culture, subculture and counterculture - Facultatea de Litere

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BLACK ROMANCE
AND THE LIBERTINE COUNTERCULTURE
and Carathis commit the most atrocious crimes to please the devil. Their reward
is a parchment enclosing the promise that the caliph will be accepted to join the
adorers of Eblis.
Thus, Vathek embarks upon a long journey to Istakar, a sort of pilgrimage
to the ‘Holy Ground’ that, here, is the inferno of Eblis himself. The romance
pattern of the quest that is usually meant to test the hero’s strength until he
proves himself worthy of ascending to the Higher Ground is observed, but it is
reversed. Vathek belongs to the same category of black romances as Sade’s
novels. There is, however, an essential difference between the two: where Sade’s
novels horrify by the descriptive accuracy of torture, perversion or sexual
aggression scenes, while the journey trajectory remains rather schematic and
barely visual, Beckford’s ‘roman du mal’ exploits to the full the power of detail
to construct visually appealing images of the journey setting, although within
certain stereotypical limits, given the fact that he works within the framework of
an Arabian Nights-like story. If with Sade, the narrative, though obviously
demonstrative in its obstinate proliferation of crime, is still anchored in a
geographically and socially recognisable background, Beckford does not cling to
any claims to realism and plainly embraces the conventions of the fantastic to
illustrate a system of thought and of moral laws ‘à rebours,’ that could be all the
more impressive owing to the richness and picturesque of the visual detail. (See
also Coulet 1967: 470)
In the presentation of Vathek’s journey across the mountains, the reversed
symbolism seems to function again: while in sentimental novels, the climbing of
the mountains corresponds to a movement towards a purer, morally saner
environment, in Vathek, the landscape, with its aridity, abrupt cliffs and
threatening wild beasts, painted in increasingly darker, Gothic colours, appears
as a sort of purgatory. It is here that Vathek’s fate is decided. In the darkness of
the mountains, led by a group of dwarfs, he enjoys the hospitality of Emir
Fakreddin and his daughter, Princess Nouronihar, who is the only one to win the
caliph’s love. But passion cannot save Vathek, for his beloved Nouronihar is as
much fascinated by the prospect of supernatural power as he is and joins him on
the road to Hell.
The last stop before reaching the end point of this allegorical journey is
the prosperous town of Rocnabad, the last oasis of good faith and hence the last
chance for salvation. Yet, the caliph and his followers do not want to be
redeemed and enjoy torturing those who would try to convert them back to the
love of God. Nothing can stop them at this point from reaching, after having
crossed a large plain, the frightful mountains of Istakar. Though he has violated
the conditions of the parchment, Vathek still hopes to be accepted in the hall of
Eblis. He and Nouronihar walk hand in hand to the gates of the Inferno.
Received by Eblis himself – an embodiment of supreme Biblical evil in whose
portrait Milton’s influence could be easily traced – the adorers find what they
have been looking for. Their hearts are set on fire; they lose “the most precious
of the gifts of Heaven” that is Hope and carry on, probably ad infinitum, in rage,
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