This site will collect and present editions and facsimiles of the works of William Beckford. Although these images, at the head of this page, are facsimiles of the first three editions of Vathek, published in 1786-1787, the first major edition of Vathek to be published here is the 1823 edition. This edition, which is the last revised by Beckford himself, incorporates all of Beckford's and Henley's notes. Click here if you wish to continue to the 1823 Vathek. Project Gutenberg has published an online version of Vathek; click here to access this .txt- or .zip file version. A short guide to collecting Beckfordiana, written by the keeper of the website, is found here.

A complete facsimile edition of The Story of Al Raoui (1799), attributed to Beckford, can be found here. Beckford's unpublished essay-letter The Transport of Pleasure (also known as Fonthill foreshadowed) can be downloaded in pdf-format (for Adobe Acrobat) if you click here; this edition contains an introduction in Swedish (and a brief introduction in English) as well as notes. You may also read the manuscript, sans notes, here. Beckford's manuscript romance The Vision (1777) is available here. Beckford's first narrative of travel, the Fragments of an English Tour (1779) is available here. Beckford's important early letter from Geneva, outlining his course of education (1778), is found here. Beckford's unfinished and previously unpublished tale L'Esplendente (c. 1779-80), is found in a preliminary transcription here. Beckford's debut work, Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters (1780), is available in an online edition here. Beckford's suppressed travelogue Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents (1783), is available in an online edition here. Beckford's last published work, Recollections of an Excursion to the Monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha (1835) is available in an online edition here. Beckford's Red Copy Book - a collection of letter-copies from the 1770's to the 1790's - is available in an online edition here.

Facsimile editions of works relating to Fonthill or Lansdown Tower will be published in the sections of Beckfordiana devoted to art and architecture. Click here to continue to Fonthill, and here to continue to Lansdown. An online edition of Henry Venn Lansdown's Recollections of William Beckford (1893) is found if you click here; this work is the first biographical work published by Beckfordiana. [N.B. this page is large and is best experienced on a fast connection to the internet!] The very first biography of Beckford, a short pamphlet from October, 1823 – The Unique – is found here. Beckfordiana contains a section devoted to the presentation of books recently published about and by Beckford. Click here to access this page (the keeper of this website is grateful for any additions or suggestions for additions to this page).