The History of the Caliph Vathek, by William

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Title: The History of the Caliph Vathek

Author: William Beckford

Release Date: April 20, 2005 [eBook #2060]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPH VATHEK***

Transcribed from the 1887 Cassell & Company edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk

THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPH VATHEK

INTRODUCTION

William Beckford, born in 1759, the year before the accession of King George the Third, was the son of an Alderman who became twice Lord Mayor of London. His family, originally of Gloucestershire, had thriven by the plantations in Jamaica; and his father, sent to school in England, and forming a school friendship at Westminster with Lord Mansfield, began the world in this country as a merchant, with inheritance of an enormous West India fortune. William Beckford the elder became Magistrate, Member of Parliament, Alderman. Four years before the birth of William Beckford the younger he became one of the Sheriffs of London, and three years after his son's birth he was Lord Mayor. As Mayor he gave very sumptuous dinners that made epochs in the lives of feeding men. His son's famous "History of the Caliph Vathek" looks as if

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