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Title: Dry, esoteric, and occasionally nonsensical
Review: I bought this book because I enjoyed each of several (partially reconstructed) translations of Gilgamesh I had read and because I generally enjoy primary sources of myths and legends.This book, unfortunately, is entirely too academic; reading the dry, fragmentary sources becomes an unpleasant chore, especially in "Gilgamesh."Dalley probably did as well as she could in translating the difficult originals in as close a form to the original cuneiform tablets as possible, but the result is a book with almost no interest to the general reader or even the armchair Assyriologist.Unless you're a hard-core would-be Joseph Campbell or a stuent planning to go into the field, you'd be advised to pass this book up.
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