The Rubáiyát Seen Through A Scottie's Eyes! Examining Parodies

My selected edition is titled The Rubáiyát of a Scotch Terrier, by Sewell Collins. It doesn’t give an edition number or a translator, which I took to understand as being because the edition is a parody. The publisher is Frederick A. Stokes Company, where it was published in 1926, New York. There are 71 pages total, though they aren’t numbered, which is interesting considering many of the other editions contained page numbers. Another interesting thing about the format of the text is the stanzas. This edition only contains 41 stanzas, which is more than half the amount of…

In On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums, Barbara Black argues Omar Khayyám’s Rubáiyát has been Orientalized and appropriated in Fitzgerald’s translation and its distribution as a gift book. There’s a couple ways people have done this that Black argues. One of the main ways is through this idea of Orientalization. Orientalism is a Western invention that imagines the East as exotic, sensual, feminine, submissive and so on. In other words, it fetishizes Eastern cultures and depicts them as something for the West to conquer. When talking about the importance placed on owning the…

Stanza thirty six of The Rubáiyát of a Scotch Terrier deters from the poem’s original meaning which we can see in the illustration and the diction. The illustration shows the reader the Scottish Terrier standing on a sidewalk with a taxicab in the background. Though we can’t see the dog’s owner, we can assume that is who he is waiting for. I gathered this from the dog’s stance and demeanor. He is panting and his tail is turned upward which gives him a joyful, alert and excited look. He is also facing away from the street, even though that is where the taxicab is. This makes me…

The Rubáiyát of a Scotch Terrier was first published in 1926 New York by the company Frederick A. Stokes Company (see image 1). It’s hard to find very much information about the book from the time it was published. Which is relevant to what scholar Annmarie S. Drury says on American parodists of the Rubáiyát. She states, “Scholars sometimes acknowledge the existence of Rubáiyát parodies, but discussion of them has been limited and compartmentalized” (194 Poole). I find this to be the case for my edition because throughout my whole research process this term, I…

My Dearest Hellen,

I’m writing this letter to you because I found the most adorable book that made me think of you! As you’ll be able to tell from the address, I’m writing to you from Chicago! I’ve been visiting my in-laws with Frank while my parents are watching the kids and what a joy it’s been! Frank and his father went golfing yesterday, so Margie and I had a ladies outing! Everyone’s been telling me to “stop at Nedwick’s!” even the lady Frank was sitting next to on the plane told us to go there! Apparently everyone in town knows the owners and if you don’t you live under a rock…