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Characterization
The ironic attack on particular characters and groups proceeds more strongly in the English version. The conduct of the 140 resolute rescuers is even more abortive in the English version which has them spilling not most but all of the water they carried so laboriously up the innumerable stairs of the tower (55:12). The populace are also treated more rudely in the English version. There aré three instances of their less attractive qualities being included in the English but suppressed in the French: 24:21 presents their fickleness, 32:10 their absurd appearance, and 38:23 their noise. The discomfiture of Bababalouk during and after the swing incident is expressed with a witty irony absent from the French version of 98:17 and 99:4. The English version also expresses more humorously the absurdly weak basis for Morakanabad's consolation in 61:3, in addition to reflecting upon the singular unattractiveness of the Caliph and his mother. In the English version of 21:3, the addition of a phrase, "instead of confining
It is in the presentation of the character of Vathek that the two versions differ most critically. An examination of passages omitted from the French version reveals a pattern of suppression which must affect the reader's judgment of the central character. As a result of these suppressions, two aspects of Vathek's character, his merit and his absurdity, lack the same emphasis that they receive in the English version. In 3:15 the French version fails to mention Vathek's generosity to the curiosity of others, even when his own cannot be satisfied. In 70:1 the additional phrase, "in the sight of all his people" imparts to the reader of the English version an increased sense of Vathek's magnificence. By grasping a torch to keep off the wild animals, Vathek sets the example for his retinue in the English reading of 76:18. In the French version he follows merely the leadership of others. On two occasions, 4:24 and 35:21, the French version suppresses references to Vathek's insatiable curiosity, his most Faustian characteristic and the sine qua non of his damnation.
If the English version communicates a more intense impression of Vathek's heroic qualities, it places also more emphasis on the antiheroic. Vathek's consternation at being bested in eating by the Indian and his concern at the results should the Indian's appetite extend to his wives are offered only in the English versions of 25:19 and 26:16. When Carathis is preparing in the tower an offering to the infernal powers, the English version conveys Vathek's indifference to the mystery of the proceedings, an indifference instigated by the importunity of his empty stomach (50:9 and 52:4). His preferring the meals of the infernal powers to their messages is expressed in the English reading of 57:8 and foreshadows his acceptance of Fakreddin's invitation in direct contravention of the instructions in the parchment. Finally, the caution of the French version in recounting the more extreme aspects of Vathek's character is exemplified by the suppression of three anti-heroic similes: "like a sack of dates" (79:4), "like a mole" (144:20), and "like a carp" (159:3). To accentuate the two views of Vathek as hero and as anti-hero is surely to render more fascinating one of the most bizarre protagonists in eighteenth- and
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