In 1859, Edward Fitzgerald translated into English the short, epigrammatic poems (or "rubáiyát") of medieval Persian poet Omar Khayyám. Except his translation was not truly a translation. His Omar seems to have read Lucretius, Shakespeare, and the King James Bible. Nevertheless, the poem conveyed some of the most beautiful and haunting images in English poetry--and some of the sharpest-edged--and by the end of the century, it was one of the best-known poems in the English language. Daniel Karlin's richly annotated edition focuses on the poem as a work of Victorian literary art, doing justice to the scope and complexity of Fitzgerald's lyrical meditation on "human death and fate." Karlin provides a history of publication and revision, a long critical introduction, and extensive textual and explanatory notations. He documents the poem's treatment of its Persian sources, along with its multiple affiliations with English and Classical literature and to the Bible. A selection of contemporary reviews offers an insight into the poem's early reception, including the first attack on its status as a translation....

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork....