by Anonymous Anonymous (Author), Andrew George (Introduction), Andrew George (Introduction), Anonymous Anonymous (Author)
The ancient Sumerian poem The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest written stories in existence, translated with an introduction by Andrew George in Penguin Classics. 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. The Babylonian version has been known for over a century, but linguists are still deciphering new fragments in Akkadian and Sumerian. Andrew George's gripping translation brilliantly combines these into a fluid narrative and will long rank as the definitive English Gilgamesh. If you enjoyed The Epic of Gilgamesh, you might like Homer's Iliad, also available in Penguin Classics. 'A masterly new verse translation' The Times 'Andrew George has skilfully bridged the gap between a scholarly re-edition and a popular work' London Review of Books
Format: paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published:
ISBN 10: 0140449191
ISBN 13: 9780140449198
Humankind's first literary achievement...Gilgamesh should compel us as the well-spring of which we are inheritors...Andrew George provides an excellent critical and historical introduction.
--Paul Binding, Independent on Sunday
This volume will endure as one of the milestones markers...[George] expertly and easily conducts his readers on a delightful and moving epic journey.
--Samuel A. Meier, Times Literary Supplement
Appealingly presented and very readably translated...it still comes as an exhilarating surprise to find the actions and emotions of the Sumerian superhero coming to us with absolute immediacy over 30-odd centuries.
--Scotsman
Andrew George has formed an English text from the best of the tablets, differentiating his complex sources but allowing the general reader a clear run at one of the first enduring stories ever told.
--Peter Stothard, The Times
An exemplary combination of scholarship and lucidity...very impressive...invaluable as a convenient guide to all the different strands which came together to produce the work we now call Gilgamesh.
--Alan Wall, Literary Review