Don Quixote (Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels)

I regret that my Spanish is not good enough to listen/read this classic in its original language. Nonetheless, it appears to me that this is a true rendition/translation of what was written. The narrator is a superb reader. The story has t be taken in its context: 1605. This is groundbreaking. The idea of celebrating chivalry by setting it on its head was audacious for its time. The flow of the grand language brings one back to this often underestimated tale. It is certainly more than charging at windmills; and it is more than "dreaming the impossible dream". It is man embracing his particular notion of what he holds sacred; whether it is patriotism, theology, philosophy in short, anything held as Certain Truth, pitted against the lens of the opposing beholder. This is what makes any "true believer" appear as ludicrous. In this perspective, Cervantes has one finger on the absurdity of the antiquating notions of chivalry, while maintaining another on the heroic figure who believes profoundly: that is man, who will survive 400 years holding this same position which will pit him up against the next 400 years. Lui Campos

In 1982 the Academie Francaise told the rest of us that there were some 2,796 separate languages being spoken in the world and I'm reasonably sure they didn't include the guttural grunts, swearing sighs, and elongated oaths that passed for English out of my old Drill Instructor's mouth. Now given that time has probably erased some of the accepted number of languages we're still left with a considerable amount of babel out there without the tower. So when academics argue over a word or phrase of a tranlator's copy of a truly great book they're missing the point of the effort. Even though you've been dead since what, 1771? Thank you, Mister Smollett for offering up one of the true classics. Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote is a gem that has sparkled for centuries and still shines today thanks to you. The soldier-slave-writer Cervantes gave the world a better look at Chivalry and a fool we all can identify with from his misadventures to our own. Tobias Smollett left us in good company and we should have the courtesy of saying thank you or gracias. Better still, mucho gracias and better late than never.

Well crafted book, text is of common (readable) size and font. The author does a fine job of providing a thesaurus or annotation to the uncommon vocabulary utilized by the time period and translator. Dense book, even for a classic. Heralded as a comedy, but not as clever as the humor in books as exalted as Great Expectations or The Count of Monte Cristo.Book is approximately 3 inches thick for those concerned, and there is a smattering of illustrations throughout.

Very nice item very happy with my purchaseThank you I'd buy from the seller again. :) 😃

This is such a great book! I love it

The life on Don Quixote is great! I love this book and also recommend you seeing the "Man of Lamarche" they both are brilliant to read and see. Do it you will be so glad you do. So buy the book and read it and while you are reading do a search to see what theatre group is doing Man of Lamarche

The first novel, or at least the first modern novel, and one of the great works of Western civilization. An early Enlightenment work, Don Quijote pokes fun at, and mocks, the chivalrous customs of a Spain whose nobles were wealthy from its colonies. An excellent example of irony in literature -- one of the best in my judgment. Still, it is a long and somewhat disjointed work that cries out for an editor. There are even elements of post-modernism in this work. In this respect, it was groundbreaking in several ways. One of my favourite books in all of literature.

I have a very fancy copy of this translation executed by the Arion Press; I have argued with Mr. Hoyem as to why he chooses the current popular, but lifeless translations for his books, to no avail. Having read sections of various translations (Grossman, Ormsby, Jervis/Jarvis) I decided I liked Smollett's the best as it renders the same meaning as - say Grossman - but in a more flowing and lively way.For just one example, Smollett's translation and note:"He next visited his horse which (though he had more corners than a *rial, being as lean as Gonela's ...)"*This is a joke upon the knight's steed, which was so meagre that his bones stuck out like the corners of a Spanish rial, a coin of very irregular shape, not unlike the figure in geometry called Trapezium.Grossman's translation is (I assume) more accurate, with some of the original humor, but boring: "Then he went to look at his nag, and though its hooves had more cracks than his master's pate and it showed more flaws than Gonnella's...."You can drive yourself crazy (unless you can read Spanish which I'm considering at this point) going between translations or find the Ballestin edition of Smollett's "Don Quixote" and have a most enjoyable read.

The translation by Tobias Smollett, 1755, is in the English of that time and brings Cervantes's work alive in ways that other more contemporary transitions don't do for me. Now the specific reason for this particular edition: The exquisite notes by Stephanie Kirk. Her notes provide the additional information needed to place Eighteenth Century terms, place names, and references to myths in context and greatly expand one's appreciation of this magisterial work I bought this specific edition because of her notes.

The Modern Library adaptation of the novel is amazing, the story doesn't looses it's charm in the translation. It keeps one intrigued. Have gone only half way through the book but enjoying it. Paper quality is a bit low and even the font of the text is not that great.

Kattar kitaab.