Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám










Book Description
Published by Methuen & Co, London, 1913. First edition thus, de luxe edition of the Edmund J. Sullivan edition. Hardback, decorative cloth binding measuring 26 x 20cm, gilt to top edge, plain endpapers, Unnumbered pages carrying the 75 quatrains of Fitzgerald's version each enriched with its own full-page single-sided monochrome illustration by Edmund J. Sullivan, as well as many fanciful and beautiful drawings, he uses images of skeletons and animated pots, Persian chapter headers.. Howard & Jones Ltd., Art Printers, pulled out some extra stops for this edition which is by far and away the best Sullivan illustrated Rubáiyát. Produced on thicker paper and a larger size than subsequent editions of this illustrated edition published by Methuen. 16 page introduction by the illustrator. Tissue-guarded colour frontispiece.
Dealer Notes
Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is the title that Edward FitzGerald gave to his 1859 translation from Persian to English of a selection of quatrains (rubāʿiyāt) attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), dubbed "the Astronomer-Poet of Persia".
Although commercially unsuccessful at first, FitzGerald's work was popularised from 1861 onward by Whitley Stokes, and the work came to be greatly admired by the Pre-Raphaelites in England. FitzGerald had a third edition printed in 1872, which increased interest in the work in the United States. By the 1880s, the book was extremely popular throughout the English-speaking world, to the extent that numerous "Omar Khayyam clubs" were formed and there was a "fin de siècle cult of the Rubaiyat".
FitzGerald's work has been published in several hundred editions and has inspired similar translation efforts in English, Hindi and in many other languages.
Although commercially unsuccessful at first, FitzGerald's work was popularised from 1861 onward by Whitley Stokes, and the work came to be greatly admired by the Pre-Raphaelites in England. FitzGerald had a third edition printed in 1872, which increased interest in the work in the United States. By the 1880s, the book was extremely popular throughout the English-speaking world, to the extent that numerous "Omar Khayyam clubs" were formed and there was a "fin de siècle cult of the Rubaiyat".
FitzGerald's work has been published in several hundred editions and has inspired similar translation efforts in English, Hindi and in many other languages.
Author
Edward Fitzgerald
Date
1913
Binding
Cloth
Publisher
Methuen & Co
Illustrator
Edmund J. Sullivan
Condition
Very good
Pages
no pagination
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