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Rating: 
Summary: Raffel's Translation
Review: As other reviewers have said, Raffel's rendition is too Americian-colloquial. Indeed all his translations suffer this problem. Just read his Rabelais. Mr. Raffel is no doubt a very talented man; no American literary translator, as far as I know, directly translate so many different languages into English: Old and Modern French, Saxon, Latin, Spanish, Catalan, Indonesian...but I think his indulgence in Americanism prevent him from being an even greater translator. Lastly, one has to appreciate any effort of rendering Cervante's Spanish into English, which is no less impossible than putting Dante into German, considering the huge differences between Romanic and Germanic languages.
Rating: 
Summary: You should go, as people say, adventuring your way
Review: Don Quixote is a hairy mess of traveller's tales and adventures. It is also a truly wonderful book.
One moment you're rolling with laugher at the slapstick situations Don Quixote and Sancho find themselves in, and the next you're in awe of Sancho's simple and earthy wisdom or Don Quixote's erudition on why a career in arms is better than a career in letters. A stop at an inn becomes a diversion into a number of stories, such as "The Tale of Innapropriate Curiousity", which have little to do with the main characters but fit nonetheless with the overall flow of the book. In fact, these digressions work to its advantage as it means the chapters are short and fairly self-contained - perfect for dipping into before bed or on the train. While it is a long book, it is also a thoroughly rewarding one. Travelling with the Man from La Mancha and his sidekick for so many pages meant I got to know these characters better than any other I have read. Their behaviour in the innumerable mishaps and triumphs they encounter is at once familiar and surprising. Familiar because while Don Quixote and Sancho are, respectively, mad and foolish this does not exclude them from being wise, honest and upstanding. The interplay of these qualities make for many touching and memorable moments.
Rating: 
Summary: Raffel's Translation: A Little too American-colloquial
Review: I agree with the other reviewer that Edith Grossman's new (2003) translation is much better than Raffel's. On the whole, Don Quixote has been well served in English translations over the last three centuries. Raffel's is a very competent and at times brilliant translation, but at times it is much too colloquial and, specifically, too American. True, Cervantes wrote in a living, breathing Spanish, but it is always stately, never slangy. Raffel's effort is an American counterpart to the recent (Penguin, 2001) translation by John Rutherford. Rutherford's work abounds in Britishisms (e.g., "Just wait a jiff" . . . "small beer" . . . "codswallop" . . . "I'll be blowed, gents" . . . "a dab hand" . . . "bloke"). Raffel's Americanisms are not nearly as numerous, but he frequently omits deliberate archaisms and settles on too colloquial and/or contemporary an expression. He also, oddly, consistently subsitutes "dollar" for "real" and for some reason omits all the prelimary poetic material in Part I. Overall, Raffel's translation is very readable, which will be a boon for students and other first-time readers, but to attain its readability it often has to sacrifice authenticity. The John Ormsby translation, especially the revision made for the previous edition in the Norton series, was a major achievement and a real advance over all previous English translations. It still has a lot to commend it. In the last fifty years or so, though, Samuel Putnam's rendering (still available, in the Modern Library, in a very affordable edition with extensive notes) has been the best into American English. Putnam's is now superseded, I think, by Grossman's, which is fresh, lively, but never self-indulgent. The Raffel translation itself deserves three stars, but the excellent collateral material in the Norton edition in which it appears makes the volume worthy of a four-star rating. The five-star cudos, though, belong to Edith Grossman!
Rating:
Summary: I was once enthusiastic about this, but--
Review: I once thought very highly of this translation, and even recommended it to someone. I was thinking of buying it, and now after browsing it heavily in a bookstore, I'm glad I did not. I have opted for the Edith Grossman translation instead. This translation could almost be called "'Don Quixote' for the Under-Thirty Crowd". I am all for modern translations of this great work, and I fully support the idea of modernizing antiquated language in a translation and avoiding sounding heavy or old-fashioned. This is NOT the same as a translator being so eager to make a version of a great, but very old literary work accessible to those who wouldn't give it a second look that he or she makes it TOO informal. The language of this translation is almost ostentatiously colloquial, and I'm not trying to be a snob about this. Even the narration is deliberately phrased in as colloquial a manner as possible. Contractions abound all over the place, not only in the dialogue, but in the narration--something I frankly don't remember any other author doing when he or she is writing in the third person. I am not criticizing the translation for not being accurate--it is highly accurate, with some very ingenious English equivalents for obscure phrases. But there is not a single sentence that does not use an informal style of writing, and if one wants to get picky about it, it is very difficult to imagine a very well-educated sixteenth-century gentleman like Don Quixote speaking like this. And Raffel makes a catastrophic translation error at the beginning of the novel which apparently neither he, nor his editor, nor any critic has yet caught. In describing Alonso Quijana, the old gentleman who eventually becomes Don Quixote after going mad, Cervantes states something like "In short, the old gentleman so immersed himself in his books..", etc. Raffel actually writes, "In short, Don Quixote so immersed himself in his books", thus introducing the name "Don Quixote" in the narrative before Cervantes himself mentions it. The fact that this error has not been ponted out by ANYONE is proof of how blindly overpraised this translation has been. It is accurate, but it is too eager to be "readable" rather than great.
Rating:
Summary: Nice...
Review: I think this modern translation is a lot easier and more pleasant to read than Walter Starkie's version (and due to the simple language it reads a lot faster...) A child could read it. Indeed, the original novel mentions that it was thumbed by children. Though I'm still bothered by all the commas this guy uses and stuff like "more cow than sheep" in place of "more beef than mutton", but I'm probably being biased. I'd be interested to see what some of you think of the earlier translations if you've only read this one.
Rating:
Summary: The Best English Translation Out There
Review: I was a Spanish major in college, and could not have gotten through Cervantes' Don Quijote without this book. Honestly, if you truly want to UNDERSTAND the essence of his writing, and why it is so acclaimed, definitely read it in Spanish. Its not that the Norton Critial Edition does a poor job of translating, but rather that ANY book translated from one language to another is going to lose something. However, that said, if you are intent on reading el quijote, and need a guide to help understand/interpret Cervantes' writing in Spanish, then definitely use this book. The additional commentaries at the end were extremely useful in helping me write term papers, and they give you insight into the many different stances one can take when reading el quijote. This book is the best English translation out there.
Rating:
Summary: The Best English Translation Out There
Review: In preparation for a class on the Quijote in English that I will be teaching next semester I ordered this book with high hopes but was annoyed and disappointed at several things.
The first is the inexplicable (and unexplained) elimination of the series of laudatory poems that should appear at the beginning of the work, especially the brilliant conversation between Babieca and Rocinante.
I agree about the translator's tics that another reviewer has mentioned. (More cow than sheep). If you would care to join me in being curmudgeonly and know the original look at the mess that is made of the Bodas de Camacho.
I ran across the translator's use of the dollar as unit of currency (¡Virgen Santa! ¿A quién se le ocurre?) before reading Raffel's explanation in the translator's notes, and even after his reasonable explanation of the etimology of "dollar" I want my maravedíes back.
On the other hand, the supporting materials (articles more than footnotes, although these more gratifying than the endnotes that other Quijote translations use) are a strong selling point for this volume rather than the new Penguin translation done by John Rutherford. On the other hand, I think that Rutherford's translation is better.
In summary, I would rate this translation of the masterpiece Don Quijote de la Mancha a 3+. (The plus for not following the irritating English-language tradition of calling the work and the protagonist "Don Quixote".
Rating:
Summary: Miraculous translation. Miraculous book.
Review: My desert island choice? I think so. Funny as hell and beautifully written. How on earth did Cervantes create this sprawling masterpiece which sounds like it was written yesterday ALMOST 400 YEARS AGO? Before you ride into the sunset with "Don Quijote" take a look at Fadiman's brief synopsis in "The New Lifetime Reading Plan." But ignore his suggestions on translations, written BEFORE Raffel's peerless translation was published.
Rating:
Summary: more beef than mutton
Review: This translation is quite good and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a faithful English version of DQ. As for the novel itself, what is there left to say? In ten thousand years, people will still turn to the silly tales of this obscure Spaniard as one of the great sources of wisdom humanity has ever witnessed. As Blake writes so masterfully: They must soever believe a lie who see with not through the eye Ride on oh knight, ride on !
Rating:
Summary: A long book worth every moment
Review: Yes-the book is about 2,000 pages long. And yes, it is a couple hundred years old. DO NOT BE FOOLED! Don Quijote is an infinitely amusing character, and his sidekick, Sancho Panza, no less so. The myriad adventures escalate page by page into the most absurd charicature of an idealist, but you find yourself rooting for the absurd man, or at least rooting against the establishment. You are guaranteed to laugh every few pages, if not more often.
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