Gilgamesh The New Translation

The EPIC OF GILGAMESH is the oldest story that has come down to us through the ages of history. It predates the BIBLE, the ILIAD and the ODYSSEY. GILGAMESH relates the tale of the fifth king of the first dynasty of Uruk (in what is modern day Iraq) who reigned for one hundred and twenty-six years, according to the ancient Sumerian King List. The EPIC OF GILGAMESH was first inscribed in cuneiform writing on clay tablets by an unknown author during the Sumerian era and has been described as one of the greatest works of literature in the recounting of mankind's unending quest for immortality. **
Review
** " Four Stars. Intriguing. Provocative. Fresh and Approachable."-ForeWord Clarion Review.
"For GILGAMESH initiates, this is as good a place to start as any."-Kirkus Reviews.
"** Four Stars. Very well-polished work that readers of history, ancient times and epic tales will be sure to dissect with pleasure. Davis has a skill at finding the true spirit of a story, and distilling it down to something even more pure, before putting the pieces back together in an organic and insightful manner. The research that went into this project is highly evident from the detailed and complex structure that Davis explores throughout the book." - Red City Review.
From the Inside Flap
" Gerald J. Davis offers an intriguing, provocative translation of an ancient hero's tale. Davis, whose previous work includes translations of BEOWULF and DON QUIXOTE, returns with an approachable take on a tale that predates the Bible. GILGAMESH, THE NEW TRANSLATION synthesizes the work of previous scholars with an eye toward comprehensibility, making an epic of extreme importance accessible to the masses. Davis's preface presents GILGAMESH in an exciting manner, as humanity's oldest preserved story. He briefly recounts the nature of its lengthy unearthing and its presentation in biblical circles from the nineteenth century forward...Davis presents the epic in narrative form, forgoing tendencies of previous translators to offer it in verse. This, in addition to his bold decisions regarding diction, make the text far easier to approach than is often the case in more pedantic translations. Readers will learn what Gilgamesh is like, rather than being forced to puzzle over what the text may or may not say precisely. Davis's translation results in a version of the epic that preserves the authorial tendencies of the tablets, such as poetic repetition, while removing from them barriers created by linguistic obscurity...Readers will be swept up in Davis's presentation, in which his diction maintains the lofty tone of ancient language without the usual trappings of punctilious word choice...That said, there's much for laymen to gain by engaging Davis's translation, which is both fresh and approachable."- ForeWord Reviews **