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Don Quijote de la Mancha (Spanish Edition)

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This review is intended for English speaking folks who want to read Don Quixote in the original Spanish.
When in my twenties I first read an English translation of Quixote in an undergraduate literature class. At the time I enjoyed how the book was arranged - stories within stories, the humor, Quixote's idealism and his reaction to the world. The professor told us that it is a book whose messages change as we age. She recommended that we read it again when we reached our 40s and 50s, and it would have a whole new set of meanings for us. So it does. Now - in my forties - when I read Don Quixote I see a man who has been disappointed by his lack of accomplishments and dismayed by the state of the world around him. I see myself.
I am re-reading Don Quixote slowly, one to three chapters per day. A pace, I believe, Cervantes intended. It is a pace that allows for reflection. I first read a chapter of the English translation, then I read it in Spanish. I began this project with the Don Quixote editions I had on hand: an archaic 18th century translation by Tobias Smollet left over from college, and an artsy tourist copy of Don Quixote I picked up years ago in Mexico and never read. By the fifth chapter it became apparent that this would not do. Relying on an inaccurate archaic English translation to help me understand Cervantes' archaic Spanish was not working out. Also, the Mexican copy, printed on brittle, acid paper, held together in a glued binding, was falling apart. I sensed a pretext to buy books!
For my modern English translation I chose Edith Grossman, and for the Spanish version I am reading this edition from the Real Academia. I selected Grossman for her modern, yet formal Latinate translation that suits Cervantes' Golden Age Spanish. I chose this Real Academia edition for it copious footnotes and glossary.
This being a Spanish edition, the footnotes and glossary are, of course, in Spanish. And while a footnoted archaic word, or antique expression is often explained in equally confusing and obscure modern Spanish, I still nevertheless find the footnotes more and more useful as I work my way along. In my opinion they alone double the value of the book. In addition to this, the physical properties of the book itself make it under-priced. The binding is textbook style, sewn, not glued. The pages are thin, yet not easily torn. This edition is for readers, not decorators. There are no illustrations by famous or semi-famous artists. And although the spine is attractive, it would be wasted as a decoration. This is an edition that welcomes being read, marked up, highlighted, and returned to again in twenty years.

This Spanish edition includes footnotes in every page explaining the archaic words. Without them, the book is not readable. I had bought another edition and could not understand many sentences. The footnotes explain places, names, and provide commentary on consistency errors that the text has.

I decided to read the book on its 400th anniversary. I had tried before when I was fifteen, but did not get to page 100. I have finished the first book, and I'm in the process of reading the second one.

As some have noted, some insights of Don Quijote are still modern. He talks, for instance, about the way that people that go to college are better paid than soldiers, when soldiers risk their lives and health. Also, about how entertainment is vulgar because the masses likes it that way (hence the term, from vulgo), and other subjects that remain current.

I am going to finish the book, but it takes effort. I have been reading for two months, reading other books in between.

If you want anything in English to help you, this is not for you, BUT,if you have some Spanish (in my case 1 college year) this is a great way to tackle Don Quijote. There are many footnotes explaining words whose meanings have changed and some obscure references. The physical quality of the book--paper, print, and binding--is remarkable for the price.

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.

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)



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, es 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.

You'll have no problem getting through all two pounds of this classic. The sophistication of Cervantes' tale is such that the humor in it is universal, stretching across centuries, languages, and cultures. In addition to humorous, however, it possesses elements of danger, joy, sadness, and any other quality that belongs in a timeless epic. The Spanish is antiquated but somehow easy to read regardless.

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.

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!

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!

I`m brazilian and reading this book was an unique experience. It`s gougeous, clean, the footnotes are priceless. I got surprised seeing how words in archaic spanish are nowadays modern portuguese words. If you wanna really understand what Cervantes wrote, read this spanish version.