Gilgamesh

A New English Version

By: Stephen Mitchell - translator

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

This brilliant new treatment of the world's oldest epic is a literary event on par with Seamus Heaney's wildly popular Beowulf translation. Esteemed translator and best-selling author Stephen Mitchell energizes a heroic tale so old it predates Homer's Iliad by more than a millennium.

In the ancient city of Uruk, the tyrannical King Gilgamesh tramples citizens "like a wild bull". The gods send an untamed man named Enkidu to control the ruthless king, but after fighting, Enkidu and Gilgamesh become great friends and embark on a series of adventures. They kill fearsome creatures before Enkidu succumbs to disease, leaving Gilgamesh despondent and alone. Eventually, Gilgamesh moves forward, and his quest becomes a soul-searching journey of self-discovery.

Mitchell's treatment of this extraordinary work is the finest yet, surpassing previous versions in its preservation of the wisdom and beauty of the original.

©2004 Stephen Mitchell (P)2004 Recorded Books LLC

Critic reviews

"Stephen Mitchell's Gilgamesh is a wonderful version....This is certainly the best that I have seen in English." (Harold Bloom)
"Here is a flowing, unbroken version that reads as effortlessly as a novel....Vibrant, earnest, unfussibly accesible....The muscular eloquence and rousing simplicity of Mitchell's four-beat line effectively unleashes the grand vehemence of the epic's battle scenes." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Mitchell seeks language that is as swift and strong as the story itself. He conveys the evenhanded generosity of the original poet....This wonderful new version of the story of Gilgamesh shows how the story came to achieve literary immortality: not because it is a rare ancient artifact, but because reading it can make people in the here and now feel more completely alive." (Publishers Weekly)

Man's growth and realization

I had gotten bogged down in a lot of philosophical books and NEEDED this unexpected gem that had been sitting on my "shelf" for a while. Great story telling masterfully performed...AND then you get a second reading of it with analytical insight to help have the weight of Man's story really sink in.

Will be revisiting at least once a year until I can recite it to my kids by the camp fires.

Pleasurable Listening

This is the best version of the ancient Gilgamesh Epos I ever came across. The narrator has a most agreeable voice that makes the listening experience a pleasurable one.
The first part of the book contains the actual epic. In the second part, the author gives additional information which are actually very useful. I enjoyed this part as much as the epic itself.

love George Guidall's narrative way.

great book!! love George Guidall's narrative way.Inkadu's story and how he lost the wildness after being seduced.....

wonderful

loved it, the story, the narration, the fascinating essay. all marvelous. I'll listen to this over and over.

There's a reason it's been around for 3000 years

It's the Hero's journey but with its own differences. The essay at the end is wonderful. This is enjoyable like a modern audiobook. Don't hesitate one minute.

wonderful narration and commentary

I was an tour de force experience! Now I need to go back and read "Gilgamesh" more carefully

Will not disappoint!

Great story with an excellent narrator! The essay at the end is well worth the listen.

The retelling of the Epic of Gilgamesh is Great!

For people who do not realize, the Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest mythological stories uncovered (at least to my knowledge). Many historians believe that the flood in this is the original story that is rewritten in the Bible, as it predates the Bible's authors by thousands of years.

That being said, very little of the Epic is readable, they have only been able to put together a portion of the story, and the majority is still missing. So Mr. Mitchell's interpretation of the story is subject to a lot of author input. Other authors with other translations have had the story feel different, so that is just something to be aware.

That being said, Mr. Mitchell takes the limited prose of the story available and places it into a very cohesive version. He fills in some of the cracks for readability/understandability. This is a much better layperson version then the story as it was written in my college textbooks.

If you like mythology and like to read something that isn't Greek or Roman, this is the one you want to start with. It has everything, murder, sex, quests, all of it is here.

Just read it.

Excellent!

This is an excellent version of Gilgamesh! I have read and listened to other, more literal, translations. This version showcases all the original drama with a smoother story flow to fit the English language. The discussion after the story makes it even better.

A true epic

A faithful and insightful retelling of the first written classic. The essay will leave you pondering the meaning of the poets prose in ways you never thought.