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William Beckford
the elusive Orientalist
LAURENT CHÂTEL
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William Beckford: the elusive Orientalist
LAURENT CHÂTEL
The writer and aesthete William Beckford (1760-1844) was a fascinating
embodiment
of
the
sublime
egotist.
Because
of
his
extravagance,
fabulousness and enigmatic nature, biographers have alternately presented
him as an object of fascination or dismissed him as an insolent and
deceptive character. Laurent Châtel provides an innovative reassessment of
Beckford by presenting ‘elusiveness’ as the defining motif for understanding
both the writer and his work.
Laurent Châtel opens his analysis by exploring the author’s fascination for
the East, which informed several of his multi-layered works such as ‘The
long story’, ‘Suite des contes arabes’ and Vathek. By reconnecting him with
the eighteenth-century aesthetic of translation and reappropriation of the
Arabian nights, Châtel shows how Beckford’s Orientalism was key to his
elusiveness and presents him as a fabulist who supplemented existing tales
with touches of wonder and horror. In further chapters Châtel explores his
lack of recognition as a man of letters – whether desired or not. Through an
analysis of the arguably limited reception of Beckford’s works, in particular in
France both during his lifetime and immediately after his death, we see how
his deliberate elusiveness of style was constitutive of his identity. In his
groundbreaking repositioning of Beckford, Laurent Châtel provides a new
framework for further explorations of his work and their rich overlay of
intertextual presences.
‘Laurent Châtel engages perceptively with the shifting borders of
translation,
revisioning,
interpretation
and
imitation,
in
ways
that
illuminate continuing issues around Orientalist scholarship. This is an
admirable, luxuriantly detailed and most rewarding study.’
Marina Warner, author of Stranger magic: charmed states and the
‘Arabian nights’
Introduction
Part I. Orientalist Beckford
1. Turning East: Orientalist learning, aesthetics and taste
2. ‘As Indian as ever’: ‘The long story’
3. ‘Sparks of Orientalism’: Beckford’s ‘children of the Nights’
4. ‘Such a valuable morsel of Orientalism’: Beckford’s Vathek and
its Episodes
Part II. In search of the author: authorised translations and
translated authorship
5. ‘[N]os bons literateurs ont paru meme ignorer leur existence.’
Invisible in France? The French reception of Beckford, 1760-1876
6. ‘Inconnu dans les annales de la terre’: the missed fortune of
Beckford
Conclusion: Beckford re-Oriented
Appendix A. Beckford’s Orientalist collection of books, prints and
drawings
Appendix B. ‘Beckford Orientalising’: dreaming of Father Urreta’s
Ethiopian underworld
Bibliography
Index
Laurent Châtel is Senior lecturer in English studies, University of ParisSorbonne. His research interests include British culture, literature and the
visual arts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He has published
extensively on Beckford, garden history and landscape theory, and is
Academic Adviser to the Hestercombe Centre for Art and Landscape.
Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, November 2016
ISBN 978-0-7294-1188-2, 264 pages, 8 illustrations £65 / €85 / $100
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