| | |  | Mike Bonifer | Home » » Don Quixote | | | | | | | Description: | | Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece. Widely regarded as one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the adventures of the self-created knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. You haven't experienced Don Quixote in English until you've read this masterful translation. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more. | | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9780060934347
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Miguel De Cervantes | | Paperback:
| 992 pages | | Publisher:
| Harper Perennial | | Publication Date:
| May 01, 2005 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0060934344 | | Package Length:
| 7.8 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.3 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.6 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.75 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 94 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Mildewed Don QuixoteNov 06, 2009
The book looks lovely and new but it was stored prior to shipping in a humid environment and smells strongly of mildew. Makes it tough to read and I certainly won't keep it around even if I manage to finish reading it. Not happy that I was sent a mildewed book.
 An Adventure in FictionJun 03, 2009
As you stare at the 940-page mass that is Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote, you might wonder if reading this Literary Classic (TM) warrants several weeks of your readerly devotion. The answer depends upon what you value in a text. If you require a story with a set group of characters who move in a straight line from plot points A to Z, then you should reconsider spending your hours on the famous "knight errant," for as he wanders into various adventures, so does Cervantes, who rarely allows a chapter to pass without another side story featuring pairs of starcrossed lovers composed unfailingly of beautiful ladies and brave but unfortunate gentlemen. However repetitive, this storytelling device highlights the surprisingly modern metafictive elements of the novel. Although Don Quixote the man lacks the capacity for honest self-examination, the text achieves another superior level of existence via its self-awareness. Beginning with an Aristotelian book burning and proceeding to warp the distinction between fiction and reality, Don Quixote the novel embodies those characteristics that we have so simply reduced to the word 'quixotic'. It is this brilliant trick, over which I suspect Cervantes is still laughing somewhere in the ethereal land of deceased authors, that delighted my twenty-first century palate.
 The best translatorMay 04, 2009
Edith Grossman is clearly the superstar of translators of Spanish language literature. She has opened a rich literary tradition to monolingual anglophones. Reading this literature can't but help raise the cultural level of our country.
Excellent in all regardsApr 16, 2009
I started but never finished Don Quixote way back in high school. Now that I have a long commute to work each day, I thought I would get back into this old classic. I don't need to tell you that Don Quixote is one of the greatest novels ever written, but I will anyway. It is one of the greatest novels ever written. One of my professors of Spanish literature based his academic career on this novel as have thousands of other scholars in the past 400 years. It is deep and rich, tragic and comic, adventurous and philosophic. This piece of literature prefigures literary traditions that would come into being centuries after its publication. All of this while being an immensely enjoyable novel, even now.
Now to comment on the audioversion that I have listened to. The translation is superb. I have not read all of Don Quijote in the original Spanish, but just a few chapters. The tone, the rhythm, and the richness of the prose is closely replicated in this traslation. It is easy to listen to and I find myself being imersed in the world of the novel. The reading is of the finest quality. The deep, resonant voice of the narrator shifts to accomodate the personalities of Sancho Panza, Don Quixote and the other characters, but it never seems strained.
This comes on 35 disks, but the packaging is not the best. I bought a sturdy, hard case for the disks and keep this in my car. I suggest that you do the same. The recordings are split into 3 minute tracks in order to easily find your place.
I give this 5 stars. You have many hours of enjoyable listening with this audiobook.
11 of 13 found the following review helpful:
 A work of five star importance--a novel of three star reading quality at its full lengthMar 15, 2009
Let's acknowledge right off that on a scale of importance and innovation, Cervantes' Don Quixote is just off the charts. Five stars wouldn't even come close! It is regularly called the most important novel ever written--a path-breaking art form and a work of subtlety and genius. Okay: fair enough. But how does it read? Humorously, slowly, repetitively, and often rewardingly. The novel goes on and on: Quixote and Sancho Panza meet an endless string of characters and they often feel redundant. I found myself loving the humor of Quixote's fantasies and Sancho's reality checking. The book can, after hundreds of years and millions of readers, still make you burst out laughing. But then the same types of misunderstandings happen, again and again and again and again. Hundreds of pages flow by as our goofy knight tramps through Spanish villages. For long stretches not much changes or develops.
I know it's heresy to say this, but you could read a random sample of chapters (perhaps some of the most famous scenes, such as the giants/windmills) and get the gist of the book. You'd want to be sure to read about the Princess Dulcinea and other wonderful components, but would you have to endure every single scene? Why would you? If anything, reading the book cover to cover steals from its wonderful humor and insight. It might therefore be highly worthwhile to read the popular abridged version: Don Quixote: Abridged Edition. I have also heard good things about the short version in The Portable Cervantes (Penguin Classics). I think I would invest in the latter the next time I read this great work.
An abridged--gasp--version of a classic? Before you chaff at such sinful and impure thoughts know this: very few modern readers read Don Quixote in its entirety. And many modern scholars consider the first half (500 pages) to be a far lesser work than the second (also 500 pages). It's just too long and boring and repetitive. An abrdiged version can rescue our errant knight from his excessive flights of fancy and bring him back into the world of reading for pleasure. This book is just too good to be fed solely to college students: the shorter version can bring its greatness to us all.
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