29 JANUARY 1910, Page 46

The Rubciiyat of Omar Khayyam. With Notes by R. A.

Nicholson and Illustrations by Gilbert James. (A. and C. Black. 7s. 6d. not.)—Why any one should wish to have Omar illustrated, or why any artist should wish to make such illustrations, is not easily understood, so little does the poem seem to lend itself to pictorial representation. Mr. James has chosen a style definitely founded upon Persian painting. One design of an armed host passing by as the poet drinks wine is decidedly good, but quite irrelevant to the quatrain printed opposite to it. In this drawing the artist has really suggested the passing of an armed host.