William Beckford (1760-1844) is essentially known for the singularity of his Vathek (1787-7) often presented in connection with the Gothic rage or the vogue for the oriental tale. However, Vathek was just one element in a larger « orientalist » ensemble. Unfortunately, the originality of Beckford’s position, despite being studied in 1960 by André Parreaux and in 1976 by Fatma Moussa-Madmoud, has fallen on deaf ears and Beckford’s orientalist work is still an « invisible chef d’œuvre ». Between 1780 and 1786 Beckford composed « Arabian tales » in French which were not inspired from the Arabian Nights but were a direct translation and adaptation from oriental manuscripts brought back from Egypt by Edward Wortley Montagu (MS Orient 550-556, Bodleian Library, Oxford). Byron’s surprise about the « exactness of costume » on reading Vathek was irrelevant since Beckford, in his own words, had drawn from arabic sources (not explicitly for Vathek itself, but for other stories for which he announced a publication at a later date). After celebrating in 2004 the tercentenary of the Mille et une Nuits (1704-1711) - the One Thousand and One Nights by Galland-, it is fitting in 2005 to celebrate the one who walked in Galland’s footsteps - who, literally, followed him up. For Beckford’s « Continuation of Arabian Tales » was composed as a sequel to the Arabian Nights, which Galland had also entitled « Arabian Tales ». This article, which is a summary of our latest research, examines Beckford’s sources, his activities as translator and the nature of his ’« beautiful infidels ». Galland’s scriptural strategy, which was adopted by Caylus in 1743 for his Orientalist adaptations of oriental transcriptions in the Royal Library in Paris, was also that of the Englishman Beckford. It consisted in making one with the existing original material, and like a chameleon, adapt, imitate and graft on it a « beautiful infidel ». Beckford’s work should therefore only be published, read or analysed in the light of this authentic Orientalist process. Taking this new perspective on board one will now be able to look at his other works in a similar light for they are ruled by similar principles: a fragmented, « episodic » and « continuing » kind of writing. Writing and artistic creation are thus reunited within an aesthetics based on grafting - a perspective which enables to unite a too-often-divided image of Beckford as writer and as dilettante. Beckford orchestrated verbal and landscaping grafting with a view to transplanting his self, which was constantly bent on expansion, outgrowth and inscription, be it on paper or on land, « by pen or by spade », as the Marquis de Girardin, the designer of Ermenonville, would have written.