'I Don't Hear from You': On Edward Cowell's Silences and Edward FitzGerald's Persian Literary Pursuits.

Through the lens of epistolary silence, this essay re-investigates the complex relationship between Edward FitzGerald and his friend and mentor, Edward Byles Cowell. Drawing on their correspondence spanning three decades, it reveals how Cowell employed strategic silences to navigate the challenging intersection of friendship, scholarly integrity, and religious conviction. While Cowell's guidance facilitated FitzGerald's Persian translations, including the celebrated Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, his deliberate non-responses and delayed communications reflected deep-seated concerns about FitzGerald's heterodox interpretations and creative liberties. This analysis focuses particularly on their exchanges during FitzGerald's production of Salámán and Absál and the 'Bird-Parliament', demonstrating how Cowell's silences served both to maintain friendship and to create professional distance. By highlighting these nuanced interactions, the essay argues that Victorian Orientalist literature emerged not from uniform ideological positions, but through complex negotiations between conflicting modes of thought and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]