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Don Quixote Paperback – April 26, 2005
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Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece, in an expanded P.S. edition and with an introduction by Harold Bloom
"A major literary achievement."—Carlos Fuentes, New York Times Book Review
Widely regarded as one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the adventures of the self-created knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. You haven't experienced Don Quixote in English until you've read this masterful translation.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
- Print length992 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherEcco
- Publication dateApril 26, 2005
- Dimensions5.31 x 1.59 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100060934344
- ISBN-13978-0060934347
- Lexile measure1480L
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Grossman has given us an honest, robust and freshly revelatory Quixote for our times” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A major literary achievement.” — New York Times Book Review
“Ms. Grossman…has provided a Quixote that is agile, playful, formal and wry…. What she renders splendidly is the book’s very heart.” — New York Times
“It is thrilling to add Grossman’s to the bookshelf of Don Quixote possibilities. Her rendition confirms that Cervantes’ imperfect masterpiece is as much at home in Shakespeare’s tongue as it is in Spanish.” — Los Angeles Times
“This new translation relates the story of the man of La Mancha and his vivid imagination in a way that is more in tune with a 21st-century reader.” — Los Angeles Daily News
“Marvelous new translation.” — The New Yorker
“The Grossman translation blows the dust off Cervantes, leaving his light-footed prose and his sly, gentle mockeries.” — Dallas Morning News
“[Edith Grossman’s] rendering of Cervantes’ prose conveys all of its complex subtleties in a fresh and attractive style that is neither overly traditional nor colloquial.” — San Diego Union-Tribune
“This new version of Don Quixote is thoroughly modern...the words are familiar, the humor’s intact.” — Austin American-Statesman
From the Back Cover
Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece. Widely regarded as one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, Don Quixote chronicles the adventures of the self-created knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. You haven't experienced Don Quixote in English until you've read this masterful translation.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
About the Author
Miguel de Cervantes was born on September 29, 1547, in Alcala de Henares, Spain. At twenty-three he enlisted in the Spanish militia and in 1571 fought against the Turks in the Battle of Lepanto, where a gunshot wound permanently crippled his left hand. He spent four more years at sea and then another five as a slave after being captured by Barbary pirates. Ransomed by his family, he returned to Madrid but his disability hampered him; it was in debtor's prison that he began to write Don Quixote. Cervantes wrote many other works, including poems and plays, but he remains best known as the author of Don Quixote. He died on April 23, 1616.
Edith Grossman is the award-winning translator of major works by many of Latin America's most important writers. Born in Philadelphia, she attended the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California at Berkeley before receiving her PhD from New York University. She lives in New York City.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Don Quixote
By Miguel de Cervantes SaavedraHarper Perennial
Copyright ©2005 Miguel de Cervantes SaavedraAll right reserved.
ISBN: 9780060934347
Excerpt
Part One of the Ingenious GentlemanDon Quixote of La Mancha
Chapter One
Which describes the condition and profession of the famous gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha
Somewhere in La Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing. An occasional stew, beef more often than lamb, hash most nights, eggs and abstinence on Saturdays, lentils on Fridays, sometimes squab as a treat on Sundays - these consumed three-fourths of his income. The rest went for a light woolen tunic and velvet breeches and hose of the same material for feast days, while weekdays were honored with dun-colored coarse cloth. He had a housekeeper past forty, a niece not yet twenty, and a man-of-all-work who did everything from saddling the horse to pruning the trees. Our gentleman was approximately fifty years old; his complexion was weathered, his flesh scrawny, his face gaunt, and he was a very early riser and a great lover of the hunt. 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.
And so, let it be said that this aforementioned gentleman spent his times of leisure - which meant most of the year - reading books of chivalry with so much devotion and enthusiasm that he forgot almost completely about the hunt and even about the administration of his estate; and in his rash curiosity and folly he went so far as to sell acres of arable land in order to buy books of chivalry to read, and he brought as many of them as he could into his house; and he thought none was as fine as those composed by the worthy Feliciano de Silva, because the clarity of his prose and complexity of his language seemed to him more valuable than pearls, in particular when he read the declarations and missives of love, where he would often find written: The reason for the unreason to which my reason turns so weakens my reason that with reason I complain of thy beauty. And also when he read: ... the heavens on high divinely heighten thy divinity with the stars and make thee deserving of the deserts thy greatness deserves.
With these words and phrases the poor gentleman lost his mind, and he spent sleepless nights trying to understand them and extract their meaning, which Aristotle himself, if he came back to life for only that purpose, would not have been able to decipher or understand. Our gentleman was not very happy with the wounds that Don Belianís gave and received, because he imagined that no matter how great the physicians and surgeons who cured him, he would still have his face and entire body covered with scars and marks. But, even so, he praised the author for having concluded his book with the promise of unending adventure, and he often felt the desire to take up his pen and give it the conclusion promised there; and no doubt he would have done so, and even published it, if other greater and more persistent thoughts had not prevented him from doing so. He often had discussions with the village priest - who was a learned man, a graduate of Sigüenza - regarding who had been the greater knight, Palmerín of England or Amadís of Gaul; but Master Nicolás, the village barber, said that none was the equal of the Knight of Phoebus, and if any could be compared to him, it was Don Galaor, the brother of Amadís of Gaul, because he was moderate in everything: a knight who was not affected, not as weepy as his brother, and incomparable in questions of courage.
In short, our gentleman became so caught up in reading that he spent his nights reading from dusk till dawn and his days reading from sunrise to sunset, and so with too little sleep and too much reading his brains dried up, causing him to lose his mind. 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 Díaz4 had been a very good knight but could not compare to Amadís, the Knight of the Blazing Sword, who with a single backstroke cut two ferocious and colossal giants in half. He was fonder of Bernardo del Carpio because at Roncesvalles he had killed the enchanted Roland by availing himself of the tactic of Hercules when he crushed Antaeus, the son of Earth, in his arms. He spoke highly of the giant Morgante because, although he belonged to the race of giants, all of them haughty and lacking in courtesy, he alone was amiable and well-behaved. But, more than any of the others, he admired Reinaldos de Montalbán, above all when he saw him emerge from his castle and rob anyone he met, and when he crossed the sea and stole the idol of Mohammed made all of gold, as recounted in his history. He would have traded his housekeeper, and even his niece, for the chance to strike a blow at the traitor Guenelon.
The truth is that when his mind was completely gone, he had the strangest thought any lunatic in the world ever had, which was that it seemed reasonable and necessary to him, both for the sake of his honor and as a service to the nation ...
Continues...
Excerpted from Don Quixoteby Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Copyright ©2005 by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Product details
- Publisher : Ecco; Reprint edition (April 26, 2005)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 992 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0060934344
- ISBN-13 : 978-0060934347
- Lexile measure : 1480L
- Item Weight : 1.5 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 1.59 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #12,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #140 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #451 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #1,324 in Literary Fiction (Books)
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About the authors

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Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Alcalá de Henares, 29 de septiembre de 1547-Madrid, 22 de abril de 1616) fue un soldado, novelista, poeta y dramaturgo español.
Es considerado la máxima figura de la literatura española y es universalmente conocido por haber escrito Don Quijote de la Mancha, que muchos críticos han descrito como la primera novela moderna y una de las mejores obras de la literatura universal, además de ser el libro más editado y traducido de la historia, sólo superado por la Biblia. Se le ha dado el sobrenombre de «Príncipe de los Ingenios».
Cervantes es sumamente original. Parodiando un género que empezaba a periclitar, como el de los libros de caballerías, creó otro género sumamente vivaz, la novela polifónica, donde se superponen las cosmovisiones y los puntos de vista hasta confundirse en complejidad con la misma realidad, recurriendo incluso a juegos metaficcionales. En la época la épica podía escribirse también en prosa, y con el precedente en el teatro del poco respeto a los modelos clásicos de Lope de Vega, le cupo a él en suma fraguar la fórmula del realismo en la narrativa tal y como había sido preanunciada en España por toda una tradición literaria desde el Cantar del Mío Cid, ofreciéndosela a Europa, donde Cervantes tuvo más discípulos que en España. La novela realista entera del siglo XIX está marcada por este magisterio. Por otra parte, otra gran obra maestra de Cervantes, las Novelas ejemplares, demuestra la amplitud de miras de su espíritu y su deseo de experimentar con las estructuras narrativas. En esta colección de novelas el autor experimenta con la novela bizantina (La española inglesa), la novela policíaca o criminal (La fuerza de la sangre, El celoso extremeño), el diálogo lucianesco (El coloquio de los perros), la miscelánea de sentencias y donaires (El licenciado Vidriera), la novela picaresca (Rinconete y Cortadillo), la narración constituida sobre una anagnórisis (La gitanilla), etc.
La Editorial Alvi Books le dedicó, como tributo y reconocimiento, este espacio en Amazon en 2016.
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Don Quixote is the main character of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. He is the hero of the story, but he is certainly a strange one. Don Quixote starts as a poor and elderly noble who reads books for pleasure. These books of chivalry drive him insane, and lead him to believe that he must revive the profession of knight errantry. Before losing his sanity, Don Quixote was named Alonso Quixano, but he named himself Don Quixote to suit the role he is playing of a knight errant. Don is a spanish title and Quixote is a section of armor that covers the thigh. His face is described as being very long and serious, and he is very gaunt and tall. Throughout the book, Don Quixote is ridiculed by many but he never seems to notice. He also has a sense of chivalry as he wants to embody the idea of a knight errant, trying to right wrongs and using force when force is needed. Knight errants are thought to be courageous, and Don Quixote is nothing but courageous. Throughout his adventures, he almost never fails to confront his fears and right perceived wrongs although doing so loses him several teeth and a part of his ear. It is also remarked many times that apart from anything related to chivalry, Don Quixote is perfectly sane and intelligent. In fact, throughout the book he gives many admirable speeches and many morals that I agree with. I admire Don Quixote because even though he is elderly and can live off his estate as a noble, he refuses to do so and becomes a knight errant. Yes, this is because he is not completely sane but he is trying to do good for others.
Sancho Panza is Don Quixote’s poor peasant neighbor. Poor, but fat and short. For whatever reason, Sancho agrees to be Don Quixote’s squire even though Don Quixote is quite obviously mad. He plays a counterpart to Don Quixote, behaving cowardly when Don Quixote is rushing forward to meet his imaginary enemies, and greedy to Don Quixote’s apparent non-materialism. But he sticks through all of Don Quixote’s adventures next to him, and he seems to regard the knight errant as a very good friend by the book’s end. Sancho Panza tries to do the best for his family, bringing money from the adventure back to them, and his donkey, being very careful not to lose him. Sancho Panza is also extremely simpleminded, as evident by him agreeing to be a squire to Don Quixote. Also, his proverbs, of which he has many, are always off the mark and make no sense. However, he is not without his moments, as when he becomes a governor he creates several very intelligent laws that are followed even after he leaves his position. I like Sancho Panza because he gives humor to the story with his strange acts and simple mindedness. You can also sense a bond growing between Sancho Panza and Don Quixote through the story, and I really enjoy seeing their friendship grow.
The Barber is an un named character in Don Quixote who is a friend of Don Quixote. They seem to be good friends, although the barber does enjoy poking fun at Don Quixote at times. His friend the Priest is also a good friend of Don Quixote, and the Barber seems to defer to the Priest’s judgement a lot. There is not much to be said about the Barber except that he is a true friend of Don Quixote.
The Priest is an un named character in Don Quixote who is a friend of Don Quixote. He graduated from what is said to be a bad college, but he seems quite intelligent. He takes pride in being a priest, one time saying that he refuses to wear a the clothing of a women because he would dishonor priests. His friend the Barber defers to him in many matters of judgement. Books of chivalry seem to be a pet peeve to the priest since they have so changed his friend, Don Quixote, and he also seems to find many of them distasteful since they are so unreal as to not give him any enjoyment in reading them. I agree with him about chivalry novels and generally think he is another true friend to Don Quixote.
The Niece of Don Quixote is a woman who loves Don Quixote as a family member and tries to care for him when he is sick. Their familial bond and love is further shown when Don Quixote gives her land in his will. The Niece tries her best to stop Don Quixote from going out on adventures, but it’s for his own good. I feel she is not trying hard enough, however, since Don Quixote manages to go out and have adventures a total of three times.
The Housekeeper for Don Quixote is similar to his Niece in that both care for him. In fact, the Housekeeper continues working for Don Quixote even when he is gone on his adventures and doesn’t pay her. She just wants the best for Don Quixote, and I think that is an admirable thing.
Dulcinea of Toboso is the name Don Quixote gives to a peasant girl he had a crush on when he was young. Her real name is Aldonza Lorenzo, but Don Quixote decides he needs a maiden to serve and so changes her name to better fit that. They never meet in the book, but it is said she was pretty when she was young. I am not sure what to think of her as there is not much information about her, but she must be a good person if Don Quixote likes her so much.
Cardenio is a man who runs away to die alone when he hears his beloved marries another. Eventually, it is found that this was not true and he goes back and presumably marries her. I think Cardenio had a hard life and I am glad his story ends happily.
Luscinda is Cardenio’s sweetheart who refused an offer of marriage even though she was pressed into accepting it by many. She is considered inordinately beautiful, and it is said her beauty was matched only by Dorotea. There is not much said about her, but she remains faithful to her sweetheart so I admire her for that.
Don Fernando is a rich noble who said he loved Dorotea, but then tried to marry Luscinda. Of course, he was also Cardenio’s good friend until he tried to steal away Luscinda. He eventually agrees to marry Dorotea and it is presumed they live happily ever after. I think Don Fernando is a womanizer and quite rude, since he broke his promise to Dorotea.
Dorotea is the rich daughter of a peasant family. When Don Fernando ran away from his obligations to her, she was so ashamed that she ran away. Eventually, she found Don Fernando and they married. She is considered to be as beautiful as Luscinda, and very intelligent for she managed to get Don Fernando to marry her. I like that Dorotea’s story ended happily because she seems like a good person.
The Duke and Duchess are characters in the second part of Don Quixote who, having read the first part, decide to play tricks on Don Quixote and his squire for their amusement. These tricks are not very nice, but they are funny and the Duke and Duchess seem to genuinely like both Don Quixote and his squire. In fact, they even gift Sancho Panza with a town to govern, although he loses his job after a mere 10 days. I like the Duke and Duchess since they are basically harmless and just play a lot of jokes that are a little funny.
The Knight of the Green Coat is a person Don Quixote meets on the road. The Knight invites him to his house, and so Don Quixote and Sancho Panza stay there for a while. The Knight seems to be a rich farmer, and his real name is Don Diego de Miranda. He and his son believe that Don Quixote is sometimes intelligent and other times mad. His son aspires to be a famous poet. I think that this Knight is a nice guy for allowing Don Quixote to stay at his house, but I wish that Don Quixote had a chance to tell the Knight his adventures after the knight errant parted ways with Don Diego. Unfortunately, Don Quixote dies at the end of the book so I don’t think this will ever happen.
Bachelor Sanson Carrasco is a bachelor of a university. He, along with the Priest and Barber, plan to stop Don Quixote’s madness. Sanson dresses as a knight and fights Don Quixote, so that the loser must proclaim the winner’s maiden as the most beautiful, but he loses. He is not daunted by this loss, however, and he meets Don Quixote again near the end of the book to fight him. This time he wins, and it is considered that the depression brought about by this defeat led to Don Quixote’s death. I think Sanson’s cause is worthy, but the end result is utterly sad.
Connection:
I chose this project because I like reading, and I thought that this would take less effort and be more enjoyable than the other options. The other options just sounded like work, while reading sounded more like resting. The Ingenious Gentlemen of La Mancha influenced spanish culture because so many people read the book and enjoyed it. This led them to incorporate the book into plays and art. Don Quixote helped me understand a little more about spanish . For example, footnotes in the book indicate that Don Quixote uses more formal language to indicate anger at Sancho Panza, but this formal language is not seen in the translation. English and spanish have differences, and Don Quixote helped me see that more clearly.
Reflection:
I learned a little about the spanish language, but mostly I learned about knight errantry and some of the culture of Spain. I felt bored for some parts of the book, like through the sonnets and poems, but otherwise I felt engaged and understood most of it. I do think that I would recommend this project to another student because I feel like I had fun reading Don Quixote and there was little to no effort involved. Footnotes increased my understanding of the text, so if someone has a copy of the book with footnotes I think they should definitely give it a try. However, the reading did consume a lot of time, so if people don’t have a lot of time they should not do this project. I planned it so that I would read 50 pages a day for several weeks, but it turned out that it was very hard to keep to this schedule. I think a better way would be to read 300 pages on the weekends so the reading doesn’t interfere with schoolwork but it still gets done. At some points in the book, I wasn’t sure if I liked the book or not, but when I finished the book I felt sad so I guess that means I liked the book after all. Honestly, I feel that it was worth it to experience what people have called the, “first modern novel”.
According to experts, this is one of the best books ever written, and always appears on the lists of best novels that have been published. It is the second most translated book after the Bible. It was given the distinction of "Best literary work ever written" by the Norwegian Book Club based on a vote of 100 weel known writers from 54 countries. It was one of the favorite books of Thomas Jefferson and was used as a reference by famous American writers such as Mark Twain, Herman Melville and William Faulkner. The Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky referred to this book as "the only conclusion that can be drawn from life if the world came to an end" Masterpieces of world literature such as Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, and Dostoevsky's The Idiot, are inspired by Don Quixote and were deliberately written based on the admiration that these writers felt for Cervantes’ book.
Don Quixote has all the basic ingredients to entertain: humor, romance, fights and horse chasing, among others. It was innovative at the time of publication and it is considered the first novel in modern literature. This was the first book in which different opinions and viewpoints coexisted harmoniously in the same environment. The dialogues between the characters are masterfully written and inspired by the Spanish theatrical tradition of writers such as Lope de Vega.
Don Quixote follows his quest as a knight with deep passion and commitment, always certain that his actions make a great contribution to the world. He shows the highest respect for all the people that he finds in his journey; being friends or rivals. But each time his fantasies crash with crude reality, as he and Sancho get beaten, injured, mocked and deceived. The confrontation between reality and fantasy is in episode of this book. Although Don Quixote tries desperately to become a hero he cannot be different than any other human being: proud and humble, strong and weak, wise and crazy
Sancho is always aware of Don Quixote’s madness, but he follows him loyally despite the fact that he often gets the worst part of the beatings. A great theme of this book is the friendship that these two different men develop based on mutual respect; Sancho learns from Don Quixote to put fantasies into his life and Don Quixote sees reality through Sancho’s’ companionship. The dialogues between Don Quixote and Sancho are very rich, often riddled with humor, but always revealing deeper human nature
All who have read Don Quixote have their own interpretation that often changes with age. After all, this interpretation depends on how everyone sees life. In this sense, Don Quixote can be seen as a description of life in form, rhythm and substance. The Peruvian writer,recipient of the Nobel Price of Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa said that Don Quixote is the personification of a disproportionate love of freedom and a rebellious spirit
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"Don Quixote" is a literary treasure that continues to enchant and provoke thought centuries after its creation. Cervantes' magnum opus is more than a novel; it's an odyssey into the boundless realms of the human mind. If you seek a journey that combines humor, wisdom, and the enduring power of storytelling, "Don Quixote" beckons you to mount your proverbial steed and set forth into the timeless landscape of literary exploration.
























