11.9
Lalla Rookh (An Oriental Romance): "Paradise and the Peri...
Four narrative poems, with a connecting tale in prose, by Thomas Moore, published in 1817. In its day it was one of the most popular examples of the Orientalism which Moore's friend Byron also helped to make fashionable.
Lalla Rookh, the daughter of the Emperor Aurungzebe, journeys from Delhi to Cashmere, where she is to be married to the King of Bucharia. The journey is enlivened by stories told by Feramorz, a young poet from Cashmere, who joins her retinue. ‘The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan’ tells of the tragic love affair of Zelica and Azim. In ‘Paradise and the Peri’ a peri, or child of a fallen angel, finally gains admission to paradise by bringing the tear of a repentant criminal to its gates. ‘The Fire-Worshippers’ tells another tragic love story, about Hafed, a young Gheber or fire-worshiper, and Hinda, daughter of the emir Al Hassan of Arabia, who crushes the Ghebers. In ‘The Light of the Haram’ Nourmahal wins back the love of her husband, Selim, with a magic song she learns from the enchantress Namouna. The self-important chamberlain Fadladeen vents his irritation at the mishaps of the journey by criticizing the stories told by Feramorz, but Lalla Rookh falls in love with him and eventually discovers that he is none other than her prospective husband, the King of Bucharia.
The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, © Cambridge University Press 2000
Four narrative poems, with a connecting tale in prose, by Thomas Moore, published in 1817. In its day it was one of the most popular examples of the Orientalism which Moore's friend Byron also helped to make fashionable.
Lalla Rookh, the daughter of the Emperor Aurungzebe, journeys from Delhi to Cashmere, where she is to be married to the King of Bucharia. The journey is enlivened by stories told by Feramorz, a young poet from Cashmere, who joins her retinue. ‘The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan’ tells of the tragic love affair of Zelica and Azim. In ‘Paradise and the Peri’ a peri, or child of a fallen angel, finally gains admission to paradise by bringing the tear of a repentant criminal to its gates. ‘The Fire-Worshippers’ tells another tragic love story, about Hafed, a young Gheber or fire-worshiper, and Hinda, daughter of the emir Al Hassan of Arabia, who crushes the Ghebers. In ‘The Light of the Haram’ Nourmahal wins back the love of her husband, Selim, with a magic song she learns from the enchantress Namouna. The self-important chamberlain Fadladeen vents his irritation at the mishaps of the journey by criticizing the stories told by Feramorz, but Lalla Rookh falls in love with him and eventually discovers that he is none other than her prospective husband, the King of Bucharia.
The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, © Cambridge University Press 2000
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