Book excerpt: "Hasan Javadi presents a survey of the subject often only briefly mentioned, or entirely disregarded, in many histories of English Literature. Students of that literature know of Edward FitzGerald's Ruba'iyyat or Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum, but many are unaware of the fascination that the East, including Persia, has exercised over European minds. Though dealing primarily with English literature, Javadi includes in his account some continental European Orientalists of note as well. Beginning in the late Middle Ages when the Bible and the classics were the main sources of information about Persia; the book covers the 16th and 17th centuries, when travel was beginning to increase Western knowledge about the East. There is a detailed account of Persian themes in Romantic poetry and prose, and a discussion of the works of travelers and novelists such as James Morier, whose Hajji Baba of Ispahan is still a popular novel for many Iranians."--BOOK JACKET.