great vid!
thanks!
I read this in italian translation (i don't know based on which version, but it didn't contain the additional episodes) and really loved it. You're right, it really is sublime near the end!
Nice! I bet it was the Mondadori edition, which was part of Jorge Luis Borges's Biblioteca de Babel (Library of Babel) that came out initially with Siruela in Spain (pretty sure on that) and Mondadori in Italy, not sure when it started but I bought a few of them in the 90s. A fantastic series of 33 books, Vathek was one of them! That series is something I'd love to get to :) Thanks for watching & commenting!
Really interesting! I've been reading a fair amount of the American weird fiction author Clark Ashton Smith, and apparently Vathek was a big inspiration to him. I also recently finished "the Abbassid Caliphate" by Tayeb El Hibri, and its interesting how Medieval Arab ideas filtered down to early modern Britain.
Thank you! I think it's telling that the Blaine-illustrated edition that I feature here was published in 1928, and the Grimsditch translation in 1929--which is right about the time that Weird as a genre starts to get going as well. (Not saying that Vathek caused this "boom," but was an early & influential part of it.) I put the El Hibri in my cart--I'm more familiar with the Umayyad branch that fled to Spain, but would like to know more about the Abbasids. Cheers!
Beckford is a very interesting character, and very much representative of the dangerous excesses and indecencies (as well as romanticism) of the hyper rich in 18th and early 19th century European societies.
Great video, thanks for putting it together!
Glad you enjoyed it! I'm planning on doing a deeper dive on Beckford at some point, so I can dig into some of these contradictions, as well as his massive book collection.
@@AisleofMisfitBooks well, that's a subscription!
Thanks! Cheers!
i await musk’s epic nutty novel 😂🎉
actually naaw i’ll move on
but vathek sounds fun
Haha-yeah I don’t think it’s coming anytime soon :)
As a fan of Vathek and the incredible crap the book gets up to, I inferred even before reaching the author's name in the title, "This is probably Vathek."
Haha--good on you! :)
Musk isn’t a villain tho just filthy rich from helpful engineering. He’s not the same as this book
100% true. I was really comparing him more to Beckford the author than to Vathek the character, but just because both were really rich doesn't make them the same--there's a big difference between inheriting a fortune and making one, absolutely. I had a section where I compared the two men in more detail, but the video was already getting way too long! Thanks!