Customer Reviews

Don Quijote de la Mancha (Spanish Edition)

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4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

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!

I think this is a really great version of Don Quijote for someone whose Spanish speaking skill is at the moderate level. It has really helpful side notes for certain words (remember that Don Quijote was written in the 1500's so some of the Spanish is like our Olde English) and it also has some footnote references. I used this book for a class on Don Quijote and found it to be very useful and easy-to-read once I got a few chapters in! Also, there is a Don Quijote dictionary that is under $5 and also helps with some of the hard-to-find words that you don't normally see in modern Spanish.

Este libro es una maravilla. Recuerdo que siempre me ponían a leerlo en mis clases de Español cuando estaba en el colegio, y le daba largas porque no me gustaba. Es cierto que el lenguaje es un poco antiguo, pero la historia aquí contada es tan ingeniosa que supera con creces todo lo que yo haya conocido. Ahora que encontré esta edición para Kindle, me puse a leerlo de nuevo y es fascinante.

Esta edición digital me gusta por varias razones. La primera es que es directa, no tiene gran introducción y el lector puede comenzar a leer las aventuras desde el primer momento. El índice funciona bien, aunque en el lector para computadora se ve un poco extraño, pero logra su cometido. Tiene además las cartas iniciales en donde se especifica la tasa del libro, acompañada de la carta del rey y de varios poemas muy interesantes.

No puedo decir más. Un clásico.
¡Y pensar que fue escrito hace unos 400 años!

Excelente version para Kindle con ilustraciones y lo mejor de todo es que es gratis. Que mas le pueden pedir a a vida! un clasico que todo lector de habla hispana deberia leer!.

I love this version in old spanish. This kindle version its great. I hope that the could have more classic titles in spanish

This book is a great resource for north american students. It has an english intro - which is really awesome - and then goes on to have lots of helpful translations through-out the text. Would recommend it!

Well don't click on the link that purports to take you there so you can download it. Once again Amazon misleadingly links the wrong book as the Kindle version. Fortunately in this case it is a free version that is linked. Unfortunately, apparently Tom Lathrop's Spanish edition is not available on Kindle. Perhaps the formatting would be too difficult in terms of benefiting from the definitions he provides in the margin of the physical book. But at least his helpful footnotes could be linked. Lathrop's edition has made the Spanish more readable for those for whom Spanish is not their native tongue, because it removes some of the archaic Spanish for a more modern reading-- great for students of the language.

The one star is to draw attention to the fact that the product is not at all what is featured on the screen.

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." ([...]).