Here in one volume are the collected chief works of the Victorian writer and poet, Edward FitzGerald, complete with original notes, prefaces, glossary and appendix. For the great majority of English readers, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam means only these particular translations, the first, second and fifth editions done so divinely well by FitzGerald, when the Victorian Age of Empire was at its height. Here also is his less well-known translation of the mystical Sufi allegory, Salaman and Absal, by the Persian scholar and poet, Jami, as well as FitzGerald's biographies of both Omar Khayyam and...

AEsop was probably a real person; although it is impossible to be sure which of the surviving stories were really his. The date given him by Herodotus is about 570 b.c., and there is nothing to make this date improbable. Other ancient sources include Aristotle and Plutarch, who has him dining with the Seven Sages of Greece and sitting beside his friend Solon, whom he had met in Sardis. The earliest known writings appear from the first century a.d. Later, stories of this kind, especially animal stories, were all ascribed to AEsop, and the Greek collection which goes under his name contains...

Tales of the Table is a book for Foodies, a book for those of us with an 'ardent or refined interest in food and alcoholic beverages', a book that will take you on a delightful and entertaining tour of gastronomic and literary miscellany over the years. Not so much an anthology of how food, drink and dining have featured in stories, diaries, poems and plays throughout history, Tales of the Table is better described as a not-quite-random collection of bits and pieces that please and delight; or, a shameless wallow in descriptions of sensual gratification For food, and the enjoyment of it, is...