{"product_id":"2026200016211-secondhand-gilgamesh-a-verse-narrative","title":"Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the sunbaked cities of ancient Mesopotamia emerges one of humanity's oldest and most enduring stories — the tale of Gilgamesh, the mighty king of Uruk, whose bond with the wild man Enkidu sets him on a desperate journey across the known world to confront the one enemy no ruler can defeat: death itself. Herbert Mason's celebrated verse narrative strips the ancient Sumerian epic down to its raw, human core, presenting a story of friendship, grief, and the terrifying beauty of mortality that resonates as powerfully today as it did over four thousand years ago. This is not a dry academic translation but a living, breathing poem — spare and luminous in its language, deeply compassionate in its vision.\n\nMason's retelling stands as one of the great achievements in the art of literary translation, transforming fragmented clay tablets into a seamless meditation on what it means to be human. The afterword by John H. Marks provides vital scholarly context, grounding Mason's poetic interpretation within the rich archaeological and mythological tradition from which Gilgamesh springs. For readers who have never encountered this ancient hero, and for those returning to him, this edition promises an experience that is at once timeless and utterly new — a reminder that the questions we ask in the dark have always been the same.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49342770020571,"sku":"2026200016211-SECONDHAND","price":10.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/61922cf7-4b86-4e9c-8dce-5336f4bc2703.png?v=1790048923","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200016211-secondhand-gilgamesh-a-verse-narrative","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}