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Showing posts with label William Beckford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William Beckford. Show all posts

Friday, August 17, 2012

49. Vathek

Vathek
William Beckford
1786
Around 170 pages


I am on a real roll here; we only have about ten more books until we are finished with the 1700s.  My goal is to finish them before August.  Is that ridiculously unachievable?  Maybe, but then again, so is this list.

All right, so after reading the most horrifying book in literature, I picked up this novel, eager for relief.  However, this book is one of those novels that is really hard to have an opinion of.  It is not especially bad or good.  It is also not really entertaining but not completely boring.  I think we have all read books like this; the ones you will forget about in a month.  Unless of course, you write a post that doesn't have a point at all and can look back at in a month and remember.

This novel follows the fall from power of Vathek who is obsessed with sex and has a terrible temper.  It is very similar to an Arabian Nights tale, which I reviewed many moons ago.  Utterly forgettable.

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Capitalized on the success of the translation of A Thousand And One Nights in Europe at the time.

One of the first gothic novels.