Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Rendered into English verse by Edward Fitzgerald

Edited by George F. Maine

Illustrated by Robert Stewart Sherriffs

Collins, 1988, ISBN 0004105516, illustrative colour plates, gilded fore-edges, hardcover with gilded lettering, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, minor edge and shelf wear, no inscriptions, dustjacket shows minor edge and shelf wear with minor rubbing and bumping to edges and corners (see photographs)

“There have been many editions of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.  Some are prose translations which faithfully mirror the thought and imagery of the original, others are in verse of varying degrees of excellence, but none has won such universal favour as that by Edward Fitzgerald (1809-83).
This book contains the First, Second, and Fifth Editions in full, together with the textual variants in the Third and Fourth Editions, thus providing the reader with a complete rendition of Fitzgerald’s work on The Rubaiyat, over a period of more than twenty-five years.
There are, in addition, a general introduction by Laurence Houseman, an essay on Fitzgerald by G. F. Maine, Fitzgerald’s essay on Omar, the Notes to the Second Edition, which contains the largest number of quatrains (110), and a Glossary.
The illustrations which so splendidly adorn this edition were specially drawn by Robert Stewart Sheriffs.”