The Buried Book The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh [Paperback]

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 Gilgameshforeshadowed later stories that would become as fundamental as any in human history:The Odysseyand 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 Bookis an illuminating tale of history as it was written, stolen, lost, andafter 2,000 years and countless battles, conspiracies, and revelationsfinally found.

David Damroschis a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. He is the general editor ofThe Longman Anthology of World Literatureand the founding general editor ofThe Longman Anthology of British Literature. He lives in New York City.

An altogether compelling narrative of a crucial episode in cultural history. This is a book that vividly demonstrates why humanism matters and how it is enhanced by exercising an unconventionally broad reach. Robert Alter, author of The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary, and Class of 1937 Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of California at Berkeley

The Buried Bookis a thrilling intellectual adventure: a brilliant study of Gilgamesh, it is also a rich and complex narrative of colonialist adventurers, obsessed scholars, anxious theologians, and contemporary writers all caught up in the ancient epic's amazingly wide net. Stephen Greenblatt, author of Will In The World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

David Damrosch'sThe Buried Bookis a remarkably original, narrative analysis of the loss, redil³.