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Don Quixote
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Product Description
Product Description
Don Quixote, errant knight and sane madman, with the company of his faithful squire and wise fool, Sancho Panza, together roam the world and haunt readers' imaginations as they have for nearly four hundred years.
Translated with Notes by John Rutherford
Introduction by Roberto González Echevarría
Translated with Notes by John Rutherford
Introduction by Roberto González Echevarría
About the Author
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) , the son of a poor Spanish surgeon, achieved enormous success with the publication of the first part of Don Quixote in 1605.
John Rutherford is a fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, where he teaches Spanish and Spanish-American language and literature.
Roberto González Echevarríais Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literatures at Yale.
John Rutherford is a fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, where he teaches Spanish and Spanish-American language and literature.
Roberto González Echevarríais Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literatures at Yale.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe the First, Maybe the Best!,
By
This review is from: Don Quixote (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
This book is often referred to as the first modern novel, and written while Shakespeare was still putting on plays in the early 1600s, we can see why. It is also one of the best novels I've read, with some of the best characters in literature.The story follows the Don as he sallies forth as a knight errant in search of adventure, to win honour and fortune. Unfortunately, Quixote is not a knight but rather an old man with an unravelled mind infected by the reading of too many medieval romances depicting such deeds. The stage is set for a hilarious tale of hallucination and misadventure. With Sancho Panza his loyal squire he takes on spirits, evil enchanters and most famously, of course, giants in the form of windmills. As we follow the ingenious Hidalgo we find him increasingly endearing, his complete faith in everything he believes is disarmingly lovable while also disastrously funny. I found it a surprise that the comedy still holds up today, yet a man trying unsuccessfully against outlandish situations of his own making is very much a cornerstone of today's sitcoms and movies. The character is therefore a familiar one and immensely engaging. While we laugh at him, we can't help admiring his dedication and fearlessness, through these Don Quixote manages somehow to keep his dignity. Above all it is this characteristic that keeps our esteem for him so high. Sancho Panza, the lovable squire begins very much as a simple companion, only there to highlight the absurdities of the situations invented by the Don himself, but the character grows artfully throughout the adventure becoming indispensable for his simple wit and practicality. This so at odds with the high-minded madman leads to great comedy as conflict and friendship mix to form a subtly growing relationship that provides the foundation of the book. We also meet a whole host of characters during the course of the adventure, each with their own tale to tell. Using this, the author is able to entertain us with diverse digressions, and stories within stories that never allow the journey to get stale and boring. A must, must, MUST read. Hilariously absurd throughout as adventure piles on adventure and a new tale unfolds with every character met. Cervantes is a talented entertainer that treats his noble creation with a tenderness we can't help but share, while all the time haranguing him with all the humorous predicaments his malady makes possible. It WILL make you laugh, and if you have any heart it will also make you cry. Fantastic!
72 of 82 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
DON BOOK,
This review is from: Don Quixote (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
"Don Quixote is practically unthinkable as a living being. And yet, in our memory, what character is more alive?", said novelist Milan Kundera.Cervante's most important work, widely regarded as the world's first modern novel. This is the adventures of an idealistic Spanish nobleman who, as a result of reading many tales of chivalry, comes to believe that he is a knight who must combat the world's injustices. He travels with his squire, Sancho Panza, an uneducated but practical peasant. Don Quixote's mount is an old, bedraggled horse named Rocinante. Don Quixote travels in search of adventure, dedicating his actions of valor to a simple country girl whom he calls Dulcinea, seeing her as his lady. He sets himself the task of defending orphans, protecting maidens and widows, befriending the helpless, and serving the causes of truth and beauty. His imagination often runs away with him, so that he sees windmills as giants, flocks of sheep as enemy armies, and country inns as castles. Don Quixote's romantic view of the world, however, is often balanced by Sancho Panza's more realistic outlook. The completed work, however, presents a rich picture of Spanish life and contains many philosophical insights.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (37 customer reviews) 75 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Modern Translation,
By JR Pinto - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Don Quixote (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
Everyone should read Don Quixote at least once. It is the first modern novel ever written. It is also one of the longest - although, I don't see how it could be any shorter. The novel is actually two novels stuck together. Cervantes published the first half, which became an incredible success. Years later, he published the second part which relates the third salley of the Don. The effect that this has on the book is that all the major characters in the Part II have all ready read Part I, making the book incredibly self-referential. Cervantes also has fun in mocking a spurious Part II by another author that was published at the time.I do not speak Spanish - let alone 17th Century Castilian, so I was forced to read the novel in translation. I have never read another version, but John Rutherford's Penguin Classics version was satisfactory in every way. He does his best to retain Cervantes' humor, which is the most important aspect of the novel. Also, modern audiences my benefit from translation because it puts the book into the modern language - making a four-hundred-year-old book read fresh. As for the plot, a country hidalgo named Alonzo Quixano spends his time reading chivalric romances. One day, he decides to become a knight errant named Don Quixote (Sir Thighpiece). He convinces a simple neighbor who speaks in proverbs, Sancho Panza, to come along with him to be his squire. Quixote is crazy and Sancho is a fool - except that they seem to be preternaturally sane and wise when the chips are down. If you are only familiar with Man of La Mancha, the book is drastically different. Dulcinae never actually makes an appearance. Sancho is traveling along because he has been promised the governorship of an island - and he gets it! They just spend the book wandering around and getting into adventures. Personally I prefer the second part of the novel (the first is too digressive). Allow yourself some time, and enjoy this masterpiece of Western Literature. 24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent.,
By R. E. P. Esq. - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
The phrase 'ahead of it's time' is such a cliche that I tend to avoid it all together. Unfortunately, when trying to describe Don Quixote, no better phrase comes to mind. Written in the 1500's, this book is perhaps the first modern comedy. In Don Quixote's squire, Sancho Panza, you'll find traits later used in the ingenius Dickens' character Samuel Weller (Pickwick Papers) some 300 years later. And the craft of the language used by the translator of this new edition, along with their reassuring preface, gives me the impression that very little was lost in this translation, or at least this translation loses the least of other translations.This book, which is a little over 1000 pages (though heavily laden with appendixes) is a great read, and the only complaint I have is the clumsy handling of the translator's notes. There is a lot of Latin quoting in the book, along with references to other chivalric novels, and rather than simply supplying a foot note, they've decided to place all of these in the back of the book, which add a lot of page flipping and unnecessary interruptions to your reading if you want to know and understand everything that's happening. Hopefully in the next edition of this translation, they will correct this. I gave this book 5 stars because it's such an excellent book in itself excellently translated, that I decided it more than worthy of the rating, but if the lack of foot notes bothers you, you may want to disqualify it. 16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good New Translation of an Old Classic,
By Edward V. Killeen "One of the last literates." - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Don Quixote (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
DON QUIXOTE was written exactly 400 years ago. Therefore as you can imagine it has been reviewed countless times already. It is called Europe's first narrative novel. I can only comment on the present translation, which I consider excellent. It sticks to the original Spanish in the important ways, but is not slavish ... lots of "thee", "thou" and "thy" have been modernized without really affecting the gist or the flavor of the story.
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