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Radcliffe and Lewis. One early and singularly brilliant work in the genre that combined elements of occultism, the satanic and the taste for `the East' that had obsessed Europe after the publication of Antoine Galland's French translation of The Arabian Nights in 1717 was William Beckford's Vathek (1786). Written in French allegedly in a Kerouac-like burst of inspiration, Vathek brings together a variety of dark fascinations that would later become familiar to late 19th century decadents: diabolism, sadomasochism and other forms of perverse sex, orientalism, extravagant hedonism, ennui and an all-around interest in the forbidden. Where occultists like Cagliostro saw in `the East' a spiritual locale offering a greater tolerance than Catholicism, for Beckford, `the East' was the source of luxurious and inevitably debilitating pleasures. The erotic, the strange and the exquisite were the touchstones of Beckford's East, much more so than any transcendental wisdom. In the 19th century, this strain of exotic occultism would be taken up most vigorously, if there is such a thing as vigorous decadence, by the French Romantics.

    William Beckford (1760-1844) became the richest young man in England when his father died in 1770. The ten year old Beckford inherited a fortune made in plantations in the West Indies. Beckford, who travelled through Europe and produced a work of travel writing, Italy, with Sketches of Spain and Portugal, never visited the source of his wealth, and this lacuna in his education caused him little regret. Like his idealized self-image the Caliph Vathek, Beckford was more concerned with spending his fortune than with appreciating the roots of it. Educated by tutors, Beckford's first steps in his journey to the east came through the influence of the artist Alexander Cozens. Born in St. Petersburg and trained in Rome, Cozens had opened a drawing academy at Bath, near Fonthill, Beckford's family seat and site of Fonthill Abbey, Beckford's fabled Gothic folly. Cozens taught Beckford drawing - his sketches can be found in his travel writings - but more important for a history of occultism, he introduced the young heir to the delights of The Arabian Nights. To a young man who could have practically anything, the exotic atmosphere of fantasy, sensuality, criminality, drugs and magic made a powerful impression, and in many ways Beckford spent the rest of his long life living out the consequences of this early influence.
    Part of Beckford's excursions into decadence included, at the age of 17, an illicit attachment to William Courtenay, a ten year old boy. (That their names were the same suggests a certain narcissism.) Beckford's passion had to simmer at a distance, however, and Courtenay met some competition from the advances of Louisa Beckford, wife of Beckford's cousin Peter. Consummation of both affairs was difficult, though not impossible. One successful venture was a pagan coming of age party that Beckford planned for himself at Christmas in 1781. Like a mini-version of De Sade's 120 Days of Sodom, Beckford, Louisa, Courtenay - secured through the help of Cozens - and a handful of other young and willing participants, locked themselves away for three days and three nights in the millionaire's estate; this birthday rave eventually became the inspiration for Vathek. Along with rare foods, rich wines, incense-clouded rooms, forbidden sex and the occasional magical ritual, part of Beckford's weekend pleasure dome included the `Eidophysikon' of Philip James de Loutherbourg, an Enlightenment version of a multi-media display or `light show'. De Loutherberg was a classically trained painter championed by Diderot; among other accomplishments he was elected to the Royal Academy at the age of 22. He later worked for David Garrick's Theatre in Drury Lane where he laid the foundations for modern scene-painting and what are since called special effects. De Loutherberg made the occult rounds: he did a portrait of Swedenborg, was a