Don Quixote (Classics Collection)

Rating:
Summary: Where to begin?
Review: How do I, a literary amateur, rate a book nearly 400 years old that has been acclaimed by not a few scholarly experts as the greatest novel ever written? I feel a bit like the boy who had the temerity to point out that the emperor was naked, for I have failed to award Don Quixote five stars. Judged by modern-day standards, Cervantes could be accused of sloppiness. He confuses the chronology of his own storyline in several places, though this is as charming as it is perplexing. Seeking to satirically skewer the tales of chivalrous knights-errant popular at the time, Cervantes presents us with Quixote, a loveable madman, and his squire, Sancho Panza, who fluctuates between utter naivete and admirable sagacity throughout. The pair are nothing if not endearing. Sallying forth to right wrongs, assist the down-trodden, and punish the wicked, the two find themselves in a pragmatic and cynical world, astonished and humored by the lunatic idealism of Quixote and the simpleminded fealty of his squire.

Over the course of 5 weeks I read Don Quixote and the experience was varied. At times enthralled, at times merely mildly amused, I looked eagerly forward to resuming the book and, on occasion, half-heartedly attempted to avoid it. To be blunt, there is much in the book that borders on childlike innocence, but there is much as well that strikes a deep chord of love, idealism, perserverence, and grace. On the surface, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza could be regarded as fools. Beneath this foolishness, however, lie the hearts of lions and an unconquerable spirit which provide the ultimate reward to the reader.

The book ends abruptly and badly. After so many adventures through so many pages it was disappointing to behold the manner in which Cervantes opted to close. However, this should by no means dissuade the potential reader. Indeed, Don Quixote, for everything wonderful contained within it, should be read by all. For those who choose to do so, the Putnam translation is outstanding and footnoted with excellent detail.

Rating:
Summary: Much Madness is Divinest Sense
Review: O, Don Quixote de la Mancha, cream and flower of knight errantry! Your adventures and exploits are endlessly entertaining and edifying!

This is a novel which can be taken at its own pace, sprawling, epic - but which most likely you will take much faster. I began reading the novel following the most recent film adaptation with John Lithgow and Bob Hoskins. I have been engrossed, enthralled, and enchanted since I picked up this antique tome. "Don Quixote" is not simply A novel - it is THE novel. In Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Cervantes gave, and continues to give two of the most beautifully rendered personalities, whom you come to know and treasure, and whose names will be "written in the book of fame for all future ages".

From the Duke and Duchess to the writer-convict Gines, to Sampson Carrasco and the priest, Cervantes portrays individuals, not just character-types, from all social backgrounds and contexts, enriching further the story of the Knight of the Sad Countenance and his faithful squire.

In terms of narrative, it is clear how "Don Quixote" influenced countless other works from Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" to Herman Melville's "The Confidence-Man". "Don Quixote" is very much a narrative concerned with its own existence as a text. From Cervantes continually reminding the reader of his own duty as the translator of Quixote's adventures from Benengeli, to the Don's own preoccupation in the novel's second half with an "unauthorized biography" of himself written by a hack, to the various interpolated stories throughout the novel - narrative awareness and attention to the ways in which narrative and language functions are fascinating components of this work.

Perhaps the most important lessons the novel has to teach come from the mouth of the proverb-spitting Sancho Panza, whose physical presence underlines the substance of his words. Truly, Sancho is the novel's most intriguing character. His distance from, and simultaneous involvement in, Don Quixote's adventures give the novel an internal critic and observer, who pairs nicely with the external point of view provided by Cervantes.

In sum, "Don Quixote" is well worth your time - with short chapters, you can read a lot at once, or take it one bit at a time. Either way, pick this novel up, and let it become part of you.

Rating:
Summary: 4 and 1/2 Stars
Review: One of the great classics of world literature, Don Quixote is very often called the greatest novel of all-time. Many also see it as the first modern novel, the precursor to all novels that have come since; some, indeed, even call it the first true novel ever written. Certainly, it is both world-famous -- almost all people, whether they've tackled this 1,000+page monster or not, seem to know about the "terrifying and never-before-heard of adventure of the windmills" -- and extremely influential upon all literature that has come since. The great Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky thought it was the best thing ever written; it was clearly one of Mark Twain's primary inspirations for Huck Finn.

The book has endured and remained popular and influential for four hundred years for several reasons. For one, the character of Don Quixote himself is immortal. One of the most famous characters in all literature, he has appeared in various forms throughout the centuries -- on the page, on the stage, on the screen. Clearly a huge influence upon a multitude of subsequent literary characters, he is one of the great archetypes in literature. Also, the story itself works on several levels. On one level, it is a highly comic adventure that can be read and enjoyed by everyone; a hugely-popular both upon release and still today, this is probably the main reason why it has lasted four centuries. Even at this later date, the book contains scenes that are laugh-out-loud funny, its jokes running the gamut from the most base level of slapstick to ringing burlesque and satire. Despite the novel's length, it is a very entertaining book and rarely slow: it can actually be an exciting and fast-paced read, if one chooses to view it merely as an adventure. However, on a deeper level, the novel, fascinatingly, does several different things at once, and all very well. To begin with, it is a truly immortal satire, both on the outdated and hopelessly idealistic chivalric code itself and on the romantic books of knight-errantry that proclaimed their virtues and were extremely popular at the time Cervantes wrote this work. Wit is abundant and ever-present.

As an author, Cervantes clearly had several tricks up his proverbial sleeve when writing this; he employs literary devices so charming, amusing, and inventive that they have never been equaled since. Indeed, this book was so very far ahead of its time that it makes many of the supposedly revolutionary post-modern novels seem mainstream and absolutely traditional by comparison. For, after all, this is a book about books; it is, thus, the ultimate self-reflexive text. As the introduction in this edition points out, the book actually tells two stories: that of Don Quixote, and that of the novel's composition itself. The number of self-references made in it can only be called ingenious. Several circumstances informed this. The mammoth book, as we know it today, was originally published in two halves, over a decade apart. Throughout, Cervantes constantly reminds us that the book is a book; in the second part, even the characters are aware of this, making for an intensely amusing and clever read. Also, before Cervantes published the second part, an impostor author released his own spurious sequel. Cervantes, responding in kind, changed the course of the book and wrote the apocryphal sequel into his own sequel, in addition to the first part of his own narrative! It isn't as confusing as it sounds -- indeed, it's quite delightful and inventive -- but the author himself, infamously, lost the course of his own narrative several times and lapsed into error. Of course, this, too, is noted later on in the book and commented upon as well. Literature as a whole is also commented upon. The author, in the second part, even addresses the criticisms of the first part, such as its digressions (which he defends, but stays away from in Part II) and its loose ends. The scene where the curate is selecting which books to burn and which to save is one of the most satirically-amusing ever written.

The book, for all of its burlesque and even occasional lack of seriousness, also brings several important questions to light. What is reality? What makes one noble? If one does noble and brave deeds only because one is deluded, is one then noble in reality, or merely a poor farce and a walking joke? For these, and many other reasons, Don Quixote is a classic that deserves to be read by all.

Rating:
Summary: Marvelous book - much better than the movies and play
Review: The play Man of La Mancha was uplifting in its way, but was also very depressing. The movie versions of Don Quixote were also downers. But the book ... this is a winner! It's beautiful. It's also really funny.

There are no major villains in the book. The rich and powerful people who mock the old man do it gently, in fun, almost lovingly. Even the man who defeats Don Quixote isn't evil - he's just trying to help. In the end, his supposed enemies are by his side, encouraging him to continue his quest.

Don Quixote is a man who actually lives out his dreams. That's one thing I'll never do. He's very brave, although that starts to slip in Part Two. He's a dear man. His squire Sancho Panza is a riot. Sometimes it's hard to tell which of the two is the star.

This book is a love story, not between Don Quixote and Dulcinea, but between him and his friend Sancho, between him and most of the characters he meets, and between Sancho and his donkey. It can also be a love story between the reader and the characters.

There are some faults. Every book is a product of its time and place, and this book was written in an offensively authoritarian and antisemitic place and time. Somehow even though Cervantes soaked up the faults of his society he still wrote a wonderful book.