Wednesday 4th December 2013
William Beckford
Speaker: Amy Frost of the Beckford Tower Trust,
William Beckford is perhaps best known as one of England’s most celebrated collectors, who created architectural wonders and filled them with exquisite objects, art, furniture and above all books. As an author, it is the oriental Gothic Novel Vathek that Beckford is remembered for, yet he also anonymously published works that were burlesque commentaries on modern novel writing.
This lecture will explore Beckford as a writer and collector, revealing his relationship with his half-sister Elizabeth Hervey, a novelist whose books can be found in the Chawton House Library and who Beckford satirised in his own work.
Ticket £10; £7.50 Students and Friends of Chawton House Library
6.30 p.m. Drinks, 7.00 p.m. Talk.