Vathek by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0192836560
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1998-01-15T07:00:00+00:00

EXPLANATORY NOTES

THE notes to the English translation of Vathek published in London in 1786 were compiled by the translator, Samuel Henley. The proportion of annotation to text in this edition is indicated by the fact that the story itself occupied 211 pages and the notes another 122 pages of smaller print. The later French editions have lighter annotation, most of it deriving from Henley’s notes. In 1816, for the third edition of Vathek in English, Beckford severely pruned Henley’s elaborate, learned but often irrelevant commentary, omitting many notes completely, shortening others, at times rephrasing them, and occasionally making additions of his own. (1816 has 227 pages of text, 56 pages of notes.) In spite of Henley’s excesses, Beckford had always considered an erudite apparatus as an integral part of his book and much of the original annotation was supplied with his approval and at times under his direction. Those notes which he selected for 1816 have been retained here. While no indication has normally been given here of notes omitted from 1816, the relationship of the 1816 notes to those in 1786 has been concisely indicated in square brackets after each note. [1786] indicates, for example, that Beckford retained Henley’s original note; any changes made by Beckford are then described. The titles of works cited in Henley’s often cryptic references are given in full; a small amount of additional information from the notes to the French editions has been recorded; and any information from the Beckford-Henley correspondence as to Beckford’s contribution to or interest in the original notes has been added. In this way, as clear a picture as possible is given of the extent of Beckford’s own responsibility for the notes in 1816, whether it took the form of passive retention, direct assistance, or alteration. Other complete notes within square brackets, concerned with source material and other explanatory matter, have been supplied for the present edition. It should be added that the phrases from the text used in 1816 to introduce the notes were not always accurately quoted but have been allowed to stand. Similarly, the French of Beckford, d’Herbelot and other writers has not been modernised.

(It seems not to have been noticed that Henley’s original notes were restored in two editions in Beckford’s lifetime, those published by Bentley in 1834 and 1836. The text follows 1816 but the notes are basically taken from 1786. Any additions made in 1816 are conflated and, when Beckford had rewritten Henley’s note, some kind of compromise is usually reached. A few notes no longer relevant to 1816 are omitted. Henley’s learned notes, so highly praised by early reviewers, may have been reprinted by popular request. Beckford himself was almost certainly not consulted about the contents of these editions.)

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