Book Review
Nov. 5th, 2023 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariVathek
by William Beckford
This 1786 novel is a very early example of gothic literature. It's also not a good example of the genre. The story follows Vathek, an early medieval Caliph whose indulgent and hedonistic yet ruthless nature leads him to utter damnation in the subterranean realm of a fallen angel. The prose was overdone, the characters fairly flat, and the story less interesting than it sounds. There was plenty of racism, sexism, exoticization, and othering. All of that was pretty much in line with the time in which Vathek was written, but it was still gross. At least it's a very short book.
by William Beckford
This 1786 novel is a very early example of gothic literature. It's also not a good example of the genre. The story follows Vathek, an early medieval Caliph whose indulgent and hedonistic yet ruthless nature leads him to utter damnation in the subterranean realm of a fallen angel. The prose was overdone, the characters fairly flat, and the story less interesting than it sounds. There was plenty of racism, sexism, exoticization, and othering. All of that was pretty much in line with the time in which Vathek was written, but it was still gross. At least it's a very short book.
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Date: 2023-11-06 02:10 am (UTC)That really doesn't sound like it should have been able to be boring. It feels like an influence on Tanith Lee's Tales from the Flat Earth, at least.