Don Quixote (Penguin Classics) by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra (Epub)

Description

Don Quixote has become so entranced reading tales of chivalry that he decides to turn knight errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, these exploits blossom in all sorts of wonderful ways. While Quixote’s fancy often leads him astray—he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants—Sancho acquires cunning and a certain sagacity. Sane madman and wise fool, they roam the world together-and together they have haunted readers’ imaginations for nearly four hundred years.

User’s Reviews

Review “The highest creation of genius has been achieved by Shakespeare and Cervantes, almost alone.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge “A more profound and powerful work than this is not to be met with…The final and greatest utterance of the human mind.” —Fyodor Dostoyevsky “What a monument is this book! How its creative genius, critical, free, and human, soars above its age!” —Thomas Mann “Don Quixote looms so wonderfully above the skyline of literature, a gaunt giant on a lean nag, that the book lives and will live through his sheer vitality….The parody has become a paragon.” —Vladimir Nabokov

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized.” – Daniel BurnhamThis quote summarizes the key aspect of Don Quixote that I enjoy so much. The power of imagination to move us beyond are pre-defined selves and create a world for ourselves as we see fit. This is of course idealistic and the realities of life prove routinely that obstacles will often interrupt us along the way. I first read this book in 1998 in college. Back then I took from it mostly the idea of the conflict of self identity matched up against outside perceptions and expectations. That interpretation was particularly important for me as a black male in an American culture that routinely tries to define for me, who I am and what I am capable of; despite all my wildest dreams that crave more.In this second reading, many of Cervantes’ genius literary triumphs really jumped out at me. His subtle and hilarious use of “Breaking the 4th wall.” The use of all of the subplots and characters to illustrate the crossroads of culture, Moorish and Christian, Chivalry and Rule of Law, along with Romanticism and Realism. Cervantes often self-references the labyrinth of layers upon layers of deep social and literary commentary of the times in which he was writing. Some of which, particularly the class, religious, and racial turmoil remain with us today.Still, it remains the narrative about what or who is the ultimate authority on what and/or how we define the self that most intrigues me. In truth, the idea of the self is a complex formula. We are the careful balance of experience, wit, luck, and a little madness. Outside perceptions are then layered on this amalgamation of individual chemistry. This combination results in the same person waffling between genius and madman, when viewed in a myriad of different ways by an array of different eyes. Don Quixote is the vehicle by Which Cervantes masks scalding social criticism couched in the persona of a mad man.This sprawling novel that traverses the canyons between madness and sanity is a story of unbridled experience. We all want to live lives full adventure, but the world and our “place” in it often keeps us within limits that say this is ok and this is crazy. I love this journey because I believe that if we, like Don Quixote, live life as we define it, the stories would have been worth it.

⭐ For anyone who has worried about stickers being placed on the other cloth bound books, fear no more. The books now come with the tag on a paper slip instead of being stuck to the book itself. Rejoice, and be glad that this issue has finally been addressed lol

⭐ This version is the orange clothbound edition embossed with yellow knights. The thing that sets this one apart from the other clothbound editions put out by Penguin is the printer did not put a nasty sticker on the back of the book which on other books in the series pulled off the embossing and left a stain on the cover of the book. They do listen to their buyers finally!This version is the Rutherford translation containing Part I and Part II in 1023 pages. The print is somewhat small but adequately sized and readable for me.

⭐ Thank you to John Rutherford, the brilliant translator of “this lovely book”, as he calls it in his readable Introduction. His translation is vibrant, hilarious, modern and yet true to the original. His Translator’s Note was a fascinating glimpse into the enormous challenges facing the brave person who takes on an epic work such as this. I simply cannot praise your work enough, Mr Rutherford. You have made Don Quixote accessible and welcoming to the modern English reader.I would also like to say a big Thank you to the wonderful readers of the Audible edition, who have done full justice to this great work. Thank you all!

⭐ Long.

⭐ I wanted to add this book to my library after I was done reading it but the gold started flaking off the book cover almost immediately.

⭐ Don Quixote has the humor of Nacho Libre and a weird blend of fantasy and reality that I can only compare to Galaxy Quest. I. Loved. This. Book. I was surprised how funny it was. Like laugh-out-loud funny with crude potty humor (my favorite) and violence that the Three Stooges would love. For example, Don Quixote does something absolutely crazy until I can’t stand him but then he gets the crap beaten out of him so I felt sorry for him and kind of liked him again until, of course, he does something crazy again. It actually takes a while to get tired of that cycle because it manages to be funny every time. By the time I was tired of it, Don Quixote started to change and develop more. The story is tragic, too, so it has some depth (but even the tragedy manages to be kind of funny).If you read this novel in high school and feel like you didn’t read the same book as me, YOU DIDN’T. You need to read the Edith Grossman translation. It’s amazing. It flows well. It’s modern enough to understand yet she worked hard to keep as much of the context of the time period and language as possible. The style feels similar to reading Jane Austen. It’s not totally modern but not old enough that it’s hard to understand. Edith’s footnotes in this novel were great. They gave context when needed. They pointed out plot holes that I didn’t even notice like someone in the room talking even though the author never mentioned them coming in. She also did her best to explain the word play humor that sadly didn’t translate to English. If you’re still not convinced to read it because it’s long, I can tell you that the reason it’s so long is because there are chivalric novellas inserted into the narrative. They’re good stories but if you are intimidated by how long it is, you could skip these novellas.

⭐ Fantastic read. The book is beautiful and suiting. I like that is doesn’t have the paper cover. The print on the binding is nice and has a vintage feel to it. Also has an attached ribbon bookmark. The print is nice and the letter are a medium and easily readable font.The only cons are the quality is slightly cheap. Both the front and back covers are bowed. The binding is also very flimsy, like it’s made out of paper, not even cardboard.I still love the book, but I’m disappointed in the quality/defects.

⭐ This is a classic. Everyone has heard of Don Quixote. I was a bit surprised of how much of a comedy this book is. It’s like a spoof for all romantic books about knights and its adventures. Whereas it is funny in regards to the adventures, and most of the dialogue involving the central character (Quixote), it seems to be overly serious on romantic stories. The book is stuffed with ridiculous adventures as it is with romantic tales. Thinking on understanding the main story, this is not a difficult read. What makes it a bit harrowing is the fact that it is long (almost 1000 pages) and that all characters, even the most ignorant, speaks as he was a fine scholar and from a school of politeness and good manners. So, for example, instead of saying, “I don’t agree with you” you will probably read “I beg your pardon, but I don’t agree with you at the least, and I will present my case to you. Please have the patience to hear me out. First, what you said is wrong for so, and so reasons. Second, you should also consider these other reasons … And lastly, we must not forget the tale of bla, bla, bla. In this tale, bla, bla, bla… And I almost forgot, another reason you must change your mind is due to bla, bla, bla….” So there you have it. If it weren’t for all these unnecessary dwellings in each and every dialogue (and maybe this happens due to the fact it is a satire of all these other knight books that exists or existed in the past), the book would probably be 350 pages long and a much, much, more swifter read. And yes, I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because of this. For the ones that are obsessed with romance and romantic stories: they will probably not find fault in what I pointed out due to the fact that they will be able to enjoy every little detail of romantic thought and dialogue.

⭐ Don Quixote is both an easy read and an incredibly subtle work. It’s an easy read if one focuses on the adventures, or misadventures, of its protagonist. On the surface the author intends to simply describe the unnecessary chaos and suffering caused a man who has been driven mad by over-reading the works of chivalry.But then you realize that the author is quite consciously giving birth to a new art form. Since the days of chivalry have passed, secular literature needs the novel to depict the disenchanted modern world.And then you further realize that many of the stories and characters still seem drawn from works of chivalry. And Don Quixote the character encounters people who’ve read about Don Quixote. And then, odd parallels appear that seem to question the surface meaning of the text: there is the heroic daughter of a Moor who steals her father’s riches and flees to Christendom right next to the foolish Christian who steals her father’s riches to run off with a solider. Did Cervantes really intend to say the one is foolish and the other brave?It’s no wonder Don Quixote has been a favorite of authors from Dostoevsky to Faulkner. The meta themes of the nature of literature and the nature of modernity must have inspired an author like Faulkner. He too invented a new form of fiction and reflected on the changes in culture between the antebellum and modern American South.I don’t claim to have solved all these questions, if they can even be solved, but they have left me with a profound respect for Cervantes as one of the great lights of humanity. The cliche rendering of Don Quixote as simply about a chivalrous madman out in search of bygone days couldn’t be further from the truth. Perhaps I will, like Faulkner, reread it year after year to come to a greater understanding not only of this text but of our shared human condition.

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