Super short introduction:
The Book of the dead is one of the oldest religious/magic texts from Egypt and concerns both funeral rites and the afterlife. Now I should probably warn the inexperienced reader that there is an Egyptian book of the dead, aTibetan book of the dead (which I won't be talking about here) And the necronomicon, which is also sometimes known as the book of the dead. This recommendation concerns the Egyptian text.
So why the need for a recommendation?
Today we are slightly spoiled by the mass-production of books, but back when this text was written each where hand-made. And each was buried with the dead so there isn't "ONE" version of the book. There are several. In fact, we don't even know how many was made during the 1000 year period the book was in use. This leads to a problem when translating it, Which version should one translate from? Some of the found versions are not even complete, and they can differ pretty largely.
And the big question for us modern readers: Which translation is the best?
I found this to be a bit of a problem and after having bought many versions of the book, I have finally come to the conclusion that the answer is twofold:
The first edition I recommend is Penguin Classics ( ISBN-13: 978-0140455502 )
This book is currently 992 pages and contains many different version of the original text. In fact it is based heavily on E.A Wallis Budges translations of this text and was published in 1899 an then again in 1909.
It is probably the most complete version of the book in English.
It's also penguin, so it's paperback and doesn't cost more then 17 dollars new and can be found on ebay for under about 10 bucks.
http://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Book-Dea ... K3B9EJ0582
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The second version I recommend is The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day. (ISBN-13: 978-1452144382)
Now, the reason why I recommend two books is because the first one is a bit dry to read. It's meant to be a scholarly edition with comparative material. And as I said, it derives from many different sources.
This book on the other hand is completely different. It is a faithful reproduction of the Ani papyrus. One of the most elaborated and beautiful versions ever found of the original text.-
This book is 9x14 inches large and weighs in at a whopping 3 pounds.
Every page includes the full illustrated Egyptian version in color and then the English translation underneath. (There is a hardcover limited edition that is even larger, but the one sold to the public is big enough and expensive enough).
It's only 170 pages compared to the 1000 page brick that the other book is, but it is amazing to look at.
The one linked to is the 20th revised edition. It contains new photographies from the British museum and some of the old pictures has been replaced with new digitally scanned version for greater detail.
It contains the Faulkner translation of the text and has been reworked by both Goelet and J. Daniel Gunther. The former an expert on esoteric symbolism.
The downside is that it costs over 20 dollars. With shipment I paid closer to 30....
And of course, it won't fit into most bookcases.
http://www.amazon.com/Egyptian-Book-Dea ... f+the+dead
