CompleteMartialArts.com - Gilgamesh: A New English Version
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List Price: $24.00
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 2004-09-28
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Editorial Reviews:
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Gilgamesh is considered one of the masterpieces of world literature, and although previously there have been competent scholarly translations of it, until now there has not been a version that is a superlative literary text in its own right. Acclaimed translator Stephen Mitchell's lithe, muscular rendering allows us to enter an ancient masterpiece as if for the first time, to see how startlingly beautiful, intelligent, and alive it is. His insightful introduction provides a historical, spiritual, and cultural context for this ancient epic, showing that Gilgamesh is more potent and fascinating than ever. Gilgamesh dates from as early as 1700 BCE -- a thousand years before the Iliad. Lost for almost two millennia, the eleven clay tablets on which the epic was inscribed were discovered in 1853 in the ruins of Nineveh, and the text was not deciphered and fully translated until the end of the century. When the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke first read Gilgamesh in 1916, he was awestruck. "Gilgamesh is stupendous," he wrote. "I consider it to be among the greatest things that can happen to a person." The epic is the story of literature's first hero -- the king of Uruk in what is present-day Iraq -- and his journey of self-discovery. Along the way, Gilgamesh discovers that friendship can bring peace to a whole city, that a preemptive attack on a monster can have dire consequences, and that wisdom can be found only when the quest for it is abandoned. In giving voice to grief and the fear of death -- perhaps more powerfully than any book written after it -- in portraying love and vulnerability and the ego's hopeless striving for immortality, the epic has become a personal testimony for millions of readers in dozens of languages.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: It's okay ...
Comment: I agree with a previous reviewer from two years ago that I'm really not interested in a prose translation of Gilgamesh. While I found the Introduction interesting, the translation itself is disappointing considering there's really no need to have your own interpretation of what the missing tablets *might* have said (and I can only speak for myself).
There are definitely better translations on the market. I would recommend using this book for the informative background in the Introduction, but to use this book in and of itself for a class, or for your own reading, is really missing out on this epic.
The best reading of this epic, for me, has been a few online translations that are literal and do not attempt to fill in the missing tablets. - Donna Di Giacomo
Customer Rating:
Summary: Gilgamesh: A New English Version
Comment: This edition is far, far superior to the other versions that are mere translations. When my 9th-grade son started reading this, after having read the first part of his assignment from another version, he was so much more impressed with this one. The other book barely made sense to him. This version made the story come alive for him.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding, readable and entertaining translation
Comment: I found this translation of Gilgamesh to be suprisingly refreshing and entertaining. The introduction was quite long and unfortunately, since this was my first reading of Gilgamesh, spoiled the storyline for me. My recommendation is to read the story, then the introduction, and then read the story a second time after having been exposed to the analysis. The verse is outstanding, easy to understand and would be well suited for advanced placement literature at the high school level or college undergraduate level.
Customer Rating:
Summary: epic wonder
Comment: not only the oldest, but one of the best stories ever told. gorgeous translation, and an unusual but compelling narrator. i never get tired of this production.
Customer Rating:
Summary: And the Audio version is great, too.
Comment: I just finished the audio version of this wonderful book, and was transfixed, even though it was the third time I listened to it.
The explanation by the author made it far more valuable to me.
Though Gilgamesh is the oldest story available (but what about the Book of Job), it remains interesting today as Gilgamesh is also a "seeker," as we sometimes say today. Even though he had all that his society had to offer, including its female citizens, he had to learn something about life, religion and the universe.
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