Book Description

Excerpt from The Episodes of Vathek When I was collecting documents for "The Life and Letters of William Beckford, of Fonthill," I was so fortunate as to obtain permission from the Duke of Hamilton, a collateral descendant of the author of "Vathek," to examine the Beckford papers preserved at Hamilton Palace. In the two large chests containing these papers (never before examined by any literary man) I found, besides much important material for the biography, some large bundles of manuscripts. These manuscripts, written in French, were the unpublished Episodes of Beckford's famous Oriental tale, "Vathek," which were supposed to have been lost. Whatever value may be set upon the Episodes, there can be no doubt that the discovery, or rather recovery, of them was peculiarly interesting; and I regarded myself as fortunate when the Duke of Hamilton generously acceded to my request to be allowed to introduce them to the public. The two shorter stories have been printed in the original French in The English Review (December 1909; August, September 1910); and now for the first time the three Episodes appear in an English translation by Sir Frank T. Marzials, C.B. To the Duke of Hamilton I am deeply indebted for permission to publish the tales; and I am not less the debtor of Sir Frank T. Marzials, who very kindly presented me with his admirable translation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.