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Title: Don Quixote (Unabridged Version of Walter Starkie Translation) by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra, Walter Starkie, Edward H. Friedman ISBN: 0-451-52786-0 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 06 February, 2001 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.45 (84 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An excellent edition of this classic.
Comment: Note: Amazon.com seems to have a hard time linking reviews to specific editions - it makes a difference. This review is of the Modern Library edition, ISBN-0679602860, translated by Samuel Putnam. I am reposting it, hoping it will link correctly this time).
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When you approach reading (or rereading) a "classic" work you really, mostly, don't have to think about whether to read it -- that decision was either made by someone assigning it to you or, more wonderfully, by you, yourself deciding to swim contra-current against the cultural waters... following Neil Young's advice to "turn off that MTV."
So. You are going to read it. And, if you are paddling the Amazon.com, here, you are going to buy and OWN it. The question really becomes which edition you should own.
This is the one.
Its a fine translation - surprising in its avoidance of archaic language. It has a nice structure - the inevitable notes are available but not obtrusive.
This edition, the Modern Library hardback edition, translated by Putnam, is also a nice book to own. It isn't one of those pretty faux-leather "shelf-candy" copies that'll break your wallet first. This is a hardworking book - the essence of the Modern Library idea. But it is a wonderful packaging of the whole 1000+ pages that is both readable and shelvable. No thousand-page paperback will survive an actual reading as anything you would want excepting as backup next to the latrine.
Did I mention that it is a great book, great story? Well, others over the years have managed that :-). But I will loudly agree. I'm rereading it only now after a 35 year hiatus (yes, indeed, classics can be lost on the young - thats why you want books that last. In 35 more years, when you turn your lance back toward targets you thought you left behind, a copy will cost you [a lot of money]). It is just plain startling in its innovations and story. I always thought Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepard were the first to break down that "third wall" and talk to the audience - yet here is Cervantes doing so five centuries back ! Wow.
Even if you've been made to buy it and to read it, buy a nice copy. Read the "Cliff notes" if you must, but someday you'll be a crazy old coot like Don Q. (or me) and want to toss something more meaningful than Palahniuk (or even Rushdie) at the cobwebs that cling.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Knight to Remember
Comment: I recently read the first part of Don Quixote, and I have to say that I was expecting a real snoozer. And I have to admit that, yes, Cervantes does drag on a bit. But critics of the novel's length are doing the work a misservice. We must remember that this book was written well over four centuries ago, when the very concept of a linked narrative must have been more than enough to hold the reader's interest. Cervantes's energy sizzles off the page at times, and you can tell he's really having fun with the work. I loved almost everything about this book, and while I might have liked to see it trimmed a bit, I still think Cervantes did a bang up job. Oh. One more thing. I lot of people seem to like Sancho more than Quixote. I'm totally the opposite. Quixote is the dreamer, the one who dares to look at things that never were and say " They might be giants ". I for one think thats boss.
Rating: 4
Summary: One of the great novels
Comment: 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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Title: Don Quixote (Cliffs Notes) by Marianne Sturman ISBN: 0822004151 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: 08 July, 1964 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Faust, Part One by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ISBN: 0486280462 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 23 August, 1994 List Price(USD): $2.50 |
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Title: The Decameron : Selected Tales by Bob Blaisdell, Giovanni Boccaccio ISBN: 0486411133 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 18 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $2.00 |
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Title: The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had by Susan Wise Bauer ISBN: 0393050947 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Divine Comedy : Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso (in one volume) by Dante ISBN: 0679433139 Publisher: Everyman's Library Pub. Date: 28 April, 1992 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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