Vathek
Contents (11)
Series Volumes of Haunted Library of Horror Classics:
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (2020)
The Beetle by Richard Marsh (2020)
Vathek by William Beckford (2020)
The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson (2020)
The Parasite and Other Tales of Terror by Arthur Conan Doyle (2021)
The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers (2021)
…and more forthcoming
First published in 1786 as An Arabian Tale, from an Unpublished Manuscript
Copyright © 2020 by Horror Writers Association
Introduction © 2020 by Joe R. Lansdale
Additional supplemental material © 2020 by Eric J. Guignard and Leslie S. Klinger
Cover and internal design © 2020 by Sourcebooks
Cover design and illustration by Jeffrey Nguyen
Sourcebooks, Poisoned Pen Press, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks.
Originally published as Vathek © William Beckford, 1816. Translated from French by Samuel Henley.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published by Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
(630) 961-3900
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Originally published as An Arabian Tale, from an Unpublished Manuscript in 1786. First published as Vathek in 1816. This edition issued based on the third edition, revised and corrected, published in 1816 in England by W. Clarke.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Beckford, William, author. | Lansdale, Joe R., writer of introduction. Title: Vathek / William Beckford ; with an introduction by Joe R. Lansdale. Other titles: Vathek. English
Description: Naperville, IL : Poisoned Pen Press, [2020] | Series: Haunted library of horror classics | “Originally published as An Arabian Tale, from an unpublished manuscript in 1786. This edition is based on the third edition, revised and corrected, published as Vathek in 1816 in England by W. Clarke, London.”
Identifiers: LCCN 2019059642 | (trade paperback)
Subjects: GSAFD: Gothic fiction. | Horror fiction.
Classification: LCC PQ1957.B29 V313 2020 | DDC 843/.5--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019059642
Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
Vathek
Notes
About the Author
Suggested Discussion Questions for Classroom Use
Suggested Further Reading of Fiction
About the Series Editors
Back Cover
This edition of Vathek is presented by the Horror Writers Association, a nonprofit organization of writers and publishing professionals around the world, dedicated to promoting dark literature and the interests of those who write it.
For more information on HWA, visit: horror.org.
Introduction
Vathek is one peculiar novel, and so was its author, William Beckford. According to a recent edition of the book, his bio states he was born in 1759, son of an Alderman who was the Lord Mayor of London, twice.