Lot 253
Stewart, Charles William - Beckford, William
Auction: 26 January 2011 at 11:00 GMT
Description
A full set of pen and ink original illustrations by Charles William Stewart for an edition of William Beckford's Vathek, published by The Bodley Head in 1953, including a frontispiece, title and seven plates, each approx 23 by 14cm [boards 38 by 27cm], four plates framed and glazed, the remainder on original boards, captioned by the illustrator
Footnote
Note: Vathek was originally published in French by William Beckford in 1782, translated by Samuel Henley in 1786. The Bodley Head edition is based in the translation of Herbert B. Grimsditch.
The novel chronicles the fall from power of the Caliph Vathek (a fictionalized version of the historical Al-Wathiq), who renounces Islam and engages with his mother, Carathis, in a series of licentious and deplorable activities designed to gain him supernatural powers. At the end of the novel, instead of attaining these powers, Vathek descends into a hell ruled by the demon Eblis where he is doomed to wander endlessly and speechlessly.