''Ferishtah's Fancies'' is a book of poetry by
Robert Browning
Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian literature, Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentar ...
first published in 1884. Technically the book is one long poem divided into twelve parts, but the parts are so disparate that many critics have considered it a collection of shorter pieces rather than a lengthy whole.
The book is narrated by Browning in the thinly disguised persona of the Persian
soothsayer Ferishtah, who tells several parables (the titular "fancies") to students that illustrate his/Browning's opinions on a number of religious and moral topics. The Persian names and references are taken from
Ferdowsi
Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the gre ...
's ''
Shāhnāmeh
The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couplets (two-line verses ...
'', but by and large the tales are Browning's invention. No connection was intended with the Persian historian
Firishta
Firishta or Ferešte (), full name Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Astarabadi (), was a Persian historian, who later settled in India and served the Deccan Sultans as their court historian. He was born in 1570 and died between 1611 and 1623.
Life
F ...
.
Browning had finished the book by late January 1884, but his publisher chose to delay its release until the end of the year so as not to compromise the sales of his recently released collection ''
Jocoseria''. Reviews were mixed, some critics opining that there was "too much preaching and not enough poetry"
in the book, but sales were good, due in part to the prevailing fashion for
Orientalism
In art history, literature, and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle ...
in
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
at the time. The book is nowadays considered a very minor work in the Browning canon and selections from it are rarely included in Browning anthologies.
Contents
* ''Prologue''
# ''The Eagle''
# ''Melon-Seller''
# ''Shah Abbas''
# ''The Family''
# ''The Sun''
# ''Mihrab Shah''
# ''A Camel-Driver''
# ''Two Camels''
# ''Cherries''
# ''Plot-Culture''
# ''A Pillar at Sebzevah''
# ''A Bean-stripe; also Apple-Eating''
* ''Epilogue''
References
{{Authority control
Poetry by Robert Browning
1884 poems
British poems