Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Nearer the Heart's Desire: Poets of the Rubaiyat: A Dual Biography of Omar Khayyam and Edward FitzGerald

Robert D. Richardson Jr.

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Written in Persian in the eleventh century, Omar Khayyam's quatrains, known as rubai, were written individually for an audience at court, and explored the meanings of life, love, and friendship. They were almost completely unknown in the West until Edward FitzGerald--himself a relatively obscure critic--translated and organized some one hundred of them into a unified whole that he called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which he published anonymously in 1859. Ignored initially, it soon became a sensation--and FitzGerald with it, his work now translated into seventy languages--and one of the most-read works of literature of all time.

Deftly and eloquently recounting in turn the life stories of Khayyam and FitzGerald, linking them over the span of eight centuries, acclaimed biographer Robert Richardson has crafted the story of the legendary Rubaiyat itself, illuminating a literary classic and reinforcing its place in the canon of great world literature.

Language: English

Pages: 196

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Release: June 14, 2016

ISBN: 1620406535

ISBN 13: 9781620406533

Nearer the Heart's Desire: Poets of the Rubaiyat: A Dual Biography of Omar Khayyam and Edward FitzGerald

Robert D. Richardson Jr.

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Written in Persian in the eleventh century, Omar Khayyam's quatrains, known as rubai, were written individually for an audience at court, and explored the meanings of life, love, and friendship. They were almost completely unknown in the West until Edward FitzGerald--himself a relatively obscure critic--translated and organized some one hundred of them into a unified whole that he called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which he published anonymously in 1859. Ignored initially, it soon became a sensation--and FitzGerald with it, his work now translated into seventy languages--and one of the most-read works of literature of all time.

Deftly and eloquently recounting in turn the life stories of Khayyam and FitzGerald, linking them over the span of eight centuries, acclaimed biographer Robert Richardson has crafted the story of the legendary Rubaiyat itself, illuminating a literary classic and reinforcing its place in the canon of great world literature.

Language: English

Pages: 196

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Release: June 14, 2016

ISBN: 1620406535

ISBN 13: 9781620406533

More books from Robert D. Richardson Jr.

Emerson: The Mind on Fire

4.4/5 ( ratings)

William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism

4.2/5 ( ratings)

First We Read, Then We Write: Emerson on the Creative Process

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Thoreau and the Language of Trees

4.2/5 ( ratings)

October, or Autumnal Tints

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Three Centuries of American Poetry

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind

4.3/5 ( ratings)

The Rise of Modern Mythology, 1680-1860

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Splendor of Heart: Walter Jackson Bate and the Teaching of Literature

3.7/5 ( ratings)

A Treasury of American Poetry

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Myth and Literature in the American Renaissance

Rosecrans' Staff at Chickamauga: The Significance of Major General William S. Rosecrans' Staff on the Outcome of the Chickamauga Campaign

Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind

Rate this book!

Write a review?