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Vathek
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Vathek

novel by Beckford
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

Vathek, Gothic novel by William Beckford, published in 1786. Considered a masterpiece of bizarre invention and sustained fantasy, Vathek was written in French in 1782 and was translated into English by the authorā€™s friend the Rev. Samuel Henley, who published it anonymously, claiming in the preface that the novel was his own translated from an Arabic original. The caliph Vathek is a blasphemous voluptuary who constructs a tower so tall that from it he can...

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