Rating: 
Summary: A Must-Read!
Review:
In the village of La Mancha, we are told, lives a fairly well-off gentleman of around fifty years of age. He enjoys hunting, and collecting old weapons. An avid reader of romantic literature concerning knights, maidens and other such fancies, he whiles away most of the hours of his life in the pursuit of his fantasies. Eventually, these fantasies begin to overtake his sense. Indeed, a point of no return is reached, and this man decides that it is the meaning of his life to become a knight-errant himself, and roam the world righting wrongs.
In short time he has cleaned up some of his weapons and armor, and chosen for himself a new name more befitting as he sees it for a knight-to-be. He has selected a maiden to be his romantic driving force, albeit that she is a well-muscled farm hand, able to toss a bail of hay to the besting of any man in the region, and saddled his decrepit horse. He is now Don Quixote, who rides the brave stallion Rosinante, and does all endeavor for that flower that calls herself Dulcinea of Toboso.
Soon enough in his career he is "knighted" by the first person he meets who neither offends him enough to get beaten, nor disdains him enough to laugh themselves silly right to his face. Thus endowed with the right to carry arms, Don Quixote returns to his village and recruits his impossibly simple neighbor Sancho Panza to be his squire. He promises great riches, shares in the great kingdoms he will win, and other prizes enough to convince the staggeringly gullible Sancho Panza to accompany him on his endless adventures. Thus does the pair launch themselves upon the world!
From here on in, the course of their adventures follows a familiar course. Mad as a march hare, and utterly convinced that he is the greatest paladin of his age, Don Quixote does not see the world with anything close to sane vision. Every grotty inn they pass by is a castle; his eye into a castellan transforms each beer-stained fat publican. Every woman is a fair maiden, likely as not recently robbed of her kingdom, and any who do not share Don's vision are deserved of the sharp end of his lance, which he readily doles out at a moments notice.
Naturally there are occasions where, as one might predict, people are bound to point out to Don Quixote that nobody else sees things his way. Such persons, and indeed the illusory nature of their warped perception are caused invariably by an enchantment, cast about them and the place they are found by evil wizards, intent on preventing Don Quixote from his great works for good.
In short then, he is quite mad, and Sancho Panza is an idiot.
Their adventures lead them again and again into misunderstandings with every inhabitant of the regions over which they roam. If there is a way to misperceive the current situation, you can bet Don Quixote will find it. No matter how straightforward an event they encounter, be it a couple of monks making their way (clearly evil wizards) or a few people at the local pub having a bit of a party (clearly a bunch of enchanted demons) Don Quixote is ever ready with noble ideals, sharp weapons, and bad judgment to right all wrongs, or wrong all rights, depending on your viewpoint!
And thus, give or take a few turns, proceeds the plot!
Devoid really of any firm plot, except perhaps the long-winded plan by his townsfolk to return Don Quixote to his village, Don Quixote is a rambling slapstick, filled with satire, jokes and double-entendres. For a book that was first published in 1605, the sheer hilarity of the humor in this book took me completely by surprise. Of course, really and truly there is no good reason that anyone should think that the peoples of the middle ages had any less sense of humor than today, but to my delighted surprise, Don Quixote went on my shortlist of books virtually guaranteed to make true tears of laughter roll down my face. Indeed, it often surprises other people who ask me for a good book to read when I tell them that if they are after a good laugh, Don Quixote is the way to go. And the new Edith Grossman text is the best version yet! Do yourself a big favor and pick up a copy of this great sprawling masterpiece now! Along with this version of Don Quixote, I'd like to recommend another quick Amazon pick: WILL@epicqwest.com (a medicated memoir) by Tom Grimes, which almost serves as a modern day reinterpretation of the epic quest ("epicqwest," get it?)
Rating:
Summary: The best book ever written!!
Review: "Dom Quixote de La Mancha", authored by Miguel de Cervantes is, in my opinion and also in the opinion of many others, the best book ever written. It is a bedside book, a kind of magical book, because it changes every time in your life that you get back to it, keep coming back in a total different way and perspective, adding new content to your reading and, most important, to your life. The text is exquisitely rich and it seems that Cervantes always choose the right word for the right situation, something which makes the task of the translator simply phenomenal in its scope, because translating Cervantes is a contradiction in terms. It is impossible to translate him or transport the reader to the sense meaning in each Spanish word, its flavor, its colors, and so on, but the English text does the best it can be done, given the impossibility of the task. In a way, the life of Cervantes was to be compared to the life of Luis de Camoes, the most important Portuguese poet and the author of "The Lusiads", who, as happened with Cervantes, fougth for his life in colonizing battles. Camoes lost his eyesight in one of such battles and Cervantes lost his left arm, as he says, "to the glory of the right (arm)". But whilst The Lusiads celebrates the saga of the Portuguese people, Dom Quixote ridicules the medieval tales of European ancient knighthood, characterising Dom Quixote as a windmill stormer, which he thinks are giants trying to assail his muse Dulcinea del Toboso. Cervantes became famous in his lifetime due to the publication of the first volume of Dom Quixote, but was always assailed by the ghost of a apocriphal sequel, which delustred himself a lot, were not to the publication of the second volume of the book some 10 years later, where he gives a terminal end to Dom Quixote so he could not any more bother him with fakes. He died in poverty but was to be known by generations to come as the father of the Spanish language, the man who gave it its contours and shape, a phenomenal task in itself.
Rating: 
Summary: Not A Natural Sense of Rhythm
Review: A very good translation but it seems to me that it lacks the grace of the recent Penguin translator's work. Though this woman is considered well as a translator, this piece of work makes me fear for what the next translation may bring. There may be less in this translation that falls gracefully on my ear, and since I hear what I read, as a matter of course, this can be a special problem.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Depth
Review: An Excellent Translation That Adds A Great Deal To The Story That I Thought I Might Already Know But Now Know More About.
Rating:
Summary: A parable in place of a review
Review: As it is somewhat ridiculous to think to write a review of what many regard as the first novel, and many as the greatest novel I will instead try to say one word about the book by way of a parable in a style which comes I believe from a Kafka parable on Quixote.
In all the worlds of this world there is one world in which a knight a noble reader of stories of chivalry embarks with his squire a most humble and humorous Sancho Panza on the journey of contending with the dark enemies along the way whose sole intention is to deprive him of the glory he will receive for saving his Dulcinea and his world from the Enemies' vindictive and malicious schemes. In the course of this journey he converses with his squire who proves to be as down- to - earth and clever as he is ethereal and illusory. And in their dialogue there is much pleasure for the reader even as one blends with the other and in time Sancho too makes impossible dreams his destiny. Whether these two friends are ILLUSION AND REALITY , APPEARANCE AND REALITY or whatever categories we understand them in their journey says something profound and amusing to us about our own individual journeys through the world. And we begin to understand ourselves as perhaps as strange and as remarkable as they are.
This is one of the great books, one of those which demands reading and rereading.
It can be difficult and boring and long- winded and digressive at times, but there are pages and passages which will provide such insight and humor that we will feel our common humanity stronger through them.
Rating:
Summary: Don't judge a book by it's cover
Review: But in this case I must say the cover is gorgeous. This is the best English translation of Cervantes that I've come across. Highly entertaining and accessable, Edith Grossman's translation flows smoothly in English without sacrificing any of the spirit of the original work. Cervantes story comes to life again and the result is a joyous reading experience. This is a book to savor and enjoy slowly. It is a great night table book to pick up and read a chapter or two a day. A beautiful addition to anyone's personal library.
Rating:
Summary: Playful, funny, and clearly a masterpiece
Review: Cervantes' _Don Quixote_ is at least passingly familiar to all of us - his battling with the windmills, the delusions of grandeur. What remained with me, however, was the playfulness of the book. Cervantes clearly was having fun with the character and his reader. The humor and good-naturedness of the book was reinforced by the frequent translators notes, which I found helpful in pointing out "inside jokes" as well as in providing clarification.
On another level, _Don Quixote_ is a masterpiece of social commentary, as Quixote parodys the mannerisms and airs of the aristocracy and learned, which was rapier-sharp satire. The stories, adventures and misfortunes are too numerous to list; but it is a worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Book that Contains a Bit of Everything
Review: DON QUIXOTE is my all time favorite book, but, as much as I love it, I really didn't like reading those huge, pages-long paragraphs. In a book more than 1000 pages in length, those paragraphs eventually got to be quite unwieldy. Edith Grossman has, in my opinion, given us a wonderful translation of DON QUIXOTE and she has broken up the long paragraphs into more manageable chunks. And, like Pevear and Volokhonsky do for the Russian classics, Edith Grossman has made DON QUIXOTE sound even more Spanish, even more seventeenth century, than older, more awkward translations. Anyone who thinks they are going to find a "modern" Don Quixote in the pages of this translation couldn't be more wrong. Don Quixote, The Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance, is still very seventeenth century, but there is also a timeless quality to this book, much like ANNA KARENINA, that I think should appeal to almost everyone. Don Quixote was, I think, the very first "Everyman." He's charming and chivalric; he's sorrowful and melancholy; he's romantic and good; he's comic and long-suffering. He's a man who only wants to see a better world and a better self...and love his Dulcinea, of course. I think every character Shakespeare (who, coincidentally, died on the same day in 1616 as did Cervantes) or Dickens (and many other authors) ever created has a little of Don Quixote in him and I think this is a huge part of the book's timeless quality. Although it's the extraordinarily rich characterizations that make this book the classic it is, I also love the sense of place and the stylistic devices employed. Could DON QUIXOTE take place anywhere but in Spain? I don't think so. This book is so "Spanish" that even if one were to read it and not be told the exact locale, seventeenth century Spain would simply leap from the pages. At least it did for me. I felt transported back to a very different time. A time that, in some ways, was gentler and more charming, and a time that in many other ways, was exceedingly cruel. Many people, when referring to DON QUIXOTE, only talk about its comic and picaresque qualities. I have to wonder if those people have read the entire book if they were "victims" of teachers who simply assigned "portions" of the book to be read. This book has it all. Yes, it is comic and picaresque. But it is also profoundly sad and tragic, bittersweet and poignant, sentimental and realistic. It is a strange mix of reality and fantasy, of the real and the imagined. Structurally, DON QUIXOTE is a very sophisticated book and there are novellas and plays and even poetry wrapped in this huge, wondrous novel. For me, at least, they make the book all the more fascinating, though I do know readers who found DON QUIXOTE structurally frustrating or annoying. Much of that annoyance, I think, has been stripped away in Grossman's lovely translation. There is also a wonderful blend of fantasy and reality in DON QUIXOTE. As I've already said, the "Spanishness" of this novel cannot be understated. And Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, Dulcinea and yes, even Rosinante are real, fully-fleshed out characters. But there are so many other characters in this book who make only brief appearances and are the product of Quixote's (and Cervantes's) imagination...just as are the famous windmills and Quixote's quest for a better, more perfect world. The book ends on a pitch perfect note, one that combines the tragic and comic, the real and the fantastic. Most people, I think, are familiar with the ending of DON QUIXOTE, but just in case you aren't, I don't want to ruin it here, because, if you're a first time reader of this wonderful book you certainly in for a real, and rare, treat. DON QUIXOTE has been called the "first modern novel." It really doesn't matter if it is or it isn't. What does matter is that it is a fascinating, one-of-a-kind reading experience that shouldn't be overlooked by anyone.
Rating:
Summary: One of a kind
Review: Don Quixote is rightfully considered one of the all-time great works of literature. It is probably one of the most accessible and timeless novels on any list of great books. By accessible, I mean that it's a funny and touching story with clear mass appeal. By timeless, I mean that because the characters are so well developed (especially Don Quixote and Sancho) it is very easy for us to relate to their emotions and understand their actions even today. Reading this novel, I felt that I was sharing an experience with the Spanish public who read this book in the 17th century, and I understand why they enjoyed it. I have read one other translation, and enjoyed it about equally, though I think most people will prefer Grossman's version. I am glad that this new translation has reignited interest in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Hail Knight of the Sorrowful Face!
Review: Edith Grossman's newest translation of Miguel de Cervantes's "Don Quixote" is fabulous. As someone who grew up watching various incarnations of "The Man of La Mancha", I felt it was time to read the source material. But I was always afraid that the language (old timey as well as Spanish) would be a major hinderance to my enjoyment of the text. Grossman presents the adventures of Knight-Errant Don Quixote and his able (if slightly dimwitted) squire, Sancho Panza, with a fresh, contemporary voice. As I read the novel, I was pleasantly surprised at how accessible the language was. I got the feeling I was reading and enjoying the novel the same way one of Cervante's contemporaries would have. The novel is funny, sad and violent, sometimes all three at the same time. I highly recommend this latest translation.
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