William Beckford 2 hr 2 min read

The Caliph Vathek, insatiable in appetite and pride, builds a tower to pierce the heavens and strikes a bargain with a demonic power, descending, in his lust for forbidden knowledge, toward Eblis.

William Beckford's 1786 novel is a foundational classic of Gothic and Oriental fantasy. Lush, sardonic, unforgettable. Read it for a cornerstone of the fantastic, a decadent caliph's damnation, told with dark wit and exotic splendor, whose vision of Hell haunted Byron, Poe, and generations of writers after.

In its time

Published in 1786, during the Pre-1800, voyages to the moon, subterranean worlds, and philosophical utopias, the deep roots of the imaginative tradition, from kepler and cyrano to the enlightenment.

Reading it

2 hr 2 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).