Sign-In
Cart
Reconstructing Gilgamesh, Book Two
Paperback
Series: Gilgamesh Trilogy, Book 2
Literary CriticismMythology & Folklore
Publisher: Aj Carmichael
Published: Jul 8 2026
Pages: 588
Weight: 1.71
Height: 1.19 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Reconstructing Gilgamesh, Book Two returns to the broken tablets, scattered fragments, and long history of scholarship behind the world's oldest surviving epic. For more than three thousand years, the story of Gilgamesh lay buried in clay, shattered across ruined libraries, temple archives, private collections, and museum drawers. What survives today is not one perfect ancient book, but a damaged body of tablets: Babylonian, Assyrian, Sumerian, Akkadian, partial, repeated, contradictory, and incomplete. From these remains, generations of scholars have attempted to restore the king of Uruk, his wild companion Enkidu, the monster Humbaba, the death that breaks a man, and the desperate search for life beyond the grave.
This book goes behind the finished story and into the hard work of reconstruction itself. It follows the manuscripts, the missing lines, the variant traditions, the scribal choices, and the modern decisions that shape every edition of Gilgamesh we read today. It asks how an epic can be rebuilt from fragments, what must be restored, what must be left uncertain, and why the gaps matter as much as the surviving words. Grounded in seventeen years of translation, comparison, refinement, and textual study, *Reconstructing Gilgamesh, Book Two* is not a simple retelling. It is a study of survival: the survival of a king, a friendship, a civilization, and a literary monument that reached us only because broken clay refused to disappear. This is Gilgamesh returned to the workshop of history - not as myth polished smooth, but as an ancient text recovered piece by piece from ruin.
1 different editions
Also available
Also from
Carmichael, Aj
Children of Danu, the Arrival of Ireland's First Gods (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Carmichael, Oisín
Paperback
Origins of the Cosmos: Creation Myths of the Ancient Near East (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
God-Kings of Ireland: The Rise, Fall, and Return of Nuada (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Carmichael, Oisín
Paperback
Fomorians, Irish Gods of Chaos and Sea (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Carmichael, Oisín
Paperback
The Hellenistic Age: War, Power, and the Successors of Alexander (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
The Mystery Hill of Tara / An Cnoc Mistéireach Teamhair (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Carmichael, Oisín
Paperback
Danu: The Lost Mother of the Celtic Gods (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Carmichael, Oisín
Paperback
The Fall of the Greek World: The Peloponnesian War Between Athens and Sparta
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
The Fall of the Greek World: The Peloponnesian War Between Athens and Sparta (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
Forge of Creation: The Divine Smiths of Celtic Myth (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Carmichael, Oisín
Paperback
Athens Golden Age: Pericles and the Making of Classical Greece (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
Flames of Sardis: The Ionian Revolt and the Birth of the Persian Wars (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
Sparta: Power, Discipline, and the Rise of the Warrior State (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
Ancient Egyptian Echoes of Immortality: The Book of Going Forth by Day (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
Angkor, the First Builders, Indravarman I and Yasovarman I (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
Angkor and Koh Ker: Rival Capitals of the Khmer Empire (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
Ancient Athens, Birth of Democracy and the Age of Solon (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
Alexander the Great: Conquest, Empire, and the Making of a Legend (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
Age of Expansion: Hellenistic Science, Thought, and Artistic Revolution (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
Gods Before Olympus: The True Origins of Greek Mythology (Large Print Edition)
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
Myths and Legends of the Ancient Near East: Religion, Cosmology, and Sacred Texts from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Ugarit
Carmichael, Aj
Paperback
Also in
Literary Criticism
Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
Sachs, Aaron
Hardcover
Queer Faith: Reading Promiscuity and Race in the Secular Love Tradition
Sanchez, Melissa E.
Paperback
Ancient Rome at the Cinema: Story and Spectacle in Hollywood and Rome
Theodorakopoulos, Elena
Paperback
How to Be a Cat: (Cat Books for Kids, Cat Gifts for Kids, Cat Picture Book)
Lazar, Ralph
Swerling, Lisa
Hardcover
Hidden Hemingway: Inside the Ernest Hemingway Archives of Oak Park
Cirino, Mark
Elder
Vetch, Aaron
Hardcover
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Pitavy, Francois
Alighieri, Dante
Paperback
How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines (Large Print Edition)
Foster, Thomas C.
Paperback
Much ADO about Nothing: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Sparknotes
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
Twelfth Night: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Sparknotes
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
Penelope's Bones: A New History of Homer's World Through the Women Written Out of It
Hauser, Emily
Paperback
Romeo and Juliet: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Shakespeare, William
Sparknotes
Paperback
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
Saunders, George
Paperback
Mythology (75th Anniversary Illustrated Edition): Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes
Hamilton, Edith
Hardcover
Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise
Rundell, Katherine
Hardcover
Mean Dads for a Better America: The Generous Rewards of an Old-Fashioned Childhood
Shillue, Tom
Paperback
The Language of the Night: Essays on Writing, Science Fiction, and Fantasy
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Paperback
But Have You Read the Book? Romance Edition: 40 Love Stories That Inspired Our Favorite Films
Lopez, Kristen
Hardcover
Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend
Romney, Rebecca
Paperback
Women of the Fairy Tale Resistance: The Forgotten Founding Mothers of the Fairy Tale and the Stories That They Spun
Harrington, Jane
Hardcover
Somewhere, a Boy and a Bear: A. A. Milne and the Creation of Winnie-The-Pooh
Brandreth, Gyles
Hardcover
A Midsummer Night's Dream: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Sparknotes
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
Julius Caesar: No Fear Shakespeare Side-By-Side Plain English
Sparknotes
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
The Odyssey: An Illustrated Guide: A Character-By-Character Guide to the Story of Odysseus
Metzger, Doug
Hardcover
The Jane Austen Insult Guide for Well-Bred Women: Serving Tea with a Side of Scorn
Reed, Emily
Hardcover
The New Lifetime Reading Plan: The Classical Guide to World Literature, Revised and Expanded
Major, John S.
Fadiman, Clifton
Paperback
The Dream Factory: London's First Playhouse and the Making of William Shakespeare
Swift, Daniel
Hardcover
The Greek Tragedies: Seventeen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
Euripides
Aeschylus
Sophocles
Paperback
Darkness Becomes Bright: On the Brief Life and Immortal Art of Edgar Allan Poe
Ogden, Emily
Hardcover
A Treacherous Secret Agent: How Literature Spoke Truth to Power During the Red Scare
Garber, Marjorie
Hardcover
Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy
Palmer, Ada
Walton, Jo
Hardcover