Description
Laurent Chatel 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, Chatel 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 Chatel 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 Chatel provides a new framework for further explorations of his work and their rich overlay of intertextual presences.
Reviews
Reviews 'Laurent Chatel 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
'There is much that is impressive about this study, not least the thorough scholarship, and original analysis of the nature of Beckford's authorship: William Beckford: The Elusive Orientalist will be a valuable resource for Beckford scholars for years to come.'
James Watt, Eighteenth-Century Life
Book Information
ISBN 9780729411882
Author Laurent Chatel
Format Paperback
Page Count 292
Imprint Voltaire Foundation
Publisher Liverpool University Press
Weight(grams) 500g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 20mm