Calliope

When last we left our intrepid iditot, he (Vathek) was preparing to leave on his journey to the mystical cavern in which the Giaour's treasures waited. Carathis set him up with some magical texts and his court produced tons of materiel and such. Nothing could possibly go wrong when a dipshit caliph drags his soldiers, courtiers, harem, cooks, servants, and the like through the woods and up a mountain, right?

Plot!

• They're out there forever. Everyone gets very bored of this.
• about the time that happens, tigers attack. Seriously. A bunch of soldiers and all the guides are eaten.
• Vathek is now lost. But first, he needs to survive tigers. The head eunuch, Bababalouk orders everyone to hold aloft bright torches, and this frightens the tigers away.
• But the women of the harem are now pissed that they have to walk, with, like, their feet. Vathek is similarly pissed off.
• Now. Vathek is lost. He is also without food. They manage to make some bits and bobs from the vultures that are eating the corpses, but that's about it. In the rush away from the tigers, you see, all the silver ovens were abandoned, and a lot of Vathek's cooks died too.
• Onto this scene stumble four dwarfs. No, not the cool magical kind with a V and somewhat racist undertones. Instead, the realistic, ableist sort, who are just, you know, people who happen to be little.
• They are the servants of a great emir, who was told by divine message that the caliph was lost in the woods, and that he should succor said caliph. The emir is very religious, and the dwarfs are lay priests.
• Vathek is reminded of the Giaour's command not to enter anyone's home. He bends this rule by saying that, as caliph, all the homes in his wide domain are his, not anyone else's, and thus he is not going into anyone else's home by accepting this invitation.
• The emir fetes Vathek, though it becomes almost immediately obvious that Vathek is not exactly religious. He has a brief moment, because the emir is good to him, and the food is good, but he gets bored almost immediately.
• The emir's place is a kind of waystation, as it's the only habitation in this area of wilderness. Disabled people of all sorts gather for alms, and a variety of the more hardcore religious folks also show up. Vathek spends his time making them do weird shit to amuse him. The emir is not pleased.
• There's a scene where the chief of Vathek's eunuchs goes into the emir's harem's quarters, as both sets of ladies are being housed together. The emir's daughter, Nouronihar, is there. She is basically a YA protagonist. She's beautiful and rambunctious and runs around everywhere and causes lots of trouble.
• She gets Bababalouk onto a swing she likes to use and just goes nuts. He nearly hits the ceiling, and he nearly falls into the pool below. Eventually the swing breaks and he does land in the pool. Everybody runs away, causing lamps to spill everywhere. The slick oil means Bababalouk is stuck in the pool, and he indeed is trapped there all night.
• So. We get a second point of view character here, not that the narration is close third, exactly. Nouronihar appears while Vathek is once again amusing himself with the people around, and throws some flowers in his face. He falls instantly in love. But she wanders off. He gives chase and overhears her saying that while the caliph is wonderful she wouldn't take him in place of her beloved Gulchenrouz.
• Gulchenrouz is her cousin. They are also betrothed. Also, because he's still 13, and extremely feminine, he basically lives in the harem with the ladies. So Nouronihar and Gulchenrouz basically live together already.
• Gulchenrouz is Pollyanna. He chases butterflies and sings songs and all right look at least one critic has archly commented that the description of Gulchenrouz when he's first introduced is extensive and Beckford was caught having kinky sex with a 16 year old, so there's some possible fantasy stuff happening here that someone better at gender studies than I am could work with. Suffice it to say he's awesome, but boring as fuck. This will be important later.
• Bababalouk is displeased that Vathek is attracted to Nouronihar.
• Here's a weird one. There's a bright flash of eerie light one evening as Nouronihar, Gulchenrouz, and their attendants are having a picnic. Everyone runs away except Nouronihar, who creeps forward and overhears what appear to be two demons. They are discussing how Nouronihar will make a splendid wife for Vathek, and an amazing queen of the subterranean treasures, specifically mentioning a large, magical gemstone. Nouronihar is now into Vathek for the prospect of the treasure.
• After some waffling around, Vathek storms into the harem's quarters. Gulchenrouz faints dead away at the powerful look Vathek is sending around. Nouronihar has a decidedly different reaction. She's now into Vathek for more sexual reasons.
• The emir shows up. Vathek says he's happy to announce he's marrying Nouronihar. The emir freaks out. He feels he cannot break his word that he gave when he affianced Nouronihar to Gulchenrouz. He whips his sword out and offers to allow Vathek to kill him for denying him, but he cannot go against his word.
• Meanwhile, Nouronihar faints because of all this mess. Vathek, frightened for her sake, withdraws.
• The emir and his staff come up with a plan: they will poison Nouronihar and Gulchenrouz with a sleeping draught that will make them appear dead. They will bury them, and hopefully get Vathek to fucking leave. Anticipating that Nouronihar at least will not sit still for 30 days (the amount of time the mourning period would require before Vathek can leave), they modify the plan
• they set up a little camp out on a distant lake, and the dwarfs from earlier to got staff it. When the false burial is over, they spirit Nouronihar and Gulchenrouz to the camp and tell them they died and this is basically Purgatory. They have to listen to the Qu'ran and eat simple food in order to be purified before passing into heaven.
• Gulchenrouz accepts this hook, line, and sinker. He is comforted because he gets to share a tent with Nouronihar though.
• Nouronihar, meanwhile, gets sick of this and wanders off one day. Naturally, she meets Vathek, who is sadly wandering back to her tomb to mourn her, as he does every day.
• Vathek makes sense of her explanation and realizes this is all a trick. He gathers his retinue and leaves to a nearby vale. The emir laments his failure and his loss and the waystation basically closes for good.
• Vathek and Nouronihar have all sorts of nice food, which I'm mentioning just because there was kind of a whole plot point where they didn't have anything to eat on their own, and I have no idea where they got it now. The narrator even says Vathek sent people for wine from Shiraz. It's unclear why they couldn't do that before, or rather, it's unclear why it works now. Vathek is basically on his honeymoon and Nouronihar wants to get after that treasure but reckons she can wait.

Excess, Romance, and the Machinations of the Plot

This section drags a little in the middle, which is a weird thing to say about a story that's less than 100 pages long. But it's of course setting up the rest of the story. Vathek has to meet Nouronihar and fall in love. Nouronihar has to become fascinated with the promised power, because Vathek is a dweebus and he gets distracted easily.

Thematically, though, what that's doing is providing another woman to push Vathek forward. It's continuing what we discussed last time: Nouronihar, like Carathis, is an inversion of what she "should" be culturally. She is power hungry, or she is now, and Vathek wants to know the secrets of the cavern, but he doesn't really need to. Nouronihar left her home for this stuff.

Romance, like everything else in the gothic, is suspect. Sure, there are plenty of happy endings, but think of Castle of Otranto! One marriage breaks up and the other is based entirely on the lady listening to the lord talk about the woman he actually loved, you know, instead of her. Romance, like all human things, is an assumption, an arbitrary agreement, and relying on it can and will get people into trouble when they end up in a gothic novel.

The excess is, in one sense, simply supporting the story's attempt at imitating the "Arabian tale," which had grown so popular in Europe. But in another it demonstrates why it's so difficult for Vathek to extricate himself from this trap. He's already trapped. He can't survive without his vast staff. He can't do much of anything for himself. One can probably make the argument that this is criticizing or parodying the Muslim faith and the caliphate, but it's unclear if Beckford is being merely xenophobic of if he's also criticizing all imperial leaders. It's not as though the king of England at the time would have fared much better in the forest alone, with nothing but vulture to eat. However, yeah, it could be entirely xenophobic.