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The Epic of Gilgamesh (Penguin Classics)
 
 
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The Epic of Gilgamesh (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

by Andrew George (Author, Introduction, Translator), N. Sandars (Author), Richard Pasco (Author), PENGUIN GROUP (UK) (Author) "Prologue and paean ..." (more)
4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; Rev Ed edition (30 Jan 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140449191
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140449198
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.2 x 2.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 5,590 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #1 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > G > George, Andrew
    #5 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > Poetry > Genres > Epics
    #7 in  Books > Poetry, Drama & Criticism > History & Criticism > Literary Theory & Movements > Medieval

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a splendid work--and so is Andrew George's new translation of it. Powerful, moving and intensely readable, this great Babylonian story about man's fear of mortality, first written down more than four thousand years ago, was rediscovered in 1872. Since then it has grown piece by piece, as scholars translate the cuneiform text on more and more pieces of clay tablets discovered by archaeologists: jigsaw puzzles with many of the pieces missing.

This new edition, the most complete ever published, is the culmination of a dozen years of research by a dedicated academic at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. It contains the standard version of the Epic, with many of the gaps in the fragmentary clay tablets filled by painstaking comparison with parallel passages from earlier versions, including the first time five very early Sumerian poems of a quiet different version in which Gilgamesh is known as Bilgames. It is a tribute both to the translator and to the unknown authors of the original that the whole work is a sometimes painful, sometimes joyous, but always stimulating read, as fascinating, and surely just as relevant today, as it was four thousand years ago. --David V. Barrett --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Miraculously preserved on clay tablets dating back as much as four thousand years, the poem of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, is the world's oldest epic, predating Homer by many centuries. The story tells of Gilgamesh's adventures with the wild man Enkidu, and of his arduous journey to the ends of the earth in quest of the Babylonian Noah and the secret of immortality. Alongside its themes of family, friendship and the duties of kings, the Epic of Gilgamesh is, above all, about mankind's eternal struggle with the fear of death.

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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4.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent purchase, 15 Nov 2003
By N. Clarke (Lancs, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Penguin Classics have produced here a wonderful new edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh. A lucid translation brings the epic to life, and it is backed up by a wealth of extra material that add depth and understanding to a reading of the text. There is an extensive introduction to the historical, literary and archaeological background: the Babylonian, Akkadian and Sumerian contexts are explored clearly and succinctly, and there is also a fascinating history of how the text itself has been pieced together. In addition, and making this new edition even more worthy, the translator collects together fragments from variant traditions - some of them for the first time in English - which expand or give slightly different perspectives upon the core text. This rounds out the picture perfectly, giving an intriguing glimpse into how the story and image of Gilgamesh evolved over time and in different contexts.

Finally, the text is peppered with line drawings of contemporary tablet illustrations. All this, and pictures too! Highly recommended.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An epic poem of enormous antiquity, 7 April 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Epic of Gilgamesh (Hardcover)
Two of the hallmarks of the development of civilisation are conventionally dated to about 3000 BC. They are the invention of writing, and living together in cities. Not long after,there appear the first poems in Sumerian which deal with the exploits of Gilgamesh, later to be welded and reshaped into an Epic. This excellent edition gives us the Sumerian poems, and the whole of the Epic, in the most complete form available, translated into vigorous and muscular verse, reminiscent at times of Ted Hughes. In Gilgamesh we see the forerunner of the Homeric hero - a man fighting sometimes alone, sometimes with a stalwart companion, sometimes with the gods on his side, sometimes facing their anger, taking on impossible odds, seeking immortality through fame and great works, but in the end having to face his own mortality. If you have enjoyed Homer, you will enjoy Gilgamesh.

The introduction, maps, time lines, guide to characters etc are all pitched at the right level for the interested but non specialist reader. There is an appendix which is most remarkable: it sets out in an unduly modest way the difficulties which have been faced and overcome by Andrew George and the Assyriologists who went before him, assembling the text from the thousands of fragments of clay tablets scattered all over the world, some in musuems, some in private hands. Then follows the task of transliterating the cuneiform script, and then translating it into readable and enjoyable verse. If you have had a hard day at work, or think your job is stressful, read this appendix and it will put it all in proportion.

The task is not yet complete, such is the shortage of trained Assyriologists. There are still many thousands more clay fragments to be unearthed, catalogued and deciphered, so somewhere in the future we may have an even more complete edition of this masterpiece. That is, as Andrew George observes, as long as our society values the task and the devotion of scholars in this field to discover, and make available to us all, such masterpieces from the very dawn of literature.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!, 19 April 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Epic of Gilgamesh (Hardcover)
Like, the author, my first exposure to the Epic was to the earlier Penguin version in the classroom. I loved it then, but Andrew's translation, with it's gaps, guidance and line drawings, in some way provides a much clearer picture. We can now understand what we know and don't know and what we must assume. The picture it paints seems more vivid and real than the earlier version. Close your eyes and you can see it all! Uruk. The Cedar Forest. Everything! This book is an absolute pleasure to read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime translation
This translation of Gilgamesh is one of the best things I have read in a while. It takes a quite academic route to giving the reader the many goods of the epic in that the... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Aj West

4.0 out of 5 stars Incomplete but strangely compelling
It's incomplete, but it's raw and powerful; it is reminiscent of the Book of Job, but it has a flood in too; it has monsters, harlots, wise men and gods.
Published 15 months ago by Nicholas Whyte

5.0 out of 5 stars TRACES
If the Epic of Gilgamesh, in this great new translation, is not the eldest known text in humanity, it certainly is a universal story, a story of which you can imagine that the... Read more
Published on 5 Aug 2001 by marjanalbumine@hotmail.com

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