THE ORIENT IN DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON’S RASSELAS AND WILLIAM BECKFORD’S VATHEK
THE ORIENT IN DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON’S RASSELAS AND WILLIAM BECKFORD’S VATHEK

Summary/Abstract: Dr. Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas and William Beckford’s Vathek reflect their authors’ aims to create authentic tales about the Orient. Johnson’s Rasellas relates the story of Rasselas, the prince of Abyssinia, who travels all over the world with his sister and with Imlac, the philosopher, in search of happiness and contentment. He returns to his homeland concluding that happiness and contentment are unattainable on earth. In Vathek, Caliph Vathek mother aims to get limitless power and wealth in life with the help of his sorcerer. He becomes the servant of the devil (Eblis) but ends up by being destroyed in the hall of the Eblis. He realizes only too late that all the riches and the power in the world are meaningless without true love. Both books resemble each other in that no definite conclusion is reached and no moral message is given. This can be easy to understand since the human being’s search for happiness and contentment has been going on since the beginning of time and, no doubt, it will continue till eternity. Both books are of interes today because of their endeavour to give an authentic view of the East.

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