![]() Coming from a well-to-do family, he was financially independent and without ambitions, and from early in life was able to devote himself entirely to scholarly pursuits reading, travelling, visiting friends (although on first acquaintance he seemed shy he was in fact gregarious and had a gift for forming loyal and lasting friendships), and sailing. He was modest, scholarly and regarded as mildly, but pleasantly, eccentric. ![]() Edward FitzGerald (1809-1883), or “Fitz” to his friends, was a contemporary of Tennyson and Thackeray at Cambridge University and became a good friend of both. Dealing with the “Big Questions” of life: Why are we here? What’s it all about?, it remains perennially relevant and interesting. ![]() FitzGerald’s verse, imagery, and use of language have been a lasting influence on English literature, art and music. ![]() Despite recent neglect in English literature studies, it remains arguably a significant poem and worthy of serious study. One of the best known poems in the world, it has been in continuous publication for well over a century and has been translated into more than 85 languages. These are the opening lines of one of the most enigmatic and celebrated poems in English literature, the translation from the original Persian of the verses of Omar Khayyám by the Victorian writer and scholar Edward FitzGerald. Binding of the first illustrated edition, c. ![]()
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