Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883)

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Editions of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

The story of the rise to fame of Edward FitzGerald's very loose translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is itself famous. It appeared, anonymously, in 1859, when FitzGerald arranged for it to be published at his own expense, by Bernard Quaritch, a bookseller and printer who sold the copies in his store. At first it was completely ignored, and in 1861 it was put on the remainder tables at the price of a penny, where it discovered by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Rossetti showed it to Charles Swinburne and William Morris, and with its distinctly un-Victorian philosophy of life, the poem became popular with the Pre-Raphaelites and Victorian aesthetes. In 1868 a second, expanded edition was printed that was a wild success in America; and after 1870 his friends in England gradually learned that FitzGerald was the author. He revised the work compulsively throughout his life. There were four very different editions published under his authority while he was living, and a fifth was published after his death, based on his final manuscript revisions: First edition, 1859; second edition, 1868; third edition, 1872; fourth edition, 1879; fifth edition, 1889. (Links are to page images of the original Quaritch editions, available through Google Books.) Quaritch's is still in business in London as a rare book store.

FitzGerald learned Persian from his friend, the great, self-taught nineteenth-century Sanskrit scholar Edward Byles Cowell. Cowell later became a professor in India, where he obtained two copies of the manuscript of Omar Khayyám belonging to the Asiatic Society at Calcutta and sent one to FitzGerald. FitzGerald was fascinated with the verse. He wrote to his friend the poet Alfred Tennyson about his early work on the translation: "I have really got hold of an old Epicurean so desperately impious in his recommendations to live only for Today that the good Mahometans have scarce dared to multiply MSS of him. He writes in little Quatrains, and has scarce any of the iteration and conceits to which his People are given. One of the last things I remember of him is that - "God gave me this turn for Drink, perhaps God was drunk when he made me" - which is not strictly pious. But he is very tender about his Roses and Wine, and making the most of this poor little Life" (F Ltrs 2: 291). See also, an exhibit of early manuscripts of Omar Khayyám at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Literary Criticism

The peer-reviewed journal that many of the articles listed below are from, Victorian Poetry, has removed access that was formerly available through an open access publisher, Bnet (findarticles.com). The url for Victorian Poetry articles has changed at least three times since I began cataloging their articles. I have re-catalogued them, with new urls, three times, and I probably will not do so again; I do not have a staff, and I have hundreds of author pages to maintain and thousands of links. All the Victorian Poetry articles listed below can be found through a good academic library, but to read articles in this important resource, you will need to go through an academic library and use your password now.

Albano, Giuseppe. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6560/is_1_46/ai_n29427233/?tag=content;col1 "The benefits of reading the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám as pastoral." Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.

Barton, Anna Jane. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6560/is_1_46/ai_n29427231/?tag=content;coll "Letters, scraps of manuscript, and printed poems: the correspondence of Edward FitzGerald and Alfred Tennyson." (Also discusses FitzGerald's letters as among the greatest in the English language.) Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.

Drury, Annmarie. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6560/is_1_46/ai_n29427232/?tag=content;coll "Accident, orientalism, and Edward FitzGerald as translator." Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.

Gray, Erik. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6560/is_1_46/ai_n29427230/?tag=content;coll "FitzGerald and the Rubáiyát, in and out of time." Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.

Karlin, Daniel. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6560/is_1_46/ai_n29427235/?tag=content;coll "Editing the Rubáiyát: two case-studies and a prospectus." Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.

Karlin, Daniel, ed. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by Edward Fitzgerald (Oxford UP 2009). A new, annotated edition focuses on the poem as a work of Victorian literary art. Includes a critical introduction, the history of publication and revision, and extensive textual and explanatory notations. Covers the poem's treatment of its Persian sources and affiliations with English and Classical literature and the Bible, includes contemporary reviews. Publisher’s web site.

Tucker, Herbert F. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6560/is_1_46/ai_n29427234/?tag=content;coll "Metaphor, translation, and autoekphrasis in FitzGerald's Rubáiyát." Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.

Lighter Reading

"The Persian Sensation: 'The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám' in the West." A web exhibition from the Harry Ransom Center, Univ. of Texas, Austin. Includes a brief history of Edward FitzGerald’s translation, displays of editions and more.

An appreciation of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, by professor Anthony Briggs. Telegraph (UK), 18 April 2009.

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. "If only we could all learn the spirit of Edward FitzGerald's wonderfully unfaithful translation.” By poet Carol Rumens, in Guardian (UK) Blog, December 29, 2008.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6560/is_1_46/ai_n29427236/?tag=content;coll "Appendix: two early reviews of the Rubáiyát." Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.

Article in the Tehran Times (Iran) about the exhibition at the Harry Ransom Center, "The Persian Sensation: 'The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám' in the West." January 15, 2009.

Celebrating the life of Omar Khayyám and Edward FitzGerald at the Iran Heritage Foundation.

Web Sites

"A Dictionary of Victorian London." Victorian social history through a "dictionary" of Victorian institutions

"Victorianism." From George Landow's Victorian Web

Jackson, Lee. "A Dictionary of Victorian London." Victorian social history through a "dictionary" of Victorian institutions

"Monuments and Dust," a project by an international group of scholars who are creating a complex visual, textual, and statistical representation of Victorian London.

A guide to research resources from the Victoria discussion list for Victorian Studies

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