Don Quijote de la Mancha

Book Description

Launched simultaneously in Spain and the Americas, this work aims to divulge the great novel of Spanish Literature by means of a high quality, well-taken care of edition at a very reduced price. The book contains a prologue by Mario Vargas Llosa, an introductory text and complementary analysis by other academics, along with an extensive glossary of terms that will help readers get to know Cervantes' language. This beautiful hardbound edition is 5 x 8 inches, 1360 pages of fine biblical Italian paper, and will be sewn at the spine with fine vegetable thread. This work constitutes, without a doubt, the most complete, serious, high quality commemorative edition.

Having an immediate success when first published 400 years ago, and with its experimental form and literary playfulness, Don Quixote has been recognized as the world's first modern novel. Don Quixote tells the story of a middle-aged Spanish gentleman who, obsessed with the chivalrous ideals found in romantic books, decides to take up his lance and sword to defend the helpless, destroy the wicked, and win the heart of his beloved Dulcinea. Seated upon his ever so lean horse, and accompanied by the pragmatic and faithful squire Sancho Panza, Don Quixote rides the roads of Spain seeking glory and grand adventure. Along the way the duo meet a dazzling assortment of characters whose diverse beliefs and perspectives reveal how reality and imagination are frequently indistinguishable.

Customer Reviews:

Authoritative edition.......2007-10-05

This is a wonderful edition (in Spanish) of this classic. It's surprisingly modern and entertaining in the original Spanish. The footnotes are very helpful. The book is compact and easy to transport. Essays about the text round out the novel. If you want to read Don Quijote in the original language, this is the book to get. The price is right. The binding is excellent. My only complaint is the small print which is a little hard on the eyes, but probably only for older readers (like me).

A highly entertaining, unforgettable masterpiece.......2007-08-21

I read Don Quijote in Spanish (my native language) and actually started the book as a sort of challenge. I am not daunted by long books or by the classics, but I was afraid I would not care much for the story of the madman who fancies himself a knight after reading too many chivalry novels.

I started out with a lot of dread - the language is old-fashioned and it needs a little getting used to. I had to look up words frequently and I thought the whole 1100 pages would be a chore. But I was in for a big surprise: not only did I get used to the language right away (the notes to this edition are very helpful in that regard), I also started to enjoy its beauty. Cervantes has a way with words that is a delight to Spanish speakers of any time or age. And it is so funny! I found myself laughing out loud many times, especially at Cervantes' turns of phrase or at the sheer ridiculousness of the situations Don Quijote and Sancho get themselves into... what a delight! I had certainly not expected this book to be FUNNY - but it IS!

Also: Don Quijote and Sancho Panza are two of the most endearing characters I have found in literature, absolutely lovable. I had a hard time saying goodbye to them at the end of the book. And as Jorge Luis Borges said, it seems Cervantes had a hard time letting go of Alonso Quijano, too: the death of Don Quijote is told in a sentence that gets me every time in its simplicity and its love for the subject.

I won't go into the metafiction aspect of the novel - I mostly read for pleasure and I'm not a literary critic, but I enjoyed the essays that accompany this edition. In particular, that of Mario Vargas Llosa really opened my eyes to the fiction-within-fiction and the construction of the novel, as well as to other aspects of Don Quijote that enriched my experience of the novel.

In sum - this book works at all levels and for almost anyone, old or young. It delivers entertainment, two memorable and thoroughly lovable characters and food for thought, all in one package. Quite an accomplishment. No wonder Cervantes is among the literature greats!

An Antti Keisala Comment: Introspective Quijote........2007-02-19

I haven't yet gained the courage to give any special comment to any of the Shakespeares. But I'm now going to embark on the second hardest path: to say anything meaningful of Cervantes.

Cervantes is the creator of much, and if I tell you that I believe he has, alongisde to the Bible and Shakespeare, created the Western consciousness (here confess being heavily influenced by Bloom) I think you might get an idea of how much I respect the man and his work. And then I'm interested in something I call narrative introspection, which is basically a personal transmogrification of other theories of self-consciousness and self-reference in storytelling. If nothing else, I'm going to shed some light on this subject.

It feels daunting to write anything about Don Quijote, because like Hamlet, he seems to have usurped our culture in such a way that they're simply larger than the limits we know. They've been shaping our literary culture in such a profound way it's almost impossible to either approach them or given any new insight into them. That is, this comment doesn't pretend to be important in any way. And because in every instance I make clear that Bloom is an important influence in my ways of reading, I'll paraphrase him as he talks about the paradigm of how poets can't be Adams in the early morning; that there've been too many Adams that have already named everything. We simply approach wisdom and wit greater than ours, whatever we do. This is, in fact, a nicely and healthily humble way of approach Cervantes. He is one of the few Adams I can tell who have been naming everything for us.

The Introspective Narrative. So let's begin by talking about the introspective narrative. This is a term that simply refers to the self-conscious nature of narrative. If you know your Quijote, you already know exactly the things I refer to. Tristram Shandy is like this. Bulgakov, Joyce, Proust, Borges, Saramago, all of them and many more. This happens when a book is openly a book, and many times a book about books. Quijote is to me the epitome of this approach to literature, as in here the whole structure is astonishingly complicated. So complicated, in fact, that not many modern books can match this.

First, we have a book that Cervantes, the narrator, claims to have in his possession. This book is arguably written in Arabic, of which the humble narrator merely makes a translation. An interesting detail is that in Islamic countries any translation of the Qu'ran is treated only as an interpretation. If we select an approach like this it already adds another layer to the story: that what we get is not only a translation, it's an interpretation of the original. Then we have the story itself, that of an elderly man living in the villa of La Mancha, interested in romances of chivalry. What happens is like from a dream come true: the reality of this elderly man mixes with the reality (or should we say 'fiction') of the romances in a way that creates a character called Don Quijote (I rather use this spelling over Quixote) who starts to live this chivarly fiction. What happens is something unique in works that were to come: a shift of reality, where we can view both realities, occurs not mechanically but organically through the most genius device: Quijote starts to enchant Sancho Panza, who starts believing his master's fiction. Sancho is the centre of all the different kind of shifts, as there are some obvious things he recongizes as fiction, yet some he believes. And then there are stories told throughout and some of these mesh with the 'reality' we're attached to, that of Quijote/Pancha.

The latter volume takes this further. If you don't already know, there was an imitation-Cervantes publishing an alleged second part to Don Quijote. Cervantes himself addresses this in the preface, but takes it further by inserting that book into the reality of Don Quijote: Quijote, who of course is a 'fictional' character in his own world, finds out that there is a book of a hidalgo named Don Quijote that has been published and getting some widespread attention. Characters move from layer to layer, and characters that are fictional to our Sancho and company suddenly emerge in the same layer as do our heroes.

It shouldn't be that surprising that such introspection is natural and extremely organically handled in Spanish-language (or Portuguese) literature, and now cinema. Borges, an Argentine, is a literary giant who dedicated much of writings to ideas like this; Saramago, perhaps the greatest living writer alongside Harold Pinter, does the same yet with a synthesis that's highly unpredictable and shrouded into the wafflings of the narrator, as in "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" and "Stone Raft". Gabriel García Marquez helped to create a re-emerging literary genre with his magical realism, a sort of an anti-thesis to the `artificial', that is, provocative self-reference of the works like Tristram Shandy. In cinema Julio Medem and others (Almodóvar, Cuarón, Iñárritu) are rewriting the ways in which you show narrative visually.

The Style of Cervantes: Irony & Self-Reference. The gamut of Cervantes' ironic flare is distinguishably excessive, erratic in a sophisticated way that's comparable to only that of Shakespeare or Chaucer. This is the funniest book, especially if you're into the whole self-reference thing. There is constant punning and sublime irony. Only Bulgakov is as radically and deliciously grotesque with his irony, making him the decendant of Cervantes, just as Douglas Adams could be the descendant of Lewis Carroll. The second part is more unified, but it lacks the fervent humour. But there the irony becomes organically a part of the shifting layers, and this is the birth of a kind of layered irony, where the layers themselves comment on each in an ironic way.

I haven't read Cervantes in English so I can't comment on the translation. I know it in the original Spanish and Finnish, my native language, in which we have an excellently ironic translation available. Yet if you're looking for an edition in the original Spanish, this is worthy; this is the 400th anniversary Real Academia edition I'm talking about. It has editorial insight, yet what it preserves is the beauty of Cervantes' language. Modern Spanish meanings of difficult words to comprehend are given in annotation. I've been reading this with the Finnish translation, then by itself, and it's a profound experience. And I'm really not the right person to brag about his Spanish. But this is a great edition to strengthen both your Spanish and read the great genius in his own, familiar language.

The edition itself is a hefty book, almost 1,400 pages. The paper's thin, yet the text remains readable. Of all the introducing writings, Mario Vargas Llosa's "Una novela para el siglo XXI' is the most vividly written. Also included are Francisco Ayala's "La Invención del `Quijote'" and Martín de Riquer's "Cervantes y el `Quijote'". Notes on the text are provided in summary by Francisco Rico. A glossary of words is also provided in the end of the book. Very useful, very well thought out.

A treasure of a book.

A Great, Grand, Wonderful Book.......2007-02-13

A middle-aged Spanish gentleman with too much time on his hands devotes himself to romantic novels of knighthood and chivalry. As he loses himself in this literature his mind begins to snap. He decides to become a latter-day knight-errant, a man who rides through the world in an old suit of armor, righting wrongs and protecting the helpless, just like the heroes of his books. His journey through the countryside leads to one disaster after another, one catastrophic misunderstanding after another. Funny--yes, but also touching and moving.

Later Don Quijote is joined by his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, who is supposedly of sound mind--at least sounder than his master--a simple, earthy man given to spewing cliches and trying to correct his master's misconceptions. Sancho also has his fantasy--that he will be rewarded with an island to rule, and riches.

Of course you know what happens--or, do you? The book is packed with diversions, digressions, conversations, poems. pastoral entertainments, dramas of unrequited love, and the growing fame of the characters even as they ride--so that by the end of Part II they are running into people who have read part I. The book is written simply, in conversational style, but packed and layered with meaning.

I think a person should be over fifty to really appreciate Don Quijote, but if you can't wait, well, I won't stop you. You'll just have to read it again later. It's the greatest story of a midlife crisis ever written, but it's also much, much more. A story about mankind and its vanities and its willingness to pursue fantasy and its need for freedom. Don Quijote and Sancho seem to fail at every turn, yet in fact, they have changed the world. And are changing it still. Somewhere, somewhere they're riding still. I recommend this one with total enthusiasm. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

Hilarious!.......2007-01-06

If you liked Don Quixote in English, you will LOVE it in Spanish.

Nothing like reading something in its original language. The only problem you could have is not understanding some of the words, and tenses because of the "Old Spanish" but don't worry, this book has footnotes for that.

Nothing gets lost in time.

Buy it, and read it. This version is great!

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Don Quijote de la Mancha
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra , and Eduardo Alonso
Manufacturer: Vicens Vives
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 8431673966

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Could have been better!
Don Quijote Man of The Mancha Audio Book on CD
Don Quijote de la Mancha (Audio CD)
Fantastico!! La mejor forma de leer

Don Quijote de la Mancha (Audio CD)

Manufacturer: FonoLibro Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 1933499001
Release Date: 2005-08-15

Product Description

FonoLibro, el líder en audiolibros en español, celebra los 400 años de la obra más importante y universal de nuestra lengua "Las Aventuras del Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de La Mancha", más conocida por el nombre abreviado de "Don Quijote". Miguel de Cervantes de Saavedra, su autor, relata en esta magna novela las fabulosas aventuras de un "caballero andante" y su escudero, el bonachón y pícaro "Sancho Panza", al recorrer los caminos de España para "deshacer entuertos", creando una saga que ha sido dibujada en todas las formas y medios del arte y la narrativa de todos los tiempos. "Don Quijote", junto con La Biblia, es quizás una de las obras humanas que se ha traducido a mayor número de idiomas.

Esta historia inmortal enriqueció el lenguaje, creó personajes y arquetipos inolvidables y exaltó por siempre el espíritu humano. Haciendo honor a esta herencia, FonoLibro ha dramatizado la historia con las mejores voces de nuestro idioma. Este audiolibro revive, en una fecha histórica, las peripecias y hazañas de Don Quijote y Sancho Panza de una manera entretenida y a un nivel de producción que lo hará figurar de manera destacada en su hogar, para disfrute de toda su familia.

Acompáñenos y visite "un lugar de La Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme...."

Customer Reviews:

Could have been better!.......2007-07-10

This classic contains many antiquated words, therefore an abridged audio book version was welcome. Unfortunately, this production has flaws that prompted me to give up three quarters into it. Firstly, such a heavily abridged version should have concentrated on the main story, i.e. the adventures of Don Quijote and Sancho Panza, rather than get bogged in the many secondary stories. For instance, it contains too much of the soap-opera-like story of Don Fernando and Luscinda, while the episode where Don Quijote frees the convicts is only hinted at. In many places there are such gaps in the telling of these digressive secondary tales that you get lost. Replacing ancient word forms ("formosura") by their modern equivalents ("hermosura") was a good idea but why not do so throughout instead of only in the beginning? In fact there is a drop in quality towards the end and the undisputed talent of the speakers was wasted when they kept reading out sentences in an intonation out of step with their meaning ; or when they rendered whole sentences unintelligible by missing words (verbs, prepositions etc.). Had the speakers got bored with their job in the end? Were they running out of time or out of budget?

Don Quijote Man of The Mancha Audio Book on CD.......2007-05-20

The audio quality and dramatic production are excellent. My husband said the acting scared him when he walked in the room not knowing what they were saying in Spanish!

Don Quijote de la Mancha (Audio CD).......2006-02-17

Fantastic !
It's better than reading the book. Obviously, it does not go into all the details, but as you listen to the interpreters voices, and the music, you feel as if you are in a theater.
I'd strongly recommend it to anyone interested in a Classic rendition of one of the best books ever written.
Angel Aguilar

Fantastico!! La mejor forma de leer.......2005-10-16

Una maravillosa produccion. Me rei mucho con Sancho Panza. Los felicito por un buen trabajo; lo disfrute mucho.

Aventuras del ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha

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Acceptable
"Don Quijote's disgrace is not his fantasy, but Sancho Panza"
Aventuras de don quijote
A tragic gutting of a great story.
Excellent Spanish language edition for intermediate students

Aventuras del ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra , and Marcel C. Andrade
Manufacturer: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0844273619

Customer Reviews:

Acceptable.......2006-05-13

This brief series of selections from the first part of Quijote is probably an adequate text for those who have only recently started reading Spanish and are bent on reading Cervantes in something approaching the original as quickly as possible.
However, the author never makes clear what principles he has followed in modifying the language in order to make it more accessible to "intermediate" students. Sometimes, a word is changed; sometimes, an entire passage has been paraphrased; sometimes, large parts have been left out altogether.
Cervantes orginal language is surprisingly comprehensible to the modern student; clarity is one the many signs of his genius. This very accessibility is a bit of a drawback; "intermediate" students are still presumably trying to get their Spanish in working order, and Cervantes may taint their language in the way Quijote's own "feridas" and other archaic lingo tainted his.
I'd recommend that readers hold out a bit longer, then use a well-annotated Quijote intended for native speakers, such as Riquer's or Rico's.

"Don Quijote's disgrace is not his fantasy, but Sancho Panza".......2005-07-27

This bold statement of Franz Kafka resumes the true essence of the meaning of this surprising, captivating and still engaging book through the years.
This was precisely the year in which we are just celebrating the 400 th anniversary of the first edition of this first order level work.
The Spanish writer Pio Baroja affirmed once: "Don Quijote is like love; when it recovers the judge is because it's just dying".
The tribulations, mental disorders and the fuzzy logic that inspires his controversial actions are far beyond the simple and cold cerebral analysis: you must be in anagogic level; the fourth level of the consciuous according Goethe, in which the coordinates of the pure reason simply vanish and the doors of perception open before our mind. It a stargate (to employ Roland Emerich's film) , where the presence of a simple woman becomes to him in his muse: Dulcinea del Toboso and his reason for live.
Sancho Panza will be his link with the real world, his counter weight living: Eros and Psique's myth once more reborns.
Rivers of ink have been employed to describe the outrageous behavior of Don Alonso Quijano who tired of being himself (after reading countless adventures never lived by himself) decided to leap the twilight zone and from being a simple spectator transforming himself in actor -for better or worst- to change the world in his epic attitude.
I just want to add you must read this book at least four times in your life, because as a true masterpiece, its meaning changes according your values, interest,maturity and mental growth.
"It's a great pitty the nuts don't have the right to talk about sensately about the madness of the sanity persons"
William Shakespeare

Aventuras de don quijote.......2001-04-09

Response to the self proclaimed reviewer of "Aventuras" The self appointed reviewer from Nebraska with a negative about " Aventuras" shows that he doesn't understand the teaching of "Don Quijote". I would like to know his qualifications! In order to expedite instruction and convey meaning, one has to explain rapidly all intrincancies of DQ. In order to do so, the editor has explained, in the quickest manner (English), cultural context, abstract concepts, and references in order to keep the integrity of the reading of such a treasure short (like every page and a half (sic.) The author of this edition was awarded the "Encomienda con Placa en la Orden de Alfonso X el Sabio" by His Majesty King Juan Carlos in 1995. That is the highest recognition Spain awards for works of this quality.

A tragic gutting of a great story........1999-02-13

This is a servicable abridgement, easy to read and an okay place to start for non-native speakers of Spanish, in their second or third year of study. However, the editor sees fit to interrupt the narrative every page and a half with notes in English. The most galling aspect is the study questions in Spanish after each chapter, which ask about information introduced in the English language notes. Keep looking for a good edition, this isn't it.

Excellent Spanish language edition for intermediate students.......1998-06-28

Marcel C. Andrade does a wonderful job presenting a Spanish language edition of Part I of Don Quijote for intermediate level students of the Spanish language. Unusual vocabulary is listed next to the text in the margin; and the explanatory notes give historical and literary background that bring the text to life. This is the best place to start for English-speaking students of the Spanish language who are approaching the original Spanish text of Don Quijote for the first time.

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Don Quijote de la Mancha
Don Quijote. 400th Anniversary - Dalí. 100th Anniversary

Don Quijote De La Mancha
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra , Martin De Riquer , and Salvador Dali
Manufacturer: Planeta
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 8408055496

Customer Reviews:

Don Quijote de la Mancha.......2007-08-06

Very nice book! Elegant presentation. This version is easy to understand because it provides many footnotes that guide modern readers to the culture of Spain in the 1500's. I'm having a great time reading it!

Don Quijote. 400th Anniversary - Dalí. 100th Anniversary.......2005-03-01

A great combination is this new release of Don Quijote de la Mancha with 38 illustrations dated 1945 by Salvador Dalí. This book was originally published in the US by Double Day in 1946. There was a special edition by the Argentinian publisher EMECE in 1957 and reprinted in Argentina in 1965. In 1979, the US publisher made a new reprint. The Gala Salvador Dalí Foundation made a special facsimile edition with 43 illustrations (5 new sketches that have only been published in the catalog of the Museu Teatre Dalí). It was a limited edition (unrepeatable) of only 998 copies of 370mm x 370mm. It started at 4,500 and it seems that it costs now about 8,000. Editorial Planeta published a new edition, in a smaller size, but perfectly bounded with hard slip cover that you are going to like.
Enrique Zepeda

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote De La Mancha (Cervantes & Co. Spanish Classics)

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Lathrop's Spanish edition for students
Great edition of Cervantes' work for native English speakers

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote De La Mancha (Cervantes & Co. Spanish Classics)
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
Manufacturer: Linguatext Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1589770242

Customer Reviews:

Lathrop's Spanish edition for students.......2007-03-21

Tom Lathrop's edition is perfect for students of Spanish. The introduction, glosses, and footnotes are in English while the text itself is in Spanish. The popularity of the style of this edition spawned a growing series of "Spanish Classics" called "Cervantes & Co." ([...]).

Great edition of Cervantes' work for native English speakers.......2006-11-22

Miguel de Cervantes. El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha. Edited by Tom Lathrop. Fourth Centenary Edition. Newark, Delaware: Cervantes & Co., 2005. xlviii + 888 pgs. Softcover. ISBN 1589770242.

Lathrop's edition is, as far as I know, the only edition of the Spanish text of Don Quijote with English notes. As Lathrop explains in the introduction, all-Spanish editions are designed for native Spanish speakers. The editors therefore do not gloss quite a bit of cultural and language information that native Spanish speakers know, but native English speakers do not. Lathrop, a native English speaker, knows where the pitfalls are for English students and has edited accordingly.

His text is that of the unmodernized Schevill-Bonilla edition. In Lathrop's edition, spelling is modernized only when it does not affect the pronunciation; thus "yua" becomes "iba," but "ansí" remains "ansí." Only in a few cases have I found this confusing; normally I can easily deduce the modern form of the word in question.

A potentially controversial aspect of Lathrop's edition is that he does not change any apparent inconsistencies in the Quijote. He believes things such as chapter titles that don't match what happened in the chapter and the contradictory theft of Sancho's donkey were intended by Cervantes, who wanted to make fun of similar things in the romances. He makes a good case for the decision in the introduction.

The text is annotated in two ways: marginal glossing and footnotes. The former is used for short equivalencies: "la cristiandad" = Christendom, "orgullo" = pride. Footnotes are used to give English translations of extra-convoluted sentences, or to provide background information about the text. To his credit, Lathrop does not use the footnotes to interpret the work. (He has also compiled a "Don Quijote Dictionary," the text of which is available free. Since words are glossed only once, the Dictionary is really handy when you've forgotten something.)

I began reading the Quijote in an all-Spanish edition while I was taking Spanish IV. By Chapter 16, I had given up: it was simply too difficult, and I was having to consult Ormsby's English translation far too often. Now, using Lathrop's edition, I very rarely have to look at the English, and I'm enjoying Cervantes much more. A case could be made that using an all-Spanish edition is more satisfying, and I'm sure it is. But it was too discouraging for me. At many universities, Don Quijote in Spanish is a graduate-level course; Lathrop's edition makes the Quijote accessible to people like me who aren't at the graduate level but still want to read Cervantes in the original.

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Don Quijote de la Mancha

Don Quijote de la Mancha (I)
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
Manufacturer: Debolsillo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1400093007
Release Date: 2004-03-02

Customer Reviews:

Don Quijote de la Mancha.......2007-04-10

The book was in excelent condition and I received sooner than I expected.
Thanks,

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Don Quixote
The best translation of the best novel
Beautiful!
Maybe it's just me...
Lets salute the knight-errantry, writer and translator!

Don Quijote de la Mancha
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Manufacturer: Juventud
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 8426105130

Book Description

" Don Quixote is practically unthinkable as a living being," said novelist Milan Kundera. "And yet, in our memory, what character is more alive?"
----Widely regarded as the world's first
modern novel, Don Quixote chronicles the famous picaresque adventures of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote de La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. This Modern Library edition presents the acclaimed Samuel Putnam translation of the epic tale, complete with notes, variant readings, and an Introduction by the translator.
----The debt owed to Cervantes by literature is immense. From Milan Kundera: "Cervan-
tes is the founder of the Modern Era. . . . The novelist need answer to no one but
Cervantes." Lionel Trilling observed: "It can be said that all prose fiction is a variation on the theme of Don Quixote." Vladmir Nabo-kov wrote: "Don Quixote is greater today than he was in Cervantes's womb. [He] looms so wonderfully above the skyline of literature, a gaunt giant on a lean nag, that the book lives and will live through [his] sheer vitality. . . . He stands for everything that is gentle, forlorn, pure, unselfish, and gallant. The parody has become a paragon." And V. S. Pritchett observed: "Don Quixote begins as a province, turns into Spain, and ends as a universe. . . . The true spell of Cervantes is that he is a natural magician in pure story-telling."

The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foun-
dation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with affordable hardbound editions of important works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoring as its emblem the running torchbearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inaugurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.

Download Description

The best-known book in Spanish literature, telling the story of the adventurous knight-errant and his squire Sancho Panzo, who set out to right the wrongs of the world.

Customer Reviews:

Don Quixote.......2007-06-21

I love the story but have never been able to finish the book. I listened to this on a road trip to California and found it very enjoyable. They did cut a major section, but I guess that is what you contend with in an abridged version.

The best translation of the best novel.......2006-08-25

Don Quixote well deserves its place in the pantheon of world classics. For me, it's the ultimate desert island book. It is simply an indescribable jewel, full of fun, hilarity, adventure, beauty, wisdom, social commentary, tragedy, and entertainment. And I believe that J.M. Cohen's translation is the best there is. He obviously had a love for the material and left us a beautifully rendered work. The encomium in his Times obituary was on the mark when it said that he was "the translator of foreign prose classics for our times."

Beautiful!.......2006-01-22

The translation is perfect except, as the translator has noted, on the poems found through out the book. The book itself is just plain beautiful, the author, Cervantes, is a master of prose and creativity, not to mention he has a great sense of humor. In my opinion, he is not too far off from Shakespeare. A+

Maybe it's just me..........2005-12-31

But this audio version of Don Quixote wasn't enjoyable.

The Basics: This is a three hour abridgment of Don Quixote read by actor and stage performer Michael York. Don Quixote is the Spanish classic written by Miguel de Cervantes. It's the story if a disenchanted nobleman who takes on the persona of a Knight in a quest to find love and glory. The real work is much deeper than the popularized versions of this story, which is unfortunate. This is read well byt he talented Miachael York, but isn't nearly as entertaining as it could have been. It just seems to fall flat. Running time 3 hours.

Lets salute the knight-errantry, writer and translator!.......2005-10-16

Don Quixote by Cervantes is often called the first modern novel and many rate it as one of the best novels ever written in any language. That itself stirs enough interest and curiosity for a reader like me, and trust me, reading the novel is a highly rewarding and entertaining experience. The plot and sub-plots are primarily guided by Don Quixote's obsession with knight-errantly, forming acts to chivalry and participating in adventures in a manner he read in such books. Sancho serves as his squire and complements and supplements his master in every possible way. Quixote is kind at heart, his every act is inspired by a good intention, a dreamer trapped in a body that prompts him to be called the "knight of rueful countenance", a loyal lover whose never set eye on her who he so praises and desires in a chaste way! Yet he is so full of imaginary tales and characters that he lives in a make-believe world, where he mistakes windmills for monsters, herds of sheep for armies, and so on, attacks them, defends them, and Cerventes manages to weave a saga of such events in a form that identifies with allegory, fable, epic and comic drama at the same time.

Panza, on the other hand, is a fatso, ever hungry for food, wine and money, full of practical sensibility as well as easily misguided simplicity, and is as entertaining a case study as his master. To complete the cast, are two unlikely prime characters: Rocinante, who is a horse as old and shrivelled as his master and Dapple, Sancho's donkey who Sancho considers more dear to himself than anything in the world.

The novel starts at a slow pace, and with the mention of alll sorts of established names of knight-errantry that must have been vogue in those times, Cerventes builds the stage for the rise of our hero. Since I have never read any of the described references, the first fifty or so pages seemed quite obstruse to me. Like for every classic, I knew I had to read on atleast 200 pages for characters to establish themselves. Thereafter, the various escapades and misadventures described in the two books follow like eagerly waited episodes. Again this is a novel that must be read piecemeal.

Besides the humor, knight-errantry, a quixotic master and a pragmatic but simple squire, Cervantes masterfully creates a plethora of characters and situations where he writes about love, war, God, Moors, government, wife, and every conceivable thing related to man as a social being. In some ways, the book is an elegant discourse on how things are and how they could be. Even the humor laden with satire is a subtle taunt at the way good people eat humble pie when their dreamt adventures are deemed ordinary by plotting evil enchanters.

The book is full of proverbs that Sancho throws into his every sentence, so many of these are hilarious and yet all carry the wisdom of that age saved in one epic saga. Similarly, there must have been a considerable play of words, as Sancho misuses and mispronounces many words, and the translator Smollett tries hard to capture some of these.

Don Quixote, in effect, has the appeal and humor to last the humankind forever, and we bow to thee O Cerventes! for creating such a cornucopia of wisdom and instruction for us humble readers .

Average customer rating:

Don Quijote De La Mancha
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Manufacturer: Real Academia Espanola
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Don Quijote de la Mancha (Grandes clasicos series)

Average customer rating:

My Review of Don Quijote de la Mancha
Great book, illustrations.
THE NOVEL
la bellaza del idioma
Literatura universal desde España!

Don Quijote de la Mancha (Grandes clasicos series)
Miguel de Cervantes
Manufacturer: Edimat Libros
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

jp-unknown3 | Specialty Stores | Books

ASIN: 848403030X

Book Description

The well-known works of literature in this series constitute the most valuable treasures of universal literature. The affordably priced imitation leather bound books enhance any library, putting the works of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Dostoyevsky, and Tolstoy within everyone's reach.

Las reconocidas obras de la literatura de esta serie constituyen el más valioso tesoro de la literatura universal. Estos libros de cubierta imitación cuero, a un precio muy conveniente, halagan cualquier biblioteca, poniendo las palabras de Shakespeare, Cervantes, Dostoievski, y Tolstoi al alcance de todos.

Customer Reviews:

My Review of Don Quijote de la Mancha.......2007-06-10

I am learning Spanish and I have reached a pretty good level of conversation so I bought this book to improve my reading after finishing very basic books such as First Spanish Reader. This book is really improving my reading altough at times it is a bit challenging. I strongly recommend it to anyone that wants to improve their reading in Spanish while enjoying a fun book to read that is also a classic novel in Spanish. This hard cover book is also a very nice looking book to add to your collection.

Great book, illustrations........2006-03-18

Despite the fact that the materials that went into the construction of this book seem somewhat second-rate (thick, rough-edged paper, for one thing), it is really a good buy for less than fifteen dollars. Having Don Quixote in the original Spanish along with the classic Dore illustrations has been a real treat, I would recommend this edition to any lover of the Classics on a tight budget.

THE NOVEL.......2004-06-02

Cervantes wrote El Quijote as a critic to novels about knights and damsels in distress which were very popular in his time. His hero, Alonso Quijano, is one of those who are so hooked on them that spend his days and nights reading .Till he becomes mad. A beautiful way to be mad, or maybe he is not so mad. El Quijote decides to beguin a journey with the faithful company of his steward Sancho Panza. Through the eyes of this odd couple we see the world. The world full of wonders, tournaments, knights and damsels, don Quijote sees, and the sensible, hard routinary world that Sancho sees.
Slowly Sancho is changing, there is a quijotization of Sancho. A vision of a world where truth and honor can be used, must be used.

If there would be a book written in Spanish which should be declared a monument this will be the one. Becasue the writting is not only wonderful. The use of Spanish in its most perfect way. But also because with these two characters Cervantes explains and depicts something very hard to do. The Spanish mind.
Duality is the keyword. The fantasy world where Don Quijote lives, that shelter to be away of all the things we do not like. And the acceptation of reality as it is, like Sancho does.
But there is also fun in this novel. Because humour is everywhere. From the episode of the windmills to the one with the wooden horse.

I understand that for a first approaching to Spanish literature is a hard effort, but it is addictive. If you read it once sooner or later you will read it again and again. And this edition worths the money. Prof. Blecua is probably the best in this field. So you can be sure the edition you are going to read is a good one.
I recommend this book, not only for the pleasure of the reading itself, but because after you read it I am sure you will think about it. So...En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme,.no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo, de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor. (...)

la bellaza del idioma.......2003-06-22

Quando empese a leer el quijote, empese en espanol. Pero, en una clase de ingles mundial en la universidd me hisieron leerla en ingles. Lo que me sorprendio mas que qulquier cosa es que, mientras tenia todos los temas intacto en la tradusion en ingles, el libro perdio la bellesa de la utilisation del idioma como solo lo puede hacer cervantes. Para serles sincera el libro me confundio al empesarlo y la primera ves no entendi todo lo que habia que entener (como en todo libro bueno) pero desde la primera pajina me enamore de como cervates utilisaba las palabras simples del idioma. No usa palabras grandes y dificiles en si (aunque si hay algunas palabras antiquadas que tuve que buscar en dictionario) pero es como las junta que hace el libro la bellesa que es. Leerlo es un placer hasta si al principio no entiendes quienes son todos los personajes y porque estan haciendo lo que hacen, la belles de su idioma y las esenas que te pinta en tu mente, son suficiente.

Literatura universal desde España!.......2001-09-29

Cuando yo estaba en la escuela y leí el Quijote por primera vez, la edición tenía un comentario que decía: "A Cervantes le bastó un sólo brazo para edificar la catedral de la literatura universal". Un poco exagerado (los españoles exageran casi siempre), pero no cabe duda que el Quijote a dejado huellas en la literatura universal y ha influenciado a tantos autores, como por ejemplo a Tolstoi. Muchos frases idiomáticas han sobrevivido los siglos no sólo en Castellano, sino también en otros idiomas tan exóticos como Alemán (mit Windmühlen kämpfen = acometer molinos de viento) o Ruso. Sinceramente El Quijote exije mucho del lector. Es una novela que hace que uno piense sobre muchos los fines de la vida. Y aunque no lo crean a veces se entiende mejor en otro idioma. Yo lo he leído en Alemán y Ruso y puedo afirmar eso.

Virgilio Krumbacher

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