Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Stratford-Upon-Avon: The Shakespeare Head Press, 1927. Later edition. Near Fine. Exquisitely bound, apparently by an amateur binder, although possibly an apprentice at Sangorski. Full maroon crushed morocco with an elaborate peacock design in gilt and inlaid morocco on the front board. Rear board in a more muted style, reminiscent of the Dove's Bindery. All edges gilt, with silk endpapers and paste-downs, and then with a second set of patterned endpapers. Very slight rubbing along the front and rear joints, holding well. Housed in a custom lined slipcase.

Fitzgerald attributed the original work to the famed astronomer and mathematician Omar Khayyum, and this collection of quatrains rapidly became a favored text of the Pre-Raphaelites. "Like the Odyssey or the Vita Nuova [it] was once the most widely known and quoted work of Victorian poetry in the world," and its place in Western culture at the time was secured by Fitzgerald's "epigrammatic, sophisticated, often mordant verses [that] display Fitzgerald's adroitness in handling this stanza form" (Warner). Yet with the rise of Modernism, the Rubaiyat fell out of style for a time, its lush and romantic orientalism considered out of step with the concerns of those who were living through a devastating World War. But the beautiful surviving copies in exceptional vellum, silk, and leather, alongside recently released critical editions, have helped draw attention back to the Rubaiyat's beauty and its role in inspiring so many monumental pieces of Victorian art and literature. Near Fine.