Synopses & Reviews
Adventurers, explorers, kings, gods, and goddesses come to life in this riveting story of the first great epic lost to the world for 2,000 years, and rediscovered in the nineteenth century.
Composed by a poet and priest in Middle Babylonia around 1200 bce, The Epic of Gilgamesh foreshadowed later stories that would become as fundamental as any in human history, The Odyssey and the Bible. But in 600 bce, the clay tablets that bore the story were lost buried beneath ashes and ruins when the library of the wild king Ashurbanipal was sacked in a raid.
The Buried Book begins with the rediscovery of the epic and its deciphering in 1872 by George Smith, a brilliant self-taught linguist who created a sensation when he discovered "Gilgamesh" among the thousands of tablets in the British Museum's collection. From there the story goes backward in time, all the way to Gilgamesh himself. Damrosch reveals the story as a literary bridge between East and West: a document lost in Babylonia, discovered by an Iraqi, decoded by an Englishman, and appropriated in novels by both Philip Roth and Saddam Hussein. This is an illuminating, fast-paced tale of history as it was written, stolen, lost, and after 2,000 years, countless battles, fevered digs, conspiracies, and revelations finally found.
Review
"[An] engaging look at the history behind the world's oldest known literary epic." Library Journal
Review
"Combining acuity about cultural contexts with wide-ranging knowledge, Damrosch's account is a superb and engrossing popular presentation." Booklist
Review
"Damrosch creates vivid portraits of archaeologists, Assyriologists and ancient kings, lending his history an almost novelistic sense of character." New York Times
Review
"[A] lively and accessible account of The Epic of Gilgamesh from its discovery and decipherment in the 19th century to its role in Mesopotamian culture to the origins and meaning of the epic itself." Boston Globe
Synopsis
A critical study of the ancient Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh describes its composition around 1200 B.C., its loss in 600 B.C. during the destruction of the library of King Ashurbanipal, its rediscovery and deciphering in the nineteenth century, and the fast-paced story itself of a great Middle Eastern hero and his exploits.
Synopsis
Adventurers, explorers, kings, gods, and goddesses come to life in this "useful, entertaining and informative" story of the first great epic (The Washington Post) Composed in Middle Babylonia around 1200 BCE,
The Epic of Gilgamesh foreshadowed later stories that would become as fundamental as any in human history:
The Odyssey and the Bible. But in 600 BCE, the clay tablets that bore the story were lost to the world, buried beneath ashes and ruins.
David Damrosch begins with the rediscovery of the epic in 1872 and from there goes backward in time, all the way to Gilgamesh himself. The Buried Book is an illuminating tale of history as it was written, stolen, lost, and--after 2,000 years and countless battles, conspiracies, and revelations--finally found.
About the Author
David Damrosch is a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. He is the general editor of The Longman Anthology of World Literature and the founding general editor of The Longman Anthology of British Literature. He lives in New York City.