With friends possessed
With friends possessed. A life of Edward FitzGerald. Robert Bernard Martin
London; Boston, Faber and Faber, 1985
313 p.
ISBN 0571134629
For nearly a century Edward FitzGerald's literary reputation rested primarely on his translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which, for decades, was the most popular serious poem in English; one estimate is that it went into over five hundred editions. More recently the publication of his superb letters, some of the finest from the nineteenth century, has givem him new literary prominence. What has been conspicuously lacking is a frank, understanding biography of this complicated man.
Robert Bernard Martin has written an urbane account of FitzGerald's life, taking into considerationthe new biographical material that has come to light since the last serious biography half a century ago, and showing how the hidden part of FitzGerald's personality was responsible for the deeply sensual quality of his writing. (Text from dust jacket)
List of Illustrations 13
Foreword 15
I Family and Childhood 19
II Cambridge 45
III Thackeray, Tennyson, and Browne 62
IV Mirehouse and Boulge Cottage 83
V Browne's Marriage 110
VI Cowell and Barton 131
VII Euphranor 150
VIII Death of FitzGerald's Parents 170
IX FitzGerald's Marriage 191
X The Discovery of the Rubáiyát 211
XI Posh 235
XII Letters and Readers 253
XIII Settling Accounts 272
XIV Boulge Churchyard 287
Acknowledgements 297
Notes 299
Select Bibliography 305
Index 307