Exhibit:

Abstract Imaginings: Considering Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (c. 1946) with illustrations by M.K. Sett – Natalie Brown

Preview of images

Cover of Book Front Page of Front Matter title page illustrated page B&W illustrated page text for black and white pages
Picture of the Publishers' Note from 1946 edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, with illustrations by M.K. Sett First page of introduction to 1946 edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám with illustrations by M.K. Sett second page of introduction to 1946 edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
illustration of stanza 46 in Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám circa 1946 by M.K. Sett stanza XLVI of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám which accompanies M.K. Sett's illustration photo of M.K. Sett's description of the illustration for stanza XLVI of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
publishers' note to the 1946 edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám about illustrator M.K. Sett illustration by M.K. Sett in Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám
title page of 1946 edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám illustrated by M.K. Sett

This exhibit focuses on a gift book edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám published circa 1946 with illustrations by M.K. Sett. This edition is housed in Oregon State University’s Special Collections and Archives Research Center as part of a collection of 101 copies of Rubáiyát. This exhibit contains an analysis of different elements of the edition, including a consideration of its place within Victorian Orientalist perception, how the illustrations depict the content of the poem, and a historical overview of the edition’s publishing. The exhibit also includes a practice in archival speculation to imagine the circumstances and attitudes of those giving this edition based on paratextual and historical evidence.

Images in this Exhibit

Description of Edition
Cover of Book Front Page of Front Matter title page illustrated page B&W illustrated page text for black and white pages

This gift book edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is estimated to have been published around 1946 by D.B. Taraporevala Sons & Co. in Bombay, was translated by Edward Fitzgerald, and illustrated by M.K. Sett. This copy uses the first edition of Fitzgerald’s translation, and includes several ornate illustrations of two distinct styles—one with highly detailed red ink printed decorative borders around each stanza of the poem written in green handwritten printed text, and the other with thicker-lined, black and white ink print illustrations, often having many fragmentary elements...
Gift Books & Orientalism
Picture of the Publishers' Note from 1946 edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, with illustrations by M.K. Sett First page of introduction to 1946 edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám with illustrations by M.K. Sett second page of introduction to 1946 edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

In her On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums, scholar Barbara Black argues that while Victorian fascination with Rubáiyát can be read as a love for the content of the poem, this fixation and devotion can also be read within the practice of Orientalism, stating that the Rubaiyat has become “one of the age’s most vivid examples of the domesticated exotic” (50). For Black, this practice is apparent in the abundance of ornate gift books of Rubáiyát, as the poem is objectified, and made into a form that further encourages the possession of the work, and...
Close Reading of Image & Text
illustration of stanza 46 in Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám circa 1946 by M.K. Sett stanza XLVI of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám which accompanies M.K. Sett's illustration photo of M.K. Sett's description of the illustration for stanza XLVI of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

In this edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, the illustration accompanying stanza XLVI, along with the unique addition of the illustrator’s own contextual information of the illustration, seems to evoke more of a condemnation of religious belief in afterlife than the stanza alone communicates (see fig. 0-1). In this way, although the illustration artistically deviates from a more literal sense of the stanza in favor of an individual interpretation from the illustrator, it works to emphasize a theme present in the text as a whole rather than a isolated reading—a feature that is...
How This Edition Was Made
publishers' note to the 1946 edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám about illustrator M.K. Sett illustration by M.K. Sett in Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

Though this edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám praises the illustrator M.K. Sett in the Publishers’ Note as someone with “a great reputation as an artist in Europe” (see fig. 0), there exists very little archived information on his personal and professional life and works. Referring again to the Publishers’ Note, it is stated that “Mr. Sett was known in Europe as an Interior Decorator” and has “illustrated many other works.”

This particular edition exists as a reprint of Sett’s first illustrated edition, an octavo whose private printing and publication was reported to be...
Archival Speculation
title page of 1946 edition of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám illustrated by M.K. Sett

My Dear Friend,

The city of Bombay holds a particular allure—the robust Eastern adornment pervades the streets, and the air is incensed with something familiar, yet altogether mysterious to my subdued English palate. Though I consider myself above such cheap attractions and loose experiences many travelers find in the East, I was surprised to discover, on my walk this afternoon along the shopping district, a hidden gem tucked in the corner of a bookstore window. I was pulled to it, as if an invisible hand were guiding me towards it, and what I saw deeply moved me. Why, it was a copy...