| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Gilgamesh for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Peter Matthiessen, author of The Snow Leopard
Quite wonderful in its limpidity and the immediacy of its live emotions.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
'As narrative verse, this Gilgamesh entrances and enthrals. Its liquid, intimate four-stressed lines negotiate the rapid shifts between everyday pleasures, heroic feats and blazing visions in this mythic world where the sensual and spiritual always intersect. Mitchell manages to slip the mesmerising incantations of the verse into his reader's bloodstream as if they flowed through some poetic intravenous drip.' Boyd Tonkin, Independent 'It was a revelation. The translation is superb.' Harold Pinter 'Stephen Mitchell's Gilgamesh is a wonderful version. It is as eloquent and nuanced as his translations of Rilke. This is certainly the best that I have seen in English.' Harold Bloom 'Reading Stephen Mitchell's marvellously clear and vivid rendering of Gilgamesh makes me feel that I am encountering this ancient poem for the first time.' Elaine Pagels 'This is the most pellucid version of the epic yet to have been written in English, but what is most startling and admirable about it is the fact that Mitchell has not sacrificed a sense of the weird on the altar of readability ... a powerful translation.' The Times 'Mitchell brings a lucid and poetic version of Gilgamesh to a literary rather than academic audience ... [he] allows the ancients a chance to speak for themselves.' Observer 'Beautifully retold and a page-turner in the bargain. Like Seamus Heaney's recent retelling of Beowulf, this book proves that in the right hands, no great story ever grows stale.' Malcolm Jones, Newsweek
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Stephen Mitchell's translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh is absolutely amazing. Previous translations I've read have been undoubtedly scholarly and accurate but Mitchell's work is on a different level. This is Gilgamesh as literature. Presumably Mitchell has filled in gaps and ironed out ambiguities, but the end product is a coherent whole where the modern translator never intrudes on this ancient yarn which combines action with philosophy on a truly epic scale.
Gilgamesh deserves to be as widely known as the Iliad and anyone who wants to know more about mythology or ancient literature should read this version. Here we have adventure, tragedy, a great friendship and an older and more compassionate version of the Noah story. This is not just one of the earliest pieces of literature, it is also once of the greatest.
Gilgamesh deserves to be as widely known as the Iliad and anyone who wants to know more about mythology or ancient literature should read this version. Here we have adventure, tragedy, a great friendship and an older and more compassionate version of the Noah story. This is not just one of the earliest pieces of literature, it is also once of the greatest.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I don't really know much history - didn't do it a school - and hadn't heard of Gilgamesh. For that matter, not many people I've asked have.
In any case, what a wonderful story! Personally I skipped the authors introduction (66 pages long!), which seems to cover the majority of the story, and first read the story itself, going back later to the intro for context. There is also some information and opinion in the extensive notes section at the back.
Anyhow, a very enjoyable and fascinating read.
In any case, what a wonderful story! Personally I skipped the authors introduction (66 pages long!), which seems to cover the majority of the story, and first read the story itself, going back later to the intro for context. There is also some information and opinion in the extensive notes section at the back.
Anyhow, a very enjoyable and fascinating read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Stephen Mitchell's Gilgamesh is wonderful, powerful, moving, erotic. It brings an ancient story to life. It's a tale of friendship, and how friendship can change us.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Gilgamesh, book for our time
The Epic of Gilgamesh is the world's oldest tale, going back 4000 years. (See timeline at foot of this review. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Vincent
Gilgamesh for teenagers.
I first read Gilgamesh in the German version by Raoul Schott, then Bottéro's French translation, and now Stephen Mitchell's "poetic version". Read more
Published on 28 April 2010 by Peter Seibt
Gilgamesh rides again
A good read and a first class translation - as far as I can tell at any rate.
Published on 11 Dec 2008 by A. Taylor
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
