Ferishtah's Fancies
Ferishtah's Fancies is a book of poetry by Robert Browning first published in 1884.[1] 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's Shāhnāmeh, but by and large the tales are Browning's invention. No connection was intended with the Persian historian Firishta.
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"[2] in the book, but sales were good, due in part to the prevailing fashion for Orientalism in England 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
- v
- t
- e
- Strafford (1837)
- Pippa Passes (1841)
- King Victor and King Charles (1842)
- The Return of the Druses (1843)
- A Blot in the 'Scutcheon (1843)
- Colombe's Birthday (1844)
- Luria (1846)
- A Soul's Tragedy (1846)
- In a Balcony (1855)
and poems
- Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession (1833)
- Paracelsus (1835)
- "Porphyria's Lover" (1836)
- "Johannes Agricola in Meditation" (1836)
- Sordello (1840)
- Dramatic Lyrics (1842, "My Last Duchess", "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister", "Count Gismond")
- Dramatic Romances and Lyrics (1845, "Home-Thoughts, from Abroad", "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix", "Meeting at Night", "The Laboratory", "The Lost Leader")
- Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day (1850)
- Men and Women (1855, "Love Among the Ruins", "Evelyn Hope", "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came", "Andrea del Sarto", "Fra Lippo Lippi", "A Toccata of Galuppi's")
- Dramatis Personæ (1864, "Rabbi ben Ezra", "Caliban upon Setebos")
- The Ring and the Book (1868–9)
- Balaustion's Adventure (1871)
- Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society (1871)
- Fifine at the Fair (1872)
- Red Cotton Night-Cap Country (1873)
- Aristophanes' Apology (1875)
- The Inn Album (1875)
- Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper (1876)
- The Agamemnon of Aeschylus (1877)
- La Saisiaz and The Two Poets of Croisic (1878)
- Dramatic Idyls (1879, 1880)
- Jocoseria (1883)
- Ferishtah's Fancies (1884)
- Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in Their Day (1887)
- Asolando (1889)
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning (wife)
- Robert Barrett Browning (son)
- Casa Guidi