false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173600885m/307990.jpg 307990 4 <b>Adventurers, explorers, kings, gods, and goddesses come to life in this riveting story of the first great epic&#8212;lost to the world for 2,000 years, and rediscovered in the nineteenth century</b> 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&#8212;buried beneath ashes and ruins when the library of the wild king Ashurbanipal was sacked in a raid.</div><div><br><i>The Buried Book</i> 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&#8217;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&#8212;after 2,000 years, countless battles, fevered digs, conspiracies, and revelations&#8212;finally found. 298948 6 3 2007 The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh total:55|5:8|4:21|3:18|2:7|1:1| 55 193 129 23 4 0 false false Sat Jun 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 14:56:16 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 06:51:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false true Sun Jan 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 10:52:47 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 11:00:05 -0800 2009 Best part so far: imaging sitting down in a...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 08 13:44:50 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 08 14:14:34 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 09 19:16:02 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 18 13:55:23 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jul 17 19:30:05 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 27 17:04:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Dec 06 07:54:15 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 06 07:58:30 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Aug 10 07:11:45 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 10 07:35:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jun 10 15:11:51 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 10 15:14:43 -0700 2008
I received this book as a gift from the publisher, and I have never felt more grateful for such a gift.

I love this book!

It tells the story of how we found Gilgamesh's story, how we came to translate it, and it also tells as much as possible about what we know about ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Apr 12 09:30:54 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 09:38:05 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Nov 05 09:46:05 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 05 09:52:54 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Oct 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 17:18:29 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 14:37:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Sep 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 21:08:43 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 22:43:04 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Jul 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 12:59:39 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 12:49:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 15 09:17:51 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 27 08:58:02 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Oct 20 09:43:06 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 15:01:33 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 20 09:43:06 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 09:53:29 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 09:56:00 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 13 03:55:14 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 17:43:39 -0700 2009 I enjoyed the section about elitist Victorian scientific culture much more than the ancient Mesopotamian history.]]> 2 0 false false Mon Nov 05 15:32:16 -0800 2007 Mon Nov 05 15:34:51 -0800 2007 0 0 false false Sat Jun 28 07:17:34 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 28 07:20:18 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 02 19:23:58 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 11 06:06:00 -0800 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=307990