Don Quixote

Rating:
Summary: Faulkner's Favorite
Review: Faulkner said Don Quixote was his favorite book and that, along with The Bible, he dipped into it yearly. I'm not sure what Cervantes would have made of some of Faulkner's more troublesome work, but the world has designated Don Quixote the Father of the Modern Novel and perhaps the greatest novel ever. I'm a fan of this book and a habitual (some would say neurotic) comparer of translations. Since I don't read of speak Spanish, I have to rely on the English translations that have been published. There are three that are worthwhile: Ormsby's, Samuel Putnam's and now Edith Grossman's. Grossman, who is the translator of Garcia Marquez's books into English, has produced a translation that's contemporary and authentic--somehow, not an oxymoron. It has a fresher feel than Putnam's (the translation Nabokov used when teaching the book), though I wouldn't say it supplants Putnam. If you're looking for a copy of Don Quixote in English, Grossman's translation is a good first choice. She manages to maintain the feel of the language Cervantes wrote in (as far as I can tell) yet her translation, as the NY Times reviewer noted, is as readable as the latest novel from Philip Roth. You can't go wrong with Putnam or Grossman, but on this one, I have to give the nod to Grossman.

Rating:
Summary: A gorgeous book
Review: First of all, I absolutely love this book. It was about a year between the time I bought it and actually got around to reading it, as it's near-1,000 pages of 400 year old writing can seem daunting at first. But, as has been said before, this book is as 'timeless' as they come. It seems alot of the reviewers are missing a major point, however, which I would like to delve into. Perhaps (them missing this point) comes from them reading it as a 'comedy' or reading merely sections of it for a class. But taking this book in as a whole, one cannot help but be moved pretty profoundly.
I mean, yeah, this book is funny as hell!!! I laughed SO hard when Don Quixote and Sancho are at the Inn for the first time, and Don Quixote makes his elixer. And it didn't set so well with either him or Sancho, and almost killed poor Sancho. If you've read it, you know what I'm talking about:)
But the beauty of this book lies in the fact that Don Quixote is living a complete lie. And he seems to know that at times... most of the time, no, but every once in a while it seems like he kind of knows. But it isn't important. What's important is that he KNOWS that he MUST be a knight, that it is the only way for him to live. Screw the world. He'll save damsels in distress (or not) and damn the torpedoes. And believing with all your soul in something that no one else thinks exists, thats something I think one can relate to alot. And another beautiful touch: alot of the people he meets along the way at first are all like 'Your CRAZY man' but they ALL get swept up in it eventually. It's almost like secretly everyone wants to believe.
Truely an amazing book, and one that will find you at page 100, looking ahead to the next 900 pages and instead of thinking 'Bummer! Lots to go' you'll just grin a hungry grin.

Rating:
Summary: Best Translation Ever Published
Review: Grossman's translation and many interesting footnotes not only answer questions raised by past translations, but her thorough research makes Cervantes' writing immensely funnier.
Without a doubt, this translation into English is the best ever done.

Rating:
Summary: Cervantes is Brilliant !
Review: Having resolved to read more literature - not just my stodgy professional journals - I picked this volume off the shelf prior to my vacation this past summer. The book took me a while to read, but I went back to it at every opportunity. The story is captivating, and the characters absolutely brilliant.

Compared to the scientific stuff I usually read, the sentecnes were looong and filled with a wordiness I have seldom encountered. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the story immensely and highly recommend this work to anyone looking for a truly great read. I can easily see why my friends in the English department rave over this book, and I think my friends in the math department will also fall in love with Cervantes, albeit for very different reasons.

Too bad I can't give this book a rating of SIX STARS!

Rating:
Summary: A spectacular translation
Review: I first read Quixote seriously in the Putnam, and was completely swept away by it - the prose was just as readable as it is here, and Putnam communicated a love for the text in his notes (as well as a hatred for the translators that had butchered it before) that was a nice accompaniment to the actual story. Grossman's language is smoother, and I suppose Putnam's prose does have the dust of fifty odd years on it - but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I don't mind if an old book reads a bit like an old book: slightly dated English gives a book a certain flavor. I like Putnam for the same reason I enjoy Maude's translations of Tolstoy. Grossman does write a better sentence, I think, and she certainly doesn't make the book any more colloquial than Cervantes did - although I was annoyed at her constantly having Sancho say Wassup. Putnam's Quixote, incidentally, is filled with notes: more notes than most people who aren't scholars will want. Every one of Sancho's proverbs is explained (and those aren't exactly the comic high point of the book, either) and he constantly takes potshots at Motteux and other translations, a la Nabokov when he translated A Hero of Our Time. They're sort of funny, but eventually you want him to get out of the way of Quixote, which is what one actually wants to read - not the translator's thoughts. Then again, a note can easily be skipped, and it's nice to have the extensive information that Putnam packs in, about the historical situation in Spain, potential variant readings of a passage, all the brouhaha about the fake second half of Don Quixote that actually ends up having a part in the book - and lots of other stuff.Still, a good translation of a book that can be read a hundred times in a hundred different ways is always worthwhile. Don Quixote truly never stops being funny or sad (especially when you know which parts can be skipped the second and third time around) - people who expect a dreary classic will be surprised to find an author that is as relevant today as he ever was.

Rating:
Summary: Muy Bien!
Review: I really enjoyed reading the book Don Quixote. The plot seemed to move along nicely and there weren't too many dull moments. At times, Miguel de Cervantes would detail certain events a little bit too much and they got a bit lengthy, but the book itself was great. Each quest that Don Quixote embarks on is origional and entertaining, and Sancho, his trusty sidekick, is there to fish Don Quixote out of any predicament he may have gotten himself into. This book is for those with a good imagination and sense of humor. I highly reccommend it!

Rating:
Summary: What a revelation
Review: I was actually a bit apprehensive about picking up this book; luckily, I put my faith in some reviewers I like and gave it a go. My only prior exposure to Cervantes had been in HS English, where we were assigned the 'good' chapters and allowed to skip the rest.

As a result, we completely missed both the humor and the incredible sadness of this book.

[on a non-related tangent, I think we should ban the teaching of literature in high schools. the classes do nothing but make youth hate great books].

I was really worried that Don Quixote would be nothing more than an endless series of one-note sketches involving windmills. Hence it was a nice surprise to discover the depth, variety, and beauty of the varying adventures -not to mention an incredible array of wonderful characters beyond the knight and his squire.

Still, getting through the book was at times a chore. The long passages about Amadis of Gaul might have been clever then but don't hold up now. And the Jane Austen-style endings of the various love affairs [everyone ends up marrying beautiful and rich spouses] seemed at odds with the air of melancholy surrounding Don Quixote.

Ah well. Minor quibbles, really. I'm now pushing the book on resistant friends.

Rating:
Summary: Underwhelmed
Review: I'm an avid reader that was excited to read a long put-off classic of literature. While I appreciated Cervantes's use of language and his palpable desire to entertain his reader, I failed to find the story or the characters engaging, and at all times was mindful of them as tools of an author trying to be clever. Really, I am surprised myself, as I was looking forward to reading this novel. Perhaps I failed to find him funny because I was reared on comedy that was derivative of him (some might say). Either way, I give it 4 stars because his use of language is a great thing for any lover of writing to witness, even if they can't relish it, and this edition is certainly well done.

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: [e-mail] (a medicated memoir) by Tom Grimes, which almost serves as a modern day reinterpretation of the epic quest ("epicqwest," get it?)

Rating:
Summary: One of the most delightful and enjoyable of all the classics
Review: Let's face it: some of the great classics are a chore to read. PILGRIM'S PROGRESS and ROBINSON CRUSOE are not exactly page turners. Even Dante and Shakespeare, as rewarding as they can be, are not always easy to read. But DON QUIXOTE is that rare classic that is both utterly delightful and extraordinarily easy to read. Like all classics, the more effort you put into understanding this great book the more your efforts are rewarding, but what amazes me about Cervantes's masterpiece is how amazingly effortless reading it is. It is not at all misleading to describe the volume as a page turner.

DON QUIXOTE is such a marvelously complex and rich book that everyone's reading of the novel will be unique. My delight in the book stems from two main sources. First is Cervantes's miraculous gift as a storyteller. Although the novel is without any possible question one of the four or five most influential works of literature in history, every chapter seems eternally fresh and enchanting. Everyone knows at least something about the book, usually about Don Quixote and Sancho Panza and the incident of the windmills, and many imagine that from this they have some notion of what the novel is like. But these impressions rarely hint at Cervantes's genius as a spinner of tales, of his playfulness, of his acute sense of humor, his originality, and his inventiveness. Though we like to imagine that we "know" Don Quixote, Cervantes manages to surprise the reader on nearly every page. He is especially delightful in the second half of the novel, published several years after the first part, which allows Cervantes to depict Quixote and Sancho as famous celebrities because of the success of the first half. Whereas in the first half they labored in obscurity, in the second half they reign as celebrities. Cervantes also jousts with the real life author of an unauthorized second half to DON QUIXOTE.

Second, I find the novel delightful for the richness and brilliance of the two central characters. Don Quixote is a character about whom it is possible to say many true things, without thereby exhausting what it is possible to say. He is insane-and despite 20th and 21st century attempts to celebrate this as an attempt to condemn the insanity of society of a whole and assert an alternative form of rationality, we are not intended to admire his insanity. This is not CATCH-22. Rather, Cervantes sees Quixote's insanity as an affliction. In terms of early 17th century psychology, Quixote goes insane from a drying up of the brain induced by staying up too many nights reading books on chivalry (it was thought at the time that the brain gradually dried up while staying awake and remoisturized at night while asleep). Many of Quixote's moments of greatest folly occur after nights spent without sleep, and his sanity at the end of the book is restored after finally managing to sleep for several hours. Despite this (though not because of it), Quixote is a lovable and admirable character. We hurt for him, but we admire his genuine physical courage, his high moral principles, his devotion to his cause, and his powerful sense of justice. Equally delightful is Sancho Panza, who seems incapable of uttering anything without it being imbued with unintentional humor. Indeed, many of my favorite parts of the book are those where Sancho simply starts talking. The two, of course, enjoy a host of "adventures," but these are mainly just excuses to provide settings for Quixote and Sancho to shine. As readers we care less about their next adventures than for the opportunity and privilege of spending time in their company.

One commentator in the documentary on Terry Gilliam's failed attempt to film DON QUIXOTE correctly points out that the more we see Don Quixote suffer under his insanity, the more we come to care for and love him. This is a profound truth. No matter how delusional he becomes, we want things to end well for him, but worry that perhaps his madness has gone too far, and indeed if there is a tragic moment in the book it is when he returns home to his village defeated.

This is truly one of the great books every written, and of all the classics, one of the most readable and loveable.