The eccentric William Beckford (1760-1844), one of the richest men of his time, squandered enormous sums on the construction and artistic decoration of his gigantic estate, Fonthill Abbey, of which only a side wing remains today after the oversized tower collapsed twice. Beckford wrote the novel "Vathek" in 1783 in French during a three-day and two-night effort. The oriental fantasy about the caliph Vathek, who indulges in every conceivable excess, including the construction of a sky-reaching tower, is considered one of the most significant works of black romanticism and influenced authors from Poe and Byron to Jorge Luis Borges. This is a reprint of the German first edition published in Leipzig in 1907.