Customer Reviews

Don Quixote

5 star:		(82)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Edith Grossman's is the hot new translation, but there may be a tendency to confer too much praise on a fresh reading. From what I have sampled, I have no doubt of Grossman's excellence, but this is not the "definitive" DQ (no one's is), and frankly, after some comparison of the early chapters, I've decided to spend my time with Burton Raffel's translation, now only a decade old. Raffel sometimes opts for a colloquial word or two, but it's never jarring, and his overall style seems not only less pretentious to me than Grossman's, but a superior combination of a modern reading with a traditional "tone." Tone and style are important, and Raffel sometimes makes Grossman seem too abstract or fussy, though this is difficult to describe. Raffel's phrasing is more focused and vigorous than Grossman's--though both are said to be accurate. Let me offer a couple of examples that shifted me toward Raffel:

Grossman:

"Some claim that his family name was Quixada, or Quexada, for there is a certain amount of disagreement among the authors who write of this matter, although reliable conjecture seems to indicate that his name was Quexana. But this does not matter very much to our story; in its telling there is absolutely no deviation from the truth."

Raffel:

"It's said his family name was Quijada, or maybe Quesada: there's some disagreement among the writers who've discussed the matter. But more than likely his name was really Quejana. Not that this makes much difference in our story; it's just important to tell things as faithfully as you can."

(Notice how Raffel makes immediately clear in the last sentence what Grossman so literally translates.)

Grossman:

"His fantasy filled with everything he had read in his books, enchantments as well as combats, battles, challenges, wounds, courtings, loves, torments, and other impossible foolishness, and he became so convinced in his imagination of the truth of all the countless grandiloquent and false inventions he read that for him no history in the world was truer. He would say that El Cid Ruy Diaz had been a very good knight but could not compare to Amadis, the Knight of the Blazing Sword, who with a single backstroke cut two ferocious and colossal giants in half."

Raffel:

"He filled his imagination full to bursting with everything he read in his books, from witchcraft to duels, battles, challenges, wounds, flirtations, love affairs, anguish, and impossible foolishness, packing it all so firmly into his head that these sensational schemes and dreams became the literal truth and, as far as he was concerned, there were no more certain histories anywhere on earth. He'd explain that Cid Ruy Diaz had been a very good knight, but simply couldn't be compared to the Knight of the Flaming Sword, who with one backhand stroke had cut in half two huge, fierce giants."

Notice that Grossman is rather fussy-sounding in the phrase: "countless grandiloquent and false inventions he read that for him no history in the world was truer." Compare with Raffel, who always seems to solve little problems like this with charm, precision, and even a little wry swagger that's so appropriate to Cervantes' intent. So my advice is to seek out both of these new translations and spend a little time with each before deciding. Don't take others' opinions that Grossman's has superseded Raffel's. Grossman avoids some of the more colloquial English one may find in Raffel, and this may please snobs, but the accuracy of Raffel's translation is not in question, and overall he seems to me to have done the best job.

Faulkner said Don Quixote was his favorite book and that, along with The Bible, he dipped into it yearly. I'm not sure what Cervantes would have made of some of Faulkner's more troublesome work, but the world has designated Don Quixote the Father of the Modern Novel and perhaps the greatest novel ever. I'm a fan of this book and a habitual (some would say neurotic) comparer of translations. Since I don't read of speak Spanish, I have to rely on the English translations that have been published. There are three that are worthwhile: Ormsby's, Samuel Putnam's and now Edith Grossman's. Grossman, who is the translator of Garcia Marquez's books into English, has produced a translation that's contemporary and authentic--somehow, not an oxymoron. It has a fresher feel than Putnam's (the translation Nabokov used when teaching the book), though I wouldn't say it supplants Putnam. If you're looking for a copy of Don Quixote in English, Grossman's translation is a good first choice. She manages to maintain the feel of the language Cervantes wrote in (as far as I can tell) yet her translation, as the NY Times reviewer noted, is as readable as the latest novel from Philip Roth. You can't go wrong with Putnam or Grossman, but on this one, I have to give the nod to Grossman.

I have read this book both in English and Spanish, and I can honestly say that it loses very little of its power, wit or message in translation. For all those who have considered reading this book, here are a few good reasons: this book is a very nuanced look at escapism and identity, a wonderful parody of knight stories, along with being a rousing (and very funny) adventure centering around the titular hero, a man who reads one too many books about knighthood and chivalry and decides to become a knight-errant himself. After recruiting a sidekick and choosing a lady to woo per narrative convention, he sets out to conquer the forces of evil, which include, among other things, giant windmills and rogue "knights". Cervantes' insight and ability to parody were both ahead of his time, and in a time where escapism and voyeurism are well and thriving, it is not difficult to imagine someone watching too many TV shows and believing they're a wild west outlaw or what-have-you. A very fascinating experience, and it works well in any language. Highly recommended.

It's been a long time since I've read Don Quixote, and that last time it was in a scholarly sense (meaning, I was forced to read it). I enjoyed it, and thought about reading it again, so I picked up the tattered, coverless, mass-market paperback that was pressed so tightly against the inside veneer of the bookshelf that it was literally stuck there. My first impression brought back a memory (and what might actually be some sort of phobia) -- footnotes! There were literally so many footnotes, attempting to explain the translation in order to make it more readable, that it distracted /irritated /frightened me, and I crammed the book right back where I found it.

I went on a quest for a footnote-free edition, and on the suggestion of a friend picked up the "new Grossman translation". I picked it up and flipped through the pages (the softcover edition)... there were some footnotes in there, but not too many, and they seemed to, for the most part, to explain spanish terms or old currencies and the like. No case of footnotes outweighing text on any given page... so that was a good start and an immediate salve for my (admittedly bizarre) footnote phobia.

That's how I came to own this version of Don Quixote. Now that I have it, I can say:

I don't miss the footnotes (not that I of all people would), because the text is extremely readable without explanation. The story seems jauntier and more funny than I remember... although I am no scholar, and can not read the original due to my own linguistic failures, I can only assume that this more joyful gait is owed to the translation. Go Grossman!

Another important point: the production quality of the paperback edition is phenomenal -- what other publishers should strive for. The paper is heavy and opaque yet it holds well, the pages (and the cover) feeling very fluid in the hand. It sounds silly, but with a ~1000 page novel, it makes a big difference. I was able to hold the book in one hand and read comfortably. Also, the generous wings on both covers came in handy when a bookmark or paper scrap could not be found to mark my place. Go Harper Perrenial!

I wont critique the actual story here, as that has been done to death. I will keep my critique to this wonderful, straightforward, footnote-lite, feel-good edition. And this is it: I highly recommend it, a beautiful and proudly-built edition that is certainly as worthy of literary study as it is an enjoyable and entertaining way to relax. Now go and tilt at a windmill, or something.

The audio book of Edith Grossman's new translation of Don Quixote was a perfect driving companion for my trip across the country. At a whopping 40.5 hours, I listened to the 35 CDs almost nonstop but didn't even finish it in the car (though only about 20 minutes were left when I arrived).

As I suppose I could have guessed, the text of Don Quixote is particularly well suited to the audio book format. Among other things, it's largely a book about storytelling, and many long sections of the book felt very much in the spirit of The Canterbury Tales. Characters enter, tell their stories to the main characters (and to us readers in the process), and then go their merry way. It strikes me as the perfect book to read to a child a chapter a night, as each chapter stands on its own as an isolated adventure or even a story within a story. Like A Thousand and One Nights, it begs to be read aloud in installments.

Of course, the success of a good oral story depends on the reader, who needs the right voice, interpretation, interest, and believability to tell the tale in a gripping, convincing manner. George Guidall is the perfect narrator for this story. From the first pages of the Preface, I could already tell that his voice was the one I'd imagine for Don Quixote (and, by extension in my mind, Cervantes himself). His narration always captures the humor of the book without turning it into slapstick comedy and he effectively reads all characters, both male and female, as rich, distinct voices without resorting to caricature. For example, he characterizes his female voices by using a softer tone, not a higher pitch. He doesn't try to sound like a woman; rather, he simply conveys the fact that a female is speaking. I often find this is a challenge for readers of audio books. There's nothing worse than hearing a male reader go falsetto when reading a female character's lines.

Also, though I've never read or heard any other translation and so have nothing to compare it to, I found Edith Grossman's new version remarkably crisp, current without being anachronistic, and generally easy on the ears, which, since I imagine that's how the Spanish would have sounded to Cervantes' original readership, strikes me as a success.

In short, if you're planning your own cross-country drive, or if you have some other long-term commitment to solitude that you need to fill with a good yarn, I highly recommend picking up this audio version of Don Quixote. If you're just looking for something to occupy your daily commute, this might not be the book for you, simply because you'll be listening to nothing else for quite some time.

Estamos en Abril del año 2,005, y por lo tanto, en el cuarto aniversario de la publicación del más grandioso libro del idioma Español, Don Quijote de la Mancha.
Considero que el cumpleaños número 400, de este invaluable regalo, debe ser recordado por todos los que conocemos y dominamos esta bella lengua. La inmortal creación de Miguel de Cervantes, va mas allá de las fronteras y de los límites del pensamiento. Esa formidable, divertida y noble odisea de nuestro más recordado paladín justiciero, puede ser encontrada plasmada en nuestra memoria, en nuestros pensamientos y en nuestra idiosincrasia ya sea de Españoles en unos casos, y de Hispanos Latinoamericanos en otros.

Universales son las primeras líneas de Cervantes. Al introducir al lector a su personaje, que con el tiempo, llegó a trascender aún más que su creador.
"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 fantasía del viajero que sueña mientras está despierto, acompañado de su leal Sancho, es la colisión del viejo mundo, con el nuevo. El fin de la guerra romántica que encuentra la crudeza del mundo moderno. Todo mientras don Quijote, nuestro héroe imitado pero no duplicado, expresa y vive sus pasiones más intensas. Sus ilimitadas intenciones de ayudar al necesitado, de encontrar y salvar a su hermosa Dulcinea y de ser un noble caballero, llevan a la mente del lector, una sensación poco encontrada en el mundo actual. Pero aparte de todo esto, de la montaña de nobleza que don Quijote inspira, hay un mensaje aún más profundo y fuerte. Sí, más fuerte que cualquier otro mensaje. Don Quijote nos muestra la importancia de ese tesoro que todos tenemos el derecho de poseer cuando nacemos, durante nuestras vidas, y cuando morimos. Mario Vargas Llosa lo encontró mejor que nadie. El mensaje de la LIBERTAD.

Don Quijote es libre. Libre para pensar, para vivir. Libre para salir a buscar su felicidad, libre para amar a su Dulcinea, para pelear contra los monstruos, para retar a otros caballeros, y libre para ser libre. Podría decirse que don Quijote de la mancha, pertenece a todos los hombres y mujeres que admiramos la libertad. Si te gusta pensar lo que quieras, don Quijote es parte de ti. Si te gusta hacer lo que quieres, don Quijote es para ti. Si te gusta vivir sin limitaciones, sin otros que fuercen su voluntad contra ti, don Quijote, VIVE para ti.

Es indispensable que todos nosotros, unidos, recordemos a don Quijote como el alma de nuestra literatura y el motor principal de nuestra cultura. Los libros mueven a las personas, a las sociedades, a las naciones y a las civilizaciones. Mueven nuestro conocimiento e inspiran nuestra pequeña o grande, pero igualmente valiosa grandeza. Y de todos los libros, "Don Quijote de La Mancha", escrito por Miguel de Cervantes, es nuestra posesión más valiosa y en un pedestal debemos mantenerla, y honrarla para nuestras futuras generaciones Hispanas.

"La libertad, Sancho, es uno de los preciosos dones que a los hombres dieron los cielos; con ella no pueden igualarse los tesoros que encierra la tierra ni el mar encubre; por la libertad así como por la hora se puede y debe aventurar la vida, y, por el cautiverio es el mayor mal que puede venir a los hombres" (Libro Segundo, Capítulo 58)


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We are in April of the year 2,005, and therefore, in the fourth anniversary of the publication of the greatest book of the Spanish language, Don Quixote de la Mancha.
I consider that the birthday number 400 of this priceless gift, must be remembered by all of us that know and dominate this beautiful language. Cervantes's immortal creation, goes beyond the frontiers and limits of the thought. This formidable, funny and noble odyssey of our most remembered justice carrier paladin, can be found shaped in our memory, in our thoughts and in our idiosyncracy whether of Spaniards in some cases, and of Hispanic-Latin-Americans in others.

Universal, are the first lines of Cervantes. At introducing the reader to his character, that with the time, got to transcend even more than his creator.
"Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place which name I don't want to remember, a gentleman lived to so long ago, once of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shield and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing".

The traveler's fantasy, that dreams while he's awake, joined by his loyal Sancho, is the collision of the old world, with the new one. The end of the romantic war that finds the crudeness of the modern world. Everything while don Quixote, our hero imitated but not duplicated, expresses and lives his most intense passions. His unlimited intentions of helping the needy one, of finding and saving his beautiful Dulcinea and of being a noble knight, the reader's mind, a sensation little found in today's world. But besides all this, of the mountain of nobility that don Quixote inspires, there is a message even more profound and strong. Yes, stronger than any other message. Don Quixote shows us the importance of this treasure that we all have the right to have when we are born, during our lives and when we die. Mario Vargas Llosa found it better than anyone. The message of FREEDOM.


Don Quixote is free. Free to think, to live. Free to get out to look for his happiness, free to love his Dulcinea, to fight against the monsters and to challenge other knights, and free to be free.
It could be said that don Quixote of La Mancha, belongs to all of us men and women that admire the freedom. If you like to think want you think, don Quixote is part of you. If you like to do what you want, don Quixote is for you. Si you like to live with no limitations, without other forcing their will against you, don Quixote, LIVES for you.


It is indispensable, that we all, united, remember don Quixote as the soul of our literature and as the main engine of our culture. The books move the people, the societies, the nations and the civilizations. They move our knowledge and they inspire our little or big, but equally valuable, greatness. And out of all the books, "Don Quixote of La Mancha", written by Miguel de Cervantes, is our most valuable possession, and in a pedestal we must maintain it, and honor it for our next Hispanic generations.


"The freedom, Sancho, is one of the precious gifts that to men the skies gave; with her can't be imitated the treasures that the earth locks up and neither those that the sea covers; because freedom like honor, can and must venture life, and, through captivity is the biggest evil that can come to men" (Second book, Chapter 58)

Andrés Rojas (19).
Abril, 2005.

Edith Grossman's newest translation of Miguel de Cervantes's "Don Quixote" is fabulous. As someone who grew up watching various incarnations of "The Man of La Mancha", I felt it was time to read the source material. But I was always afraid that the language (old timey as well as Spanish) would be a major hinderance to my enjoyment of the text. Grossman presents the adventures of Knight-Errant Don Quixote and his able (if slightly dimwitted) squire, Sancho Panza, with a fresh, contemporary voice. As I read the novel, I was pleasantly surprised at how accessible the language was. I got the feeling I was reading and enjoying the novel the same way one of Cervante's contemporaries would have.

The novel is funny, sad and violent, sometimes all three at the same time. I highly recommend this latest translation.

This is, in my opinion, the best book ever written. I am not a huge fiction fan, so I was surprised at the brilliance of this classic. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza make for two of the best characters in fictional history. The writing is so overblown and exaggerated that you cannot help but laugh. Each page carries humour to a new height, untill you realize that the book is philosophically profound.
The story line is pretty simple: regular dude gets the idea that he is a famous knight errant and begins a chivalrous quest to impress his lady and win her love (Lady Dulcinea of El Toboso- who, unfortunately, is actually nothing more than an ugly peasant woman). From such simple fabric is this beautifully textured quilt woven! There is much more in this book than the delusional Quixote mistaking windmills for giants. There is much more than simply poking at chivalry and decrying the decline of a peculiar weigh of life. What we have is the proverbial dreamer, locked up in a world of his own hopes, fantasies, and ideas. In this world, however crazy, Quixote is free to live, hope, and escape from the mundane. He lives his unreal life to the fullest. Ironically, it is when he realizes his life has been a sham when he dies.
The moral here seems obvious: We all need a dream and, if we lose that dream, we might just as well be dead. This is the only way to escape existential angst. This theme is universal. From myth to pop-culture, the idea of the heroic quest has attracted millions. With good reason.
Have you ever met the bland zombie-people who live hoplessly in the here and now? These creatures are some of the most depressing, hopeless slabs of meat anyone could lay eyes upon.
Don Quixote would be an average book if it simply reminded us of the importance of having passion. It does much more: It reminds us to pursue this passion- this white whale- with humour, humility, and self-deprecation. After all, we are all chasing windmills. We might just as well stop to laugh along the way.

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.

I must commend Grossman on her excellent translation of Cervantes classic, "Don Quixote". By far, her work is superior to other renditions of this novel including Starkie's because the literature flows better and her words/translation only adds to the story instead of cluttering the pages with small unimportant details.

If your going to read one of the greatest novels ever written, read the Grossman translation and you will enjoy it much more.