Critics and the literary world have not been kind to FitzGerald’s work, yet, the public has loved it. It has often been said FitzGerald’s translation is even better than the original.Ĥ: Top bestseller: Rubaiyat has been translated in almost every living language and is one the most quoted poems of all time. It became hugely popular in the 19 th Century as a result of the superb translation by Edward FitzGerald. Today, first edition copies are extremely collectable.ģ: Superb translation: Khayyam wrote the Rubaiyat almost nine centuries ago. Here are a few facts worth knowing about Rubaiyat, one the greatest translations into the English language.ġ: No one bought it: It was published in 1859, the same year as Darwin’s The Origin of Species, and though it had as profound an effect on Victorian society as Darwin’s book, no one bought a single copy when it was first published.Ģ: Amazing self-publishing story: Edward FitzGerald self-published the book in a pamphlet form ordered 250 copies and they went to a basket of books for sale at one penny each. Khayyam’s Rubaiyat as translated by Edward Fitzgerald is one of the best poems of all time. It was a brilliantly binded copy of Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, a replica of which sold recently for a five sum figure. An outstanding binding, extremely well-preserved.In 1912 when the Titanic sank, together with it went down the most expensive book of the 20 th Century. Faint evidence of owner stamp on verso of front free endpaper, tiny chip to top of the spine. Small octavo (4 1/8' x 6 1/8'), full morocco gilt by Romage, all edges gilt. Ramage later opened his own shop in London where his bindings were celebrated for their remarkably delicate, careful, and elaborate gilt work. Spine compartments with similar inlaid pale yellow lozenges tooled in gilt and title in gilt, pastedowns framed by dark green morocco inlaid with pale yellow circles at the corners and with gilt floral tooling cream-colored watered silk endleaves.īorn in London in the mid 19th century, John Ramage worked with the distinguished Marcellin Lortic after serving an apprenticeship with John Wright. The elaborate contemporary binding by Ramage features dark green morocco inlaid in a Padeloup-style mosaic pattern, covers bordered with thin decorative and plain gilt rules, the rest of the boards entirely covered with inlaid diapering featuring rows of pale yellow lozenges tooled with gilt fleurons, these flanked on all four sides with inlaid navy circles, the green morocco tooled with curving gilt lines attached to the dots. was a kind of Bible for freethinkers, materialists and sensualists' - Robert Irwin.ġ905 edition of The Rubaiyat MAGNIFICENTLY BOUND BY RAMAGE. was more of an imaginative resurrection than a translation.

Fitzgerald the rubaiyat of omar khayyam