Vathek

Content Warning: This section references child murder. It also discusses outdated terms for racial and religious groups of the Arabian Peninsula and India and the misogynistic depiction of women.

Vathek, Caliph of the Abassides (i.e., Abbasids, a dynasty that ruled from the 8th to 13th century CE), appears at first to be a good ruler to his empire. Though he has a terrible temper, and his eye in particular is frightening when he is upset, he rarely becomes angry, preferring to focus on the pleasures of life. Instead of engaging in religious self-denial like many of his predecessors, he indulges his appetites.

To this end, Vathek has built five wings of his palace, each designed to please one of the five senses. The first is called “The Eternal or unsatiating Banquet” (3), where food of the best quality is constantly served and hundreds of fountains provide the finest drinks. The next is “The Temple of Melody, or The Nectar of the Soul” (3), where musicians and poets perform in rooms designed to echo their performances. The third wing, “The Delight of Eyes, or The Support of Memory” (4), contains oddities and wonders from around the world, from art to plants, all to satisfy the curious. “The Palace of Perfumes,” or “The Incentive to Pleasure” (4), is filled with incense, perfume, and flowers. Finally, “The Retreat of Mirth, or The Dangerous” is filled with beautiful women who seduce and caress any whom Vathek allows to enter (4).

Despite his hedonism, Vathek loves his people, and they love him in return. However, he cannot satisfy his curiosity, as he wants to become omniscient. He engages in debates and encourages religious zealots to satisfy his desire for intellectual and philosophical discourse, but he only allows such opposition to a point, wanting to always be right.

In heaven, the prophet Mahomet observes Vathek with derision, unimpressed by his conduct, as Vathek is supposed to be a religious leader. Mahomet tells the Genii, powerful spirits, to observe Vathek and see where his behavior leads him. He encourages them to help Vathek with his latest hubristic project, a tower that will rise up to the heavens. As they help the work on the tower move faster, Vathek takes it as a sign that “even insensible matter” wants to help complete his designs (4).

Though at its completion the tower is still beneath the stars, Vathek consoles himself by thinking of how great he seems to other people. He uses the tower to study astrology, thinking of this as a way to expand his mind to encompass the stars. After a period of study, Vathek believes that he has read in the skies a sign that a foreigner will accomplish great things. He takes it upon himself to become even more generous and welcoming to visitors, ordering that all who enter Samarah be brought to the palace.

Soon a man, described as “hideously ugly” but in possession of great wonders, is brought to the palace. Among his wares are some sabers, which particularly impress Vathek. Vathek offers the Stranger all the gold in the treasury for his goods, but the Stranger only takes a small amount. Vathek then begins to question the Stranger about where he and the extraordinary items came from, but the Stranger refuses to speak, only laughing in response. Vathek, enraged, orders him to be imprisoned until he answers.

The next day, still enraged, Vathek visits the prison to find that the Stranger has escaped and that all his guards are dead. Overwhelmed by anger, he beats the guards’ dead bodies for hours, leading to rumors of his purported “madness” spreading throughout the city. Hearing these, his intelligent and well-educated mother, Carathis, goes to him and calms him. Vathek mourns how terribly he treated the Stranger, who must be the person foretold by the heavens, wishing he had provided pleasure instead of punishment. Carathis counsels him that they might be able to glean some information from the sabers’ inscription.

Vathek cannot read the inscriptions, but on Carathis’s advice, he issues a proclamation requesting that learned men attempt to translate the inscriptions. He offers a great reward to the man who can read the sabers but threatens to burn the beard of any who fail. After many failures, one old man succeeds: The saber promises a land of great wonders, and Vathek is overjoyed. However, when Vathek asks to hear the inscription again the following morning, the old man tells him that the words have changed. The sword now warns against attempting to learn “of that which he should remain ignorant” (11). Vathek refuses to believe in the second translation and orders half of the man’s beard to be burnt. The old man departs.

Over the next few days, Vathek regrets his decision, as he observes that the characters on the sabers change each day. He becomes melancholy, unable to engage in scholarly pursuits or to eat, and he drinks vast quantities of liquor. He even orders his palaces of the five senses to be shut and stops appearing in public. Carathis and Vathek’s vizier, Morakanabad, attempt to figure out a cure to his melancholy, suspecting the hideous stranger of being a sorcerer.

Finally one day, while Vathek languishes on a mountaintop near his palace, the Stranger reappears and offers Vathek a cure from India, his homeland. The city celebrates Vathek’s cure and the return of the Stranger, now called “the Indian.” Overjoyed, Vathek reopens all the palaces and invites the Stranger to a great feast. However, the Stranger proves to be a horrible guest, eating and drinking everything on the table and talking incessantly. Vathek grows increasingly frustrated and disoriented, leading to him appearing to his people in a confused and flustered state. His head vizier, passing on the advice of Carathis, tells Vathek to question the Stranger, as the cure he was given might have been poison.

When confronted, the Stranger refuses to respond, instead laughing hysterically. Vathek begins to kick him, an activity that the entire court feels compelled to join in. They end up kicking the Stranger into a gorge, after which the inhabitants of Samarah calm down and return home. Vathek, however, refuses to leave the cliffside. He instead attempts to light the cavern enough to find the Stranger, setting up a tent and keeping vigil. One night the voice of the Stranger resounds from the gorge, telling Vathek that if he renounces his faith and proves himself, the Stranger will lead him down to a subterranean palace where Vathek will have all the riches and wonders he desires. Driven by curiosity, Vathek promises to do so.

The Stranger then appears in a black portal. Vathek begs for a way to descend to him, and the Stranger requests the blood of 50 children from the highest ranking of Vathek’s attendants. Vathek agrees and returns to Samarah. Pretending to be over his obsession, Vathek throws a party. During the party, he asks his advisors which of them have the most beautiful sons. This leads to a contest: The sons of the nobles are brought before Vathek in hopes of being declared the most beautiful.

Vathek picks 50 of the boys and throws them a festival by the gorge. Once again he hears the voice of the Stranger coming from the crevasse, calling for the boys’ blood. Vathek begs for their lives but ultimately agrees to sacrifice them. Vathek calls out to the boys that each should approach him individually to receive an item of his own clothing. When they approach he instead pushes them into the gorge.

However, instead of Vathek being led to the underground palace, the chasm closes and the Stranger vanishes. Vathek rages at the Stranger. Meanwhile, the parents of the boys realize what has happened and vow to avenge their children’s deaths. Morakanabad, despite having lost two sons, escorts Vathek safely to the palace before grieving.