State Railroad Control: With a History of Its Development in Iowa Book

An odd book, and not a completely successful one. I cannot deny it a wealth of ironic observation and an elegant style, but I believe the author indulges his hobbies and obsessions--his Orientalism, his ephebophilia, his loathing of his mother and other termagants--to an extent that distorts this tale of sensuality, pride and and destruction instead of informing and enriching it.

The last twenty pages or so, however, that relate Prince Vathek's damnation in the underground realm of the angel Eblis, are powerful and memorable, and very influential on the development of the gothic sensibility in writers as different as Poe and Hawthorne. All readers who care about the development of literature should read these last twenty pages, but in my opinion they could just as well skip most of the rest.