This edition of the <i>Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám </i>is the first edition of that poem to be based on principles of modern textual criticism and to include the fullest account of the poem's texts and textual history. A corrected text of the <i>Rubáiyát </i>has long been needed: my edition provides the most accurate multiple texts of the FitzGerald's work to date and a complete account of the poem's textual history, incorporating new material previously unreported or unpublished. In its very shape as well as in its textual commentary, the edition argues for editorial principles that accommodate the practical aims of literary critical editing, a nuanced understanding of the participation of authorial intention in the sociology of texts, and a sensitivity to the peculiar semiology of the critical edition. The contents of the edition are divided into three parts. The first of these comprises an introduction in which biographical accounts of Omar Khayyám and Edward FitzGerald are dovetailed with a history of the <i>Rubáiyát's </i>composition and publication. FitzGerald's textual intentions cannot properly be understood without recognizing the crucial influence exerted by friends, publishers, printers, and foreign piracies over the poem's earliest composition and over its subsequent revisions. I argue that the stages of FitzGerald's writing should not be fused, and confused, in a single-minded progress, and I make extensive use of biography and textual history to insist on the integrity of each published text of the <i>Rubáiyát. </i>Following the introduction, I discuss in a textual note the problems of editing the texts of the poem and the editorial principles guiding my choice of texts and presentation. An explanatory list of emendations made to FitzGerald's texts accompanied by local arguments for each correction is supplied in a succeeding note. The second part of the edition comprises critical texts of the four original editions of the <i>Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám</i> published between 1859 and 1879.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:598484 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Decker, C. |
| Publisher | University of Cambridge |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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