The Works of Sir William Jones
With the Life of the Author by Lord Teignmouth

The complete thirteen-volume works, with memoir, of the orientalist and poet Sir William Jones (1746–94), first published in 1807.

William Jones (Author), Lord Teignmouth (Edited by)

9781108055789, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 March 2013

458 pages, 3 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.6 cm, 0.58 kg

A renowned Enlightenment polymath, Sir William Jones (1746–94) was a lawyer, translator and poet who wrote authoritatively on politics, comparative linguistics and oriental literature. Known initially for his Persian translations and political radicalism, Jones became further celebrated for his study and translation of ancient Sanskrit texts following his appointment to the supreme court in Calcutta in 1783. He spent the next eleven years introducing Europe to the mysticism and rationality of Hinduism through works such as his nine 'Hymns' to Hindu deities and his translation of the Sanskrit classic Sacontalá, influencing Romantic writers from William Blake to August Wilhelm Schlegel. Volume 10 of his thirteen-volume works, published in 1807, contains Jones' important pre-India poetry and essays. These include his essays 'On the Arts, Commonly Called Imitative' and 'On the Poetry of the Eastern Nations' (1772), which anticipate Romantic themes of the sublime, as well as his Alcaic 'Odes', which establish Jones' radical political identity.

Part I. The Moallakat, or Seven Arabian Poems Which Were Suspended on the Temple at Mecca: Advertisement
The poem of Muriolkais
The poem of Tarafa
The poem of Zohair
The poem of Lebeid
The poem of Antara
The poem of Amru
The poem of Hareth
Originals
Part II. Poems, Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages: Dedication
Preface
Solima, an Arabian eclogue
The palace of fortune
The seven fountains
A Persian song of Hafiz
An ode of Petrarch
M. Voltaire's paraphrase of the first stanza
Laura
A Turkish ode of Mesihi
The same, in imitation of the Pervigilium Veneris
Arcadia, a pastoral poem
Caissa, or the game at chess
Carminum liber
An essay on the poetry of the eastern nations
Essay on the arts called imitative
The muse recalled, an ode
An ode in imitation of Alcaeus
An ode in imitation of Callistratus
Ad libertatem carmen
Lettre à Monsieur A*** P***.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]