The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Translated by Edward Fitzgerald and Illustrated by Austin P. Torney

Edward FitzGerald

May 2008 · Austin Patrick Torney

About this ebook

8x10 edition. All 114 quatrains are presented via a merge of the first four editions of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward FitzGerald, and illustrated and arranged by Austin P. Torney.The 80+ illustrations, all in color, are a mixture of ancient and modern styles, ranging from Austin's own nature compositions to his enhancement of engravings and drawings obtained from very old books. New sections added on a transmogrification story, a poetic tribute to Omar Khayyam, the Titanic's 'Great Omar' story, colorizations of Edmund Sullivan's b/w illustrations, a new calendar, and more.Austin has also written and published his own invention of about 650 quatrains in 'Austin's Rubaiyat'.This publication celebrates the nearly two hundred years since Edward FitzGerald was born.

About the author

Edward FitzGerald (March 31, 1809-June 14, 1883), English man of letters. A dilettante and scholar, FitzGerald went to Trinity College, Cambridge, and spent most of his life living in seclusion in Suffolk. His masterpiece, a translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, appeared anonymously in 1859 and passed unnoticed until Dante Gabriel Rossetti made it famous. Revised editions followed in 1868, 1872, and 1879. FitzGerald's Rubaiyat has long been one of the most popular English poems. Although actually a paraphrase rather than a translation of a poem by the 11th-century Persian poet Omar Khayyam, it retains the spirit of the original in its poignant expression of a philosophy counseling man to live life to the fullest while he can. Among FitzGerald's other works are Euphranor (1851), a Platonic dialogue, and Polonius (1852), a collection of aphorisms.