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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Omar Khayyám
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Persian poet of the 12C who became a household name in Victorian times through the very free translation by Edward FitzGerald (1809–83) of his four-line verses, or rubáiyát in Persian. First published in 1859, they were reissued with considerable revisions by FitzGerald in 1868, 1872 and 1879 (the reason why quoted versions of the same passage so frequently differ). The languid verses, sensual, fatalistic, laced with homely truths and exotic names, appealed to the 19C fascination with the orient and offered an antidote to an increasingly materialistic and hard-working age.
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