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Review Summary: Not the most rewarding read, not what I thought |
Date: 2009-01-04 |
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Details: I have to say that I didn't enjoy reading this edition of Gilgamesh as much as I thought I would. Probably the most bothersome aspect was that the text was littered with missing phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. It's not like the editors are to blame, its just that story is taken from hundreds of clay cuneiform tablets, not one, it seems, that was intact. In fact, most of the story is cobbled together from multiple sources in order to create a most complete edition.
On the other hand, the fact that this story was written down so very, very long ago, perhaps 1000 years before the Odyssey and the Iliad were written down, and that there is so much there, motivated me to make sure I learned the story.
True, you can read a "cleaned up" version, but there's nothing like reading the primary text. Footnotes at the bottom of the pages would also have helped. Mercifully, the text isn't that long and it does read relatively quickly. Good luck. |
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Review Summary: Comments are for different edition |
Date: 2008-09-28 |
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Details: Note that the other comments here (both professional and consumer) are for the Andrew George version of "The Epic of Gilgamesh." Amazon does note this above with a disclaimer stating that the "comments are for an out of print or unavailable edition." But you might miss if you don't read carefully. The edition that I received is a translation by N.K. Sandars. There is a brief half page introductory note, but nothing else in the way of commentary, notes, or references. If you are looking for an annotated version, you must buy a different edition. However, if you are just looking for a translation of the story and are able to do your own research, then this is the edition for you. The four stars are for the work itself and its place in history. |
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Review Summary: The One To Read! (from Ahadada Books) |
Date: 2008-05-17 |
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Details: This is absolutely one of the best translations of Gilgamesh available. Andrew George gives us a taste of what the original versification was like. He also translates all the extant versions and fragments of versions of the epic, and this is important. Not only do the versions augment each other and fill in the gaps that time and entropy have literally carved, shattered, and eroded into the original tablets, but they key us into the variations that the generations of years of cross-cultural retellings have wrought. Gilgamesh becomes Bilgames, etc. etc. Finally, an appendix at the back of the book discusses the process of translating the text from the tablets. In many ways this is the most fascinating part of this volume. Along with these good points, we are treated to line drawings taken from period artwork illustrating the epic, so we see the gods, goddesses, and strange monsters as they were visualized by the Babylonians. Highly recommended! |
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Review Summary: Glad I Finally Read It |
Date: 2008-01-25 |
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Details: This is another from my "what haven't I read that maybe I should have" period. This is a difficult read - part of which is because of the way the text and variants are put together (though I don't know how to make it any better). So, have patience.
This is the first translation I have read of Gilgamesh (and probably my last unless new material adds significantly to the text) so I can't comment on other versions. The Penguin Classics edition has many illustrations that did add to the pleasure.
Highly recommended as one of those "to be read before I die" books. |
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Review Summary: Exhaustive, scholarly, for advanced readers |
Date: 2007-09-24 |
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Details: I recommend this Penguin Classic, but it offers more thorough scholarly apparatus than usual for the series. This is not meant as a criticism! But, a beginner may find a "version" such as Stephen Mitchell's easier to start with for an overview of the storyline, and a briefer introduction and helpful endnotes. The poem itself is not lengthy, but the ancillary texts and sources, as Andrew George shows us, do take up considerable space which may please enthusiasts but discourage newcomers to this epic poem.
George prepared for Oxford UP in 1999 a two-volume edition, and this Penguin adapts the core of the English translation for a wider audience. It appears ideal for a college classroom or the reader wanting to learn more about the lacunae, the gaps, the language, and the editorial decisions made by George and fellow translators. A fascinating appendix shows how out of grammatical markers, syllabic, and half-syllabic cuneiform incisions the sounds and rhythms and absences that fill this most ancient of narratives turn into what we can understand. To a point.
Terms such as "louvre-door," "glacis-slope," "hie to the forge," and notably Ishtar's exhortation to "stroke my quim" give a rather archaic diction to parts of the translation. George aims obviously for precision in such terminology, but this does clash with the more demotic vernacular chosen by Mitchell in his popularization. Mitchell's also considerably more erotic and develops passages that in their original state, reading George, remain terse. Again, George approaches the thousands of fragments that are still being assembled nearly 150 years after their discovery and observes that this epic is still, amazingly and poignantly, one in progress as we await trained Assyriologists able to decipher not only the later Akkadian but the considerably more challenging and often cryptic Sumerian sources. It's a shame that in a region where so many billions have been spent to destroy the area between the Tigris & Euphrates that a few thousands can not be provided for the study and restoration of the oldest story text we have ever found. |
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out of 19 Reviews
