William Beckford, Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents

Jeremiah Nolan (Independent Scholar - Europe)
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At the age of nineteen, on 19 June 1780, William Beckford set sail from Margate on a ten-month tour of Europe in the company of his tutor Rev. John Lettice. The first part of the tour included visits to Ostend, Antwerp, the Hague, Haerlem, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Cologne, Bonn, Manheim, Munich, Mittenvald, Bergine, and final arrival in Italy. The second part of the tour included visits to Venice, Torcello, Padua, Arqua, Verona, Mantua, Pisa, Florence, Valombrosa, Rome, Pompeii, Naples. The third part of the tour was the return journey by way of the Tyrol mountains in the depth of winter and a two month stay in Paris. Beckford arrived back at Fonthill Splendens during April 1781 and immediately set about developing his brief tour diary notes into the literary form of “letters to a friend”…

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Citation: Nolan, Jeremiah. "Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 May 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5493, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5493 Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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