Vathek – William Beckford

"Such was the strictness of my justice, that I punished a crime even before it was committed."

The Caliph Vathek is a man of boundless curiosity and appetite who renounces Islam to serve Eblis (the Devil) in exchange for the treasures of the pre-Adamite sultans. Accompanied by his wicked mother, he embarks on a journey of cruelty and excess, sacrificing fifty children to obtain the keys to the subterranean Hall of Eblis, where he finds not happiness, but eternal damnation.

Beckett's 'Arabian tale' is a masterpiece of orientalist gothic. It is a wild, imaginative, and grotesque story that blends dark humor with a terrifying vision of hell and the consequences of unbridled ambition.