William Beckford 
Vathek (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) 

This 1786 Gothic extravaganza, originally published anonymously, concerns the wicked Caliph Vathek. Vathek is addicted to power, pleasure, and, like Faust, knowledge.  Like Faust, too, his pursuit of knowledge, via supernatural means, leads him not to the exalted heights he desires but instead to the torments of hell. 

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William Beckford (1760-1844) was an English writer and art collector.  With his novel Vathek (1786), he exercised considerable influence on the fantastic literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He also was a politician, a critic, and a travel writer.  Much of his vast art collection, dispersed after his death, resides in major museums throughout the world.