Don Quijote de la Mancha (Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra (Author), Tom Lathrop (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1589770242 | ISBN-13: 978-1589770249 | Publication Date: July 30, 2005 | Edition: Revised

This Spanish edition of Lathrop's Don Quijote (ISBN 9781589770249) is out-of-print. It has been replaced by the new Legacy edition, ISBN 9781589771000.

Product Details

• Paperback: 956 pages
• Publisher: European Masterpieces; Revised edition (July 30, 2005)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 1589770242
• ISBN-13: 978-1589770249
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #77 in Books > Libros en español > Literatura y ficción

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great edition of Cervantes' work for native English speakers, November 21, 2006

By 

Arthad - See all my reviews

This review is from: Don Quijote de la Mancha (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lanthrop is amazing, March 27, 2008

By 

Alix Hakala "BigFinn" (Laramie, Wyoming) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Don Quijote de la Mancha (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

I really enjoyed Lanthrop's edition of don Quijote. The footnotes as well as the definitions that are found in the margins are quite useful, although sometimes he sometimes defines some words that are plain Spanish vocabulary. For example, he defines orgullo= pride- this is helpful, but there are sometimes definitions to obscure Cerventine Spanish that I was clueless about. In these cases, it would have been nice if they were included (by the way, I highly recommend the dictionary to go along with the novel). The introduction that Lanthrop provides is EXTREMELY helpful in defining terms (aka- "dellos", which should be "de los", etc., which could be confusing to most). I highly recommend this product!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Text, December 6, 2009

By 

Melvin R. Meeks "Mel Meeks" (Santa Fe, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Don Quijote de la Mancha (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

Tom Lanthrop's edition of Don Quijote is the best edition available of Cervantes' classic. The unabridged original is augmented by a comprehensive introduction (in English) that includes a brief bio of the author, explanations of the grammatical difficulties encountered by the modern day reader, and the novel's place in history. A glossary in the margins of the text explains archaic words; notes at the bottom of the pages clarify difficult passages; and the enamoured knight and his simple squire are depicted in graphic detail by numerous illustrations from the pen of the nineteenth century artist Gustave Doré. To use a contemporary phrase, this is as good as it gets!