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The History of the Caliph Vathek, by William
The Project Gutenberg eBook, The History of the Caliph Vathek, by William Beckford, Edited by Henry Morley
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Title: The History of the Caliph Vathek
Author: William Beckford
Editor: Henry Morley
Release Date: April 6, 2010 [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@pglaf.org
CASSELL'S NATIONAL LIBRARY
* * * * *
THE HISTORY OF THE CALIPH VATHEK
BY WILLIAM BECKFORD.
[Picture: Printer's mark]
CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE. 1887.
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