About

William Beckford (1760-1844) was an English novelist, a profligate and consummately knowledgeable art collector and patron of works of decorative art, a critic, travel writer and sometime politician, reputed at one stage in his life to be the richest commoner in England. He was Member of Parliament for Wells from 1784 to 1790, for Hindon from 1790 to 1795 and 1806 to 1820. E is remembered as the author of the Gothic novel Vathek (1786), the builder of the remarkable lost Fonthill Abbey and Lansdown Tower Bath, and especially for his art collection.

William Beckford (1760-1844) was an English novelist, a profligate and consummately knowledgeable art collector and patron of works of decorative art, a critic, travel writer and sometime politician, reputed at one stage in his life to be the richest commoner in England. He was Member of Parliament for Wells from 1784 to 1790, for Hindon from 1790 to 1795 and 1806 to 1820.

William Beckford was a novelist, travel writer, art critic and politician best known for his novel Vathek, a story with elaborate imagery, sardonic humour and an unforgettable gallery of grotesques, which describes a journey to the halls of Eblis, or Hell, in the pursuit of knowledge illiam Beckford (1760-1844) inherited a large fortune and, at the age of nineteen, went on a tour of Holland, Germany, Belgium, France and Italy He was a Member of Parliament and a traveller who spent large sums of money collecting rare books, curiosities and paintings for the embellishment of his Gothic Extravaganza, Fonthill Abbey, where he lived in opulent seclusion until forced by bankruptcy to sell it in 1822.

Edition Details

• Limited to 250 copies, each signed by Donald Sydney-Fryer and artist David Whitlam.
• New introduction by Donald Sydney-Fryer.
• The magificent line drawings by Mahlon Blaine.
• Striking full-color, wraparound dustjacket.
• Full cloth cover.
• Ribbon marker, head and tail bands.

External Links

• Vathek. Centipede Press page for Vathek
• William Beckford (ISFDB). ISFDB entry for William Beckford