Gilgamesh: A New English Version

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743261690 ISBN 13: 9780743261692

Publisher: Atria Books, 2006

Gilgamesh is considered one of the masterpieces of world literature, but until now there has not been a version that is a superlative literary text in its own right.

Acclaimed by critics and scholars, Stephen Mitchell's version allows us to enter an ancient masterpiece as if for the first time, to see how startlingly beautiful, intelligent, and alive it is.

From the Inside Flap:

"Reading Stephen Mitchell's marvelously clear and vivid rendering makes me feel that I am encountering Gilgamesh for the first time."
—Elaine Pagels, Harrington Professor of Religion, Princeton University

"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, author of The Western Canon and The Book of J

"Stephen Mitchell's fresh new rendition of mankind’s oldest recorded myth is quite wonderful in its limpidity and the immediacy of its live emotions."
—Peter Matthiessen, author of The Snow Leopard and At Play in the Fields of the Lord

"Here is the wisdom and lyrical beauty of yore rendered, offered us anew, by a distinguished, ever-so-knowing translator and poet who has given so many of us a wondrous education these past years. Mitchell connects us to treasures of the past brought alive by his broad and deep sensibility."
—Robert Coles, author of Lives of Moral Leadership, The Call of Service, and The Spiritual Life of Children and James Agee Professor of Social Ethics, Harvard University

About the Author:

Stephen Mitchell is widely known for his ability to make old classics thrillingly new. His many books include the bestselling Tao Te Ching, the Iliad, Gilgamesh, The Gospel According to Jesus, The Book of Job, Bhagavad Gita, and The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. His website is StephenMitchellBooks.com.