William Beckford

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The young William Beckford

William Thomas Beckford (born October 1, 1760 in Fonthill , Wiltshire , † May 2, 1844 in Lansdowne near Bath ) was an English eccentric , mainly known as a writer and builder . In addition, he was also a critic, collector, and politician. His novel Vathek influenced Byron , Poe , Carl Einstein , Gottfried Benn and HP Lovecraft .

Life

The rich heir

William Beckford
William Courtenay as a boy

Beckford was born in Fonthill, Wiltshire, the only (recognized) son of William Beckford the Elder . His father was Lord Mayor of London twice (1762 and 1769) and author of several books on Jamaica , and his mother was a direct descendant of Mary Queen of Scots . He was considered a highly gifted child, his talents were encouraged by his parents at an early age, and he was taught art and architecture by respected teachers. He developed legends early on, for example, the five-year-old Beckford received piano lessons from the then nine-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . It was on this occasion that Mozart had the idea for Le nozze di Figaro .

When Beckford's father died in 1770, he was just ten years old and now heir to a large cash fortune of 1,000,000 pounds sterling (in today's value around £ 110 million) as well as various lands, including several sugar cane plantations in Jamaica, which above all the prosperity of the Family established. His great-grandfather Peter Beckford had acquired the Jamaican possessions in the 17th century and made it governor there. Freed from existential worries, he was able to devote himself to his interests in art, architecture and writing. He was one of the most important sponsors of William Turner .

In 1778, after various trips and studies in Europe, he returned to England. After studying with Sir William Chambers and Alexander Conzens , he traveled to Italy in 1782.

Christmas 1781

After the end of his Grand Tour , the normal continuation of a young man's career in his position would have been to run for political office. Beckford showed no inclination to do this, however. He wrote to his cousin Lady Charlotte Hamilton on April 2, 1781:

I'm afraid I'll never be half as fit for anything but composing melodies, building towers, laying out gardens, collecting old Japanese china, and writing a trip to China or the moon.

That was a clearly formulated program, and not only that, the goals were also achieved, especially with regard to the building of the towers and the landscaping.

At Christmas 1781, the painter and set designer Philipp Jakob Loutherbourgs , who was working at Drury Lane in London at the time , had created a fantastic installation for Beckford in Fonthill Splendens , which, according to the description, also included an experimental version of Loutherbourg's Eidophusikon , a stage technology device , in which one saw a precursor to the cinematograph. The purpose of the installation was to put Beckford's select few guests into a phantasmagoria made up of the Orient and Hellmouth with illusionistic effects . Beckford's father also owned a number of works by Piranesi , and it is believed that the architecture of Newgate Prison , which Beckford's father laid for the new building, was influenced by Piranesi's Carceri . Now the imagined dungeon labyrinths served his son as a template for his oriental-satanistic staging.

Among the guests at this memorable Christmas party was Beckford's lover Louisa Pitt-Beckford, the wife of his cousin Peter Beckford, who - a model of English rural culture - had published a highly acclaimed work on hunting that same year. Louisa was consumptive and 13 years older, but that was offset by the fact that among the guests there was also the then 13-year-old William "Kitty" Courtenay, son of the Viscount Courtenay of Powderham and later 9th Earl of Devon, in whom William violently had fallen in love. The stage was set. Beckford recalled years later:

The glowing haze penetrated every object, the mystical appearance, the monstrous, the intricate labyrinthine vaults caused such a confusing effect that it was - at first - quite impossible to determine where one was standing, where one had come from, or where one was going - in such a way was the confusion - the disturbing effect of so many illuminated layers and shafts piled on top of each other.

Vathek

German edition from 1907

The effect of this production was to be very far-reaching, because, according to Beckford's own admission, it was the core of the inspiration for his most famous work: in 1783 he wrote the book in French in a single effort lasting three days and two nights, on which his literary fame was exclusively is based: Vathek , the story of the caliph Vathek, who builds such a high tower that he can monitor all the kingdoms of the world from it. When he meets an emissary of evil and succumbs to its temptations, evil ultimately takes possession of him and sets his heart on fire for ever.

“ I claim this is the first truly hideous hell in literature. Vathek foreshadows the satanic splendor of Thomas de Quinceys and Poes , Charles Baudelaires and Huysmans . "

- Jorge Luis Borges

HP Lovecraft describes in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature Vathek as the horror novel with the greatest influence on his own work.

On May 5, 1783, Beckford married Margaret Gordon. In 1784, when he was actually expecting to become a peer , a scandal broke out when he was denounced by his father's political opponents who accused him of having sex with William Courtenay. At that time, the Society for the Reformation of Manners , a puritan governing body, was growing in power. Although he was never found guilty, he went with his wife and newborn daughter into exile in Switzerland in July 1785, where he (like Byron after him) settled on Lake Geneva . Here his wife died of puerperal fever in 1786 after the birth of their second daughter. During this time Beckford also learned that the novel Vathek , which he had given Samuel Henley to translate, should not be published in England under his name. It was eventually published anonymously, and in the foreword to the first edition (1786) Samuel Henley wrote that it had been translated from Arabic. This gave the book a semblance of authenticity that reinforced its impact.

After the death of his wife, Beckford traveled to Spain and Portugal, where he also settled for some time in 1793.

Fonthill Abbey

Fonthill Abbey viewed from the west in 1823

After his return to England in the mid-1790s, he had the huge Fonthill Abbey built. Beckford acquired the entire library from Edward Gibbon as the basis for his own. In addition, he collected strange pieces of furniture and strange works of art, read in his library and lived largely withdrawn with his numerous servants, "dwarves", musicians, artists and horses and thus became the prototype of the decadent hermit in the style of Huysmans ' des Esseintes . The frame for the portrait of Dorian Gray , another “original book” of decadence , also came from Fonthill . He was called the "Fool of Fonthill" by his neighbors. Only political activities interrupted his seclusion: he was a member of parliament for Wells (from 1784 to 1793) and for Hindon (from 1806 to 1820).

In 1807 the main tower collapsed and had to be rebuilt. Because of his expensive interests, Beckford had to sell Fonthill Abbey, including the library and collections, to John Farquar in 1823. Later the tower collapsed again and buried parts of the other buildings under itself - only the north wing remained.

Lansdown Hill

He and the architect Henry Goodridge built a new, more modest property near Bath: Lansdown Hill . A main tower was also built here: the mysterious Lansdown Tower . This tower is known today as Beckford's Tower .

He died in Lansdowne Hill on May 2, 1844 at the age of 84 and was buried in the tower he had constructed. He left two daughters, the elder of whom was married to Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton . A full £ 80,000 remained of his inheritance (around £ 8.8 million in today's value).

His descendants include Prince Albert II , Egon von Fürstenberg and Ira von Fürstenberg .

Works

  • Fonthill Foreshadowed (1777/78)
  • The Dome of the Setting Sun (1777/78)
  • Biographical memoirs of extraordinary painters: exhibiting not only sketches of their principal works and professional characters; but a variety of romantic adventures and original anecdotes; interspersed with picturesque descriptions of many new and singular scenes in which they were engaged (1780; satirical fictional painter biographies)
  • Dreams, Walking Thoughts and Incidents (1783; collection of letters from his Grand Tour )
  • Vathek (Lausanne 1786/1787; French first edition)
    • The history of the Caliph Vathek (1786; Original title: An Arabian tale, from an unpublished manuscript: with notes critical and explanatory ; English translation by Samuel Henley)
    • The tower of Samarah. German translation by Georg Schatz. Publishing house of the Dykische Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1788. German first edition
    • Vathek, an Arabic story. German translation by Georg Christian Römer. Without publisher information. Publisher: Louis-Sebastien Mercier, Mannheim / Vienna 1788
    • Vathek - An Arabic story. German translation by Dr. Otto Mohnike. Carl Cnobloch, Leipzig 1842. First generally recognized translation
    • Vathek. German translation by Franz Blei . Zeitler, Leipzig 1907. New edition: Insel TB 1172
    • Vathek. With a foreword by Jorge Luis Borges . German translation by Hans Schiebelhuth . The Library of Babel Vol. 3. Book Guild, Frankfurt a. Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-7632-5803-1
  • Popular tales of the Germans (1791; translation of some fairy tales by Musäus )
  • Modern Novel Writing, or, The Elegant Enthusiast (1796; satire)
  • Azemia. A novel. Containing imitations of the manner, both in prose and verse, of many of the authors of the present day. With political strictures. (1797; satirical novel)
  • The Story of Al Raoui. A tale from the Arabic (London 1799)
  • A Catalog Of The Costly And Interesting Effects Of Fonthill Abbey (3 vols., London 1823; auction catalog)
  • Liber Veritatis (1830; pamphlet on the connection between the nobility and the bourgeoisie)
  • Italy: with some Sketches of Spain and Portugal (1834)
  • Recollections of the Monasteries of Alcobaca and Batalha (1835)

Diaries, letters and essays

  • Boyd Alexander (ed. And transl.): Life at Fonthill: 1807-1822. From the correspondence of William Beckford. Nonsuch, Stroud 2006, ISBN 1-8458-8069-2
  • Boyd Alexander (Ed.): Life at Fonthill: 1807 - 1822 with interludes in Paris and London. From the correspondence of William Beckford. Hart-Davis, London 1957
  • Boyd Alexander (Ed.): The journal of William Beckford in Portugal and Spain 1787 - 1788. Hart-Davis, London 1954
  • Robert J. Gemmett (Ed.): The consummate collector. William Beckford's letters to his bookseller. Michael Russell, Wilby, Norwich 2000, ISBN 0-85955-252-7
  • Fatma Moussa Mahmoud: William Beckford of Fonthill: 1760-1844. Bicentenary essays. Cairo 1960. New edition: Kennikat Press, Port Washington, NY 1972

literature

  • Cyrus Redding: Memoirs of William Beckford, of Fonthill, author of "Vathek". 2 vols. CJ Skeet, London 1859 Google Books (Engl.)
  • Lewis Melville: The life and letters of William Beckford of Fonthill. Heinemann, London 1910 (engl.)
  • John W. Oliver: The Life of William Beckford. London 1932 (engl.)
  • Boyd Alexander: England's wealthiest son. A study of William Beckford. Centaur Press, London 1962 (engl.)
  • Jürgen Klein: The Gothic novel and the aesthetics of evil. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1975, ISBN 3-534-06858-0
  • James Lees-Milne: William Beckford. Tisbury 1976. 2nd edition: Century, London 1990, ISBN 0712637672 (engl.)
  • Robert James Gemmett: William Beckford. Twayne, New York 1977 (engl.)
  • Brian Fothergill: Beckford of Fonthill. Faber, London 1979, ISBN 0-571-10794-X (English)
  • Didier Girard: William Beckford: terrorist au palais de la raison. Corti, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-7143-0469-9 (French)
  • Elke Heinemann : Babylonian Games. William Beckford and the awakening of the modern imagination. Fink, Munich 2000, ISBN 978-3770534951 . ( Digitized version )
  • Norbert Entfellner: Beckford (Roman) Kunst- und Textwerk, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-937000-07-7
  • Jürgen Klein & Gunda Kuttler: Mathematics of Desire. Shoebox House Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-941120-04-4
  • Norbert Miller : Fonthill Abbey. The dark world of William Beckford. Hanser, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-446-23871-8

Web links

Commons : William Thomas Beckford  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
Commons : Fonthill Abbey  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinemann Babylonian Games p. 7f
  2. ↑ Lees-Milne: William Beckford. 1976, p. 20
  3. ↑ CPI calculation , reference year 2009
  4. ↑ “I fear I shall never be half so sapient nor good for anything in this world, but composing airs, building towers, forming gardens, collecting old Japan, and writing a journey to China or the moon.” Quoted: Heinemann Babylonische Spiele. P. 27 after Melville: Life and Letters of William Beckford 1910, p. 105
  5. ↑ For the entire section see Heinemann Babylonian Games Chapter 2, p. 26ff
  6. ↑ Jorgen Andersen: Giant Dreams. Piranesi's Influence in England. In: English miscellany. A symposium of history, literature and the arts ed. by Mario Praz No. 3 (1952), British Council, Rome, p. 55
  7. ↑ Peter Beckford Thoughts Upon Hunting. In a series of familiar letters to a friend. London 1781
  8. ↑ Saree Makdisi, Felicity Nussbaum: The Arabian nights in historical context: between East and West Oxford 2008, p 177
  9. ↑ "The glowing haze invested every object, the mystic look, the vastness, the intricacy of the vaulted labyrinth occasioned so bewildering an effect that it became impossible for anyone to define - at the moment - where he stood, where he had been, or to whither he was wandering - such was the confusion - the perplexity so many illuminated storys of infinitely varied apartments gave rise to. "(1838) Quoted in Heinemann p. 31
  10. ↑ Main character of the novel A rebors (1884; German: “Against the grain”) by Joris-Karl Huysmans . Huysmans knew Vathek , which had been reissued by his friend Stéphane Mallarmé in 1876.
  11. ↑ The frame dealer Hubbard sells his customer Dorian Gray a Florentine picture frame, as he wants to hide the picture in his attic. See: Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray Oxford 1992, p. 120
  12. ^ Printed in: in Heinemann Babylonische Spiele München 2000, pp. 186–200
  13. ↑ Printed in: in Heinemann Babylonische Spiele München 2000, pp. 201–205
  14. ↑ Lewis Saul Benjamin is sometimes named as the author; Lewis Melville is its pseudonym.
personal data
SURNAME Beckford, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Beckford, William Thomas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English eccentric, writer and builder
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1760
PLACE OF BIRTH Fonthill , Wiltshire
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1844
Place of death Lansdowne near Bath , England