Library of Babel
10348 Vathek
William Beckford. Edited and with an introduction by Jorge Luis Borges
1978 I ed. .
Language: Italian
The earth opens up, Beckford’s hell embodies the cubicles of a nightmare. Vathek is a mere curiosity, ‘the perfume and suppliance of a minute’, and forecasts, albeit rudimentarily, the satanic splendours of Poe, Baudelaire, and Huysmans.
Beckford embodied a type of millionaire playboy, great gentleman, traveller, bibliophile, libertine and palace builder. In this tale, with its essential plot, Vathek (Harùn Benalmotàsim Vatiq Bilà, ninth Abbasid caliph) erects a Babylonian tower to decipher the planets. These predict a succession of prodigies, the instrument of which will be an outstanding man who will come from an unknown land. A merchant arrives at the capital, sells a scimitar to the Caliph, and then disappears. Engraved on the blade are mysterious iridescent characters that mock Vathek’s curiosity. Once deciphered, the Caliph devotes himself to the magical arts and embarks on a dark descent into hell, his soul gradually turning black with abomination. The merchant had told the truth, the Alcàzar of the Underground Fire abounds in splendours and talismans, but it is also Hell, the first truly heinous Hell in the history of literature.