I have been all my life apprentice to this heavy business of idleness
Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883)
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Literary Criticism
Albano, Giuseppe. "The benefits of reading the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám as pastoral." Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.
Barton, Anna Jane. "Letters, scraps of manuscript, and printed poems: the correspondence of Edward FitzGerald and Alfred Tennyson." (Also discusses FitzGerald's letters as among the greatest in the English language.) Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.
Drury, Annmarie. "Accident, orientalism, and Edward FitzGerald as translator." Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.
Gray, Erik. "FitzGerald and the Rubáiyát, in and out of time." Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.
Karlin, Daniel. "Editing the Rubáiyát: two case-studies and a prospectus." Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.
Karlin, Daniel, ed. Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by Edward Fitzgerald (Oxford Univ. Press, 2009). A new, annotated edition focuses on the poem as a work of Victorian literary art. Includes a critical introduction, the history of publication and revision, and extensive textual and explanatory notations. Covers the poem's treatment of its Persian sources and affiliations with English and Classical literature and the Bible, includes contemporary reviews. Publisher’s web site.
Tucker, Herbert F. "Metaphor, translation, and autoekphrasis in FitzGerald's Rubáiyát." Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.
Lighter Reading
"The Persian Sensation: 'The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám' in the West." A web exhibition from the Harry Ransom Center, Univ. of Texas, Austin. Includes a brief history of Edward FitzGerald’s translation, displays of editions and more.
An appreciation of Edward FitzGerald’s translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, by professor Anthony Briggs. Telegraph (UK), April 18, 2009.
The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. "If only we could all learn the spirit of Edward FitzGerald's wonderfully unfaithful translation.” By poet Carol Rumens, in Guardian (UK) Blog, December 29, 2008.
"Appendix: two early reviews of the Rubáiyát." Victorian Poetry, Spring, 2008.
Article in the Tehran Times (Iran) about the exhibition at the Harry Ransom Center, "The Persian Sensation: 'The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám' in the West." January 15, 2009.
Celebrating the life of Omar Khayyám and Edward FitzGerald at the Iran Heritage Foundation.
Web Sites
"A Dictionary of Victorian London." Victorian social history through a "dictionary" of Victorian institutions
"Victorianism." From George Landow's Victorian Web
Jackson, Lee. "A Dictionary of Victorian London." Victorian social history through a "dictionary" of Victorian institutions
"Monuments and Dust," a project by an international group of scholars who are creating a complex visual, textual, and statistical representation of Victorian London.
A guide to research resources from the Victoria discussion list for Victorian Studies
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