Quantity:

More Buying Choices

28 used & new from �0.01

Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Don Quixote's Delusions: Travels in Castilian Spain (Paperback)

by Miranda France (Author) "This book starts with a funeral and ends with a christening, although neither of those events turned out to be quite what it seemed ..." (more)

3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

RRP:	�7.99
Price:	�7.19 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save:	�0.80 (10%)
	o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o

In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 2 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, November 10? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details

16 new from �1.00 12 used from �0.01

Other Editions:	RRP:	Our Price:	Other Offers:
Hardcover			23 used & new from �0.19

Frequently Bought Together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Bad Times In Buenos Aires

by Miranda France

3.9 out of 5 stars (21) �5.93

Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountain

by Jason Webster

4.9 out of 5 stars (8) �8.26

Duende: A Journey in Search of Flamenco

by Jason Webster

4.0 out of 5 stars (20) �5.83

My Father's Daughter

by Hannah Pool

4.5 out of 5 stars (4) �6.98

Don Quixote (Wordsworth Classics)

by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

3.9 out of 5 stars (12) �1.99

› Explore similar items

Product details

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Phoenix; New Ed edition (5 Sep 2002)
Language English
ISBN-10: 075381384X
ISBN-13: 978-0753813843
Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.2 x 2.2 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 433,319 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

(What is this?)

Spanish in Spain Malaga opens new browser window

www.instituto-picasso.com - 2 weeks course 238€ (4 lessons/day) 4 weeks course 445€ (4 lessons/day)

Learn Spanish in Spain opens new browser window

www.coined-spain.org - Choose the location you like best for your Spanish course. Book now!

Don Quijote opens new browser window

www.lastminute.com/hotels - Book the Don Quijote online and save at lastminute.com

Product Description

When in 1987 Miranda France spent a year living in Madrid, the post-dictatorship ebullience was at its height. Pornography and soft drugs were legalised alongside more basic freedoms, such as divorce, party-affiliation and kissing in the street. In 1998 she returned to make a journey through the great cities and towns of central Spain - Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, Salamanca and others. With the new prosperity, much has changed. But much has also endured, as she learns from the people she meets, who include a private detective, a shepherd, various nuns, two belly dancers and a Castilian separatist. She also discovers that Cervantes' DON QUIXOTE' published in 1605 and the most translated book after the Bible - is a work of genius which still helps to explain the Spanish character: today's Spaniards still suffer from Don Quixote's delusions, and are as stubborn, inflexible and unrealistic as they have always been.

About the Author

Miranda France was born in 1966 and was brought up in East Anglia and Sussex. She read Spainsh and Latin American Studies at Edinburgh University, which included a year in Madrid. In the early 1990s she lived in Brazil and Edinburgh and then Buenos Aires, and in 1996 she won the Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for a piece about her time in Buenos Aires. Her first book, Bad Times in Buenos Aires, was published in 1998. She lives with her husband and young son in London

Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
This book starts with a funeral and ends with a christening, although neither of those events turned out to be quite what it seemed. Read the first page

Explore More
Concordance

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

	89% buy the item featured on this page: Don Quixote's Delusions: Travels in Castilian Spain 3.0 out of 5 stars (1) �7.19
	11% buy Ghosts of Spain: Travels Through a Country's Hidden Past 4.2 out of 5 stars (47) �5.97

Explore similar items

Customer Reviews

1 Review

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

3.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars ENTERTAINING READ; BUT DEEPLY FLAWED, 11 Oct 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Don Quixote's Delusions: Travels in Castilian Spain (Hardcover)

This book is basically two books in one. The first, which is elegantly written, clever and entertaining, is a wonderful synopsis of Don Quixote interwoven with a colorful review of the literary and political interpretation of the book over the centuries.

The second part of the book is a superficial memoir of the author's student days in Madrid in the 1980's, as well as a visit at the end of the 1990's. The author's stated purpose in her student days of finding "revolutionaries" was just silly at the time and now seems dull in the re-telling. Her collection of friends were boring characters, intended to be interesting but really sort of shallow from the way she describes them. But most disturbing are the absurd generalizations she makes. For example, she passes along (a couple of times) someone's assertion that many middle class Spanish housewives work as prostitutes. That is just ridiculous. She quotes her friends assertions about conditions in Latin America but evidently knows nothing about the topic at all.

This book badly needed an assertive editor because it is well written but founders on its superficial generalizations about Spanish society. It also could have used a little more critical eye from the author when she looked at her friends.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all customer reviews...

.jsOffDisplayBlock { display: block; } .jsOffDisplayInline { display: inline; } .jsOffVisibility { visibility: visible; } .jsOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jsOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jsOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; } .jsOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jsOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayBlock { display: none; } .jqOnDisplayInline { display: none; } .jqOnVisibility { visibility: hidden; } .jqOnDisplayNoneBlock { display: block; } .jqOnDisplayNoneInline { display: inline; }