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.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the great novels
Review: This is a mammoth of a book. Spanning about 750 pages of small text in my edition, Don Quixote tells a story of how the Don became crazy from reading too many knight-romances and imagined the world to really be like that. Together with his faithful squire Sancho Panca, they traveled through Spain getting into adventure after adventure and beating after thrashing. That's the basic story. But the book has long ago been heralded as a profound one. Indeed, the two main characters are one of the strongest western archetypes. Firstly, it satirises texts like epics and romances which were very popular in the Middla Ages. Secondly, it presents Quixote's misguided idealism juxtaposed with the pragamatism of the world at large. As a result, we grow to love him and empathise with him. There may be no damsels in distress to save from monsters in Quixote's Spain but we still think of him as a noble spirit. This, I think is one of the main points of the book. Thirdly, the book being so long and complete gives so many details about life in Spain that it's an interesting feature in itself. The translation I read (Motteux) is ok but at times quite hard to follow. Be warned that the text is not an easy read! But the way it's told is rich with stories within stories and everything has a both a point and satiric value. The only reason I don't give the book 5 stars is that it really IS too long. I know Cervantes had all this to say but it gets a little counterproductive to have the Don struggle through sooo much. Still, I don't recommend abridged versions as so many incidents contain a gem that will get you to either smile or shudder that it's worth struggling through the masterpiece. All must read this amazing book. Funny, tragic, great.
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