ENG 470 / 570 Spring 2025

On the page with stanzas 13-16 in Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, we get a detailed illustration by Elihu Vedder of a woman amongst a rose bush and vines, a skull, and a broken part of some statue-like sculpture. When examining this illustration, we… more

In her book On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums, Barbara Black explores how the act of collecting shaped how the British saw and valued the world, especially places outside of Europe. One work she focuses on is Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the… more

In On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums, Barbara J. Black discusses the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám as an example of how Victorian museum culture and literature shared a common theme of collecting, display, and aestheticization. She connects the popularity of the Rubáiyát… more

Within Barabara Black’s book, On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums, she makes the claim that Edward FitzGerald’s translation of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám… more

Barbara Black argues in On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums that the Rubáiyát is in large part appropriated from Persian culture and has been Orientalized. “This poem’s value becomes… more

In Barbra Black’s essay, On Exhibit: Victorians and Their Museums, she writes about how The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is appropriated by Western Culture. When Bernard Quaritch first published 250 copies of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám it did not sell very well. It wasn’t until it was picked up by a few scholars and spread around that it took off and became… more

Although its popularity has declined in recent years, owning a copy of Omar Khayyám’s Rubáiyát was once a staple in households across Europe and the United States. Deemed one of the most popular ‘gift books’ of all time, Barbara J. Black discusses the … more