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Feb 09, 2011

karen rated it:

done quixote!!!
pun quixote!!
fun quixote??
none quixote...

and that's not entirely true; there are some rollicking good times in here, but the first part is so much endlessly episodic violence, and while the second half becomes calmer and more focused, it never got my imagination engaged nor my blood flowing.

in fact, although i know he really does love it, i can't help but feel that brian's recommending this to me is similar to the duke and duchess having their fu More...

73 comments like (39 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2011

Alex rated it:

Well, this thing is good.

I guess the goal of reviewing something like Don Quixote is to make you less frightened of it. It's intimidating, right? It's 940 pages long and it's from 500 years ago. But Grossman's translation is modern and easy to read, and the work itself is so much fun that it ends up not being difficult at all.

Much of Book I is concerned with the story of Cardenio, which Shakespeare apparently liked so much that he wrote a now-lost play about the guy. More...

63 comments like (18 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2011

Bennet rated it:

My beloved 1964 Signet paperback and Walter Starkie translation, of which I was reminded by a friend's recently posted Quixote review (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/182...)and am now shelving among other brilliant voices. From Starkie's introduction:

"Out of a spirit of fin de siecle melancholy sprang Don Quixote, the first modern novel in the world created out of a life of disillusion, privation, and poverty by a maimed ex-soldier, survivor of a glorious Spanish victory, wh More...

11 comments like (7 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2008

Belarius rated it:

I'll be the first to admit it: I'm a fan of popular fiction. I desire enjoyment from certain factors of pacing and style that the literary elite consider "common" and I, in turn, generally find "literature" to be incredibly pretentious. This has led me to hold what some might consider "uncultured" opinions about various great works.

Which brings us to Don Quixote, which many in the literary elite consider to be the greatest novel ever written.

More...

6 comments like (39 people liked it)

Oct 16, 2011

Mrs. Crane rated it:

DON QUIJOTE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I began with reading the Spanish version of "Don Quijote De La Mancha".
What inspired me to do so was a vintage mint condition copy I came across and purchased at a rare book store(Book I). Not knowing anything about "Don Quixote", I was disappointed to find out there was a part II, of which I didn't own, and chances of finding the matching edition were slim to none..
Nevertheless, I was inspired to read this wor More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 31, 2008

Ronny rated it:

Nyambung postingnya Nanto soal buku bekas, nah ini strike gold gw, terjemahan Don Quixote oleh Abdul Moeis (1933), cetakan ketiga (1955). [Mia dan Roos sudah liat buku ini di rumah]

Ini terjemahan luar biasa, kocak bukan main seperti versi aslinya. Karena sendirinya seorang sastrawan, Abdul Moeis bisa menangkap greget buku ini dengan baik, meski ini bukan versi utuh Don Quixote, Bagian II nya dipotong agak banyak dan meskipun sepertinya ini diterjemahkan dari versi Belanda. Gaya bahas More...

15 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2009

John rated it:

In short: it's a frickin' classic of world literature. Read it.

In slightly longer, but still short: an amusing and infamous first fifty pages with lots of hit-or-miss thereafter. The second half gets dreadfully stale, but has an interesting ending from a literary analysis standpoint.

In long: I'm using this review space as a journal for reading the incredible mountain of pages.

Day 1: Here goes nothing. Here come 1,000 pages of translated text.

The op More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 23, 2010

Choupette added it

This is the story of Don Quixote: Alonzo Quixada, an avid reader of tales of chivalry, decides one day that it is his destiny to become a knight-errant. He finds himself a knight-like name, some armour, a horse, a name for the horse, and a lady-love, and later a squire (the wonderful Sancho Panza), and sets off to do good deeds. This makes up the entirety of the content of Cervantes' masterpiece.

To be honest, until recently I wouldn't have called this a masterpiece - in fact, the onl More...

18 comments like (16 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2009

David added it

My final review of Book I is actually over here -
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/519...

I am leaving this "review" stand, largely because the comments attached provide a record of my Via Dolorosa through Book I over the past month. The entire "Quik Quixote", in uninterrupted form, is here -
QUIK QUIXOTE

When I bought the handy quadricentennial edition shown in the picture above, I was making small talk with the book More...

47 comments like (5 people liked it)

Mar 11, 2008

John rated it:

Whew. I did it. I'm ready to run the New York Marathon, climb Mount Everest, swim the Mekong River, and hunt the nefarious arctic narwhale, now that I've read Don Quixote in its entirety. And I am truly a better person for it.

Until now, I've only read Don Quixote in small doses, reading his battle with the windmills or his mistaking a barber's washbin for the Helmet of Mambrino out of context, either for class or in anthologies. After reading the first book in sequence, I'm ashamed More...

1 comment like (11 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2011

Cecily rated it:

Whatever else "Don Quixote" is, I never found it boring. Parts of it were very funny, others had wonderful similarities with Shakespeare, some bits were more serious: it's like a mini library in a single volume. Wonderful.

Overall, it has quite a shakespearean feel - more in the plotting and tales within tales (eg The Man Who was Recklessly Curious, stolen by Mozart for Cosi fan Tutte) than the language. In fact, the story of Cardenio is thought to be the basis for Shakespear More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 10, 2008

Tucker rated it:

As a kid did you ever dream about being a knight like the ones in the books you read? Well in Don Quixote, a delusional 50 year old man starts trying to fulfill this dream. Journeying through Spain with his squire Sancho Panza, Don Quixote finds many "adventures" that to most people wouldn't seem like adventures at all, but to Don Quixote who is thinks windmills are giants, and a flock of sheep is an army, anything is an adventure.

One very enjoyable part is that the mai More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 09, 2008

Greg rated it:

Reading Cervantes' massive 400-year-old novel may seem to be a challenge analogous to the titular errant knight's ill-advised confrontation with the windmill, however, as with Quixote's famed inanimate opponent, appearances are deceiving. Despite its age, Quixote holds up remarkably well: the characters still charm, the wit still bites and the prose feels crisp and modern – no doubt a testament to Grossman's vivacious translation. However, as purposefully written by Cervantes in the style of the More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 16, 2010

Julie rated it:

While this is a very, very, very long book (I believe it was originally split up into several installments many years apart)I actually enjoyed it for the most part.
It's kind of intimidating to know that this story is over 400 years old, but you sort of forget once you get into it.
Don Quixote's belief(?) that he's on an important quest is at times laugh-out-loud funny, and at times pathetically sad.
When he finds out that he is nothing but a big joke to everyone around him, the More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 20, 2010

Daniel rated it:

"'Tell us, now, who is the greater madman, he who is so because he can't help it, or he who is so of his own free will?'"
"'This is the spot, O Heavens, that I select to bewail the misfortune into which you yourselves have plunged me. This is the spot where the moisture from my eyes shall swell the waters of this little stream, and my unending sighs shall stir incessantly the leaves of these mountain trees in testimony of the pain that my tortured heart is suffering. And you, More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2012

Miquixote rated it:

Make sure you read this Edith Grossman version, which is vastly superior to the others.

We are Quixote

Our fantasies have collided with reality (but for us repeatedly with different fantasies), and like Quixote, our life vitality has been destroyed. Are we at the end of the novel, when we realize our lives have been a big delusion (or were they? wasn't Quixote's delusion actually his vitality?).

Now we think more responsibly (death creeps softly) and it is rea More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 22, 2009

Pumsish rated it:

อัศจรรย์ดีที่คิดว่าหนังสือเล่มนี้เขียนขึ้นตั้งแต่สมัยพระนเรศวร

ชอบน้ำเสียงคนเขียนบรรยายเรื่องได้ตลกเสียดสีดี แต่ส่วนเนื้อเรื่องที่เกี่ยวกับความฟั่นเฟือนนี่ขำไม่ค่อยออก เพราะรู้สึกสงสารแกมสมเพชมากกว่า (เลยไม่ถึงกับชอบมากๆด้วยเหตุนี้)
มีหลายฉากที่อัศวินพเนจรผู้นี้กับผู้ช่วยของเขาประสบเคราะห์กรรมถึงขึ้นเลือดตกยางออกอันเนื่องมาจากความเสียจริต แต่คนอื่นก็ยังเห็นเป็นเรื่องขำขันได้แต่ยืนหัวเราะหรือแกล้งเล่นด้วย..นี่ก็ใจร้ายเหมือนกันนะ

ไม่เคยอ่านนิยายอัศวินซะด้วยไม่งั้นอาจขำกว More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 30, 2011

Julia rated it:

Quando eu era criança, não gostava de ler versões adaptadas, porque a gente perde muito da história com elas. Mas eu li o Dom Quixote das Crianças, do Monteiro Lobato, e provavelmente já conhecia algo da história antes mesmo disso. Da primeira vez que li a obra integral, eu me lembrava sempre da Emília, que resolveu [sic] ser louca também e acabou trancafiada em uma gaiola, antes que Dona Benta a libertasse.
E descobri que Dom Quixote é profundo, enternecedor, engraçado. Claro que não prete More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 04, 2009

Derrick rated it:

This is one of the best books I've ever read in my life, as it should be. Smollet's translation, though I obviously have not read the Spanish, truly does seem to capture the rambunctious feel and intent of Cervantes. My own writing has improved immensely just from reading this book, as well my vocabulary. Never have I learned so much from something that, while reading it, seemed a simple joy. When I finished the book, I felt an actual sense of loss. I've dealt with that loss in a very ironi More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 05, 2008

Tal rated it:

I spent entirely too much time reading this book to essay what it is that catapults this behemoth into my favorite novels. This has partially to do with the fact that so much has already been said that it feels a bit silly to say anything else. If you need an argument as to why you should read it, you can always Google it.

Otherwise, I guess what kinda clotheslined me about this was how much I came to detest Sancho Panza. Granted, his foolishness and simplicity are so well-captured th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 15, 2008

Steve rated it:

A classic in every sense of the word.

Called “the Spanish Bible”, the story of the Man from La Mancha (1605) and the Return of the Man from La Mancha (1615) is one of the most famous literary works in the world and rightfully so. Here, the two works are placed in a single volume and, as translated by Edith Grossman, the characters come crazily alive.

In the first book, we are introduced to Alonso Quixano, an intelligent man who spends too much time reading chivalric novels and More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 08, 2007

Jessica rated it:

I really regret leaving my edition of this book on the curb when I moved out of that Brooklyn apartment. I was like, "Oh, super translation and lovely red cover, but it's really heavy and it's not like I'm gonna need to reread *Don Quixote* any time soon..... I need to quit being such a materialistic packrat!" Actually, I tossed tons of great stuff during that move, but this is the book I've regretted the most.

I DREAMT about this book on Saturday night. I had this really st More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 07, 2011

Reena rated it:

Don Quijote vive encerrado con sus libros de caballerías, en un mundo paralelo, hasta que un día decide ser como ellos. Se fabrica una armadura casera, se inventa un amor por el que luchar y parte con su caballo Rocinante y con un escudero, Sancho, que va engañado soñando con ser gobernador de una isla. A lo largo de la historia intentan "deshacer entuertos" liándolos aún más, se alojan en palacios que en realidad son posadas y luchan contra gigantes que en realidad son molinos. Es apa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 19, 2009

Brandon rated it:

I did it. It took me about a month, but I have read the entre book of Don Quixote. I can't find many people who have...
At first, I really did not like this book. Being written a long time ago, it is not a quick read. Many characers are introduced and all want to give long speeches. Needless to say, it does not move fast like a modern novel. It does take work to read this - attention and time must be put into it. I stayed with it, and then really enjoyed it. By the end, I More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 08, 2009

Michele rated it:

This was a tough one. So violent! But, now I'm glad I got it over with. I can't say I loved it or even that I liked it but I do have some amazing quotes, and to say that he isn't a literary genuius would be wrong indeed. I acutally met someone who did not know who Don Quixote was. This was quite a shocker to me.
The windmill scene was surprisingly short, but it did say something to me about unfinished dreams and reaching for the stars. I'll have to add my favorite quotes. It's done!

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

May 21, 2008

keith rated it:

Entertaining, funny, bawdy, inventive, comic, ironic...this is one fantastic piece of literature. It stoops occasionally towards slapstick and toilet humor, but other than that it is sheer genius. Cervantes was inventing the modern novel as he went along. All the forms the modern reader is used to are here. Cervantes never forgets that his job is to entertain, and he skips around, narrating as the author, the editor, anyone and any point of view he needs. It's post-modern! He openly refers More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Oct 24, 2011

Wayne rated it:

The first book is great. The amount of what we consider "post-modern" that it introduces in 1600 is incredible. That said, "Part Two" is the sequel and was originally published 10 years later. I found this second half to be far less interesting (and it extends the work to 990 pages); I'd prefer the novels be separated again.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 11, 2009

Jade rated it:

Although Don Quixote and Sancho are both amusing characters I got desperately bored of them within the first 100 pages of this book. It was only near the end that I started to really enjoy it again, with the addition on stories that didn't circulate around Don Quixote. All in all a pleasant read, but no one that I thought I've gained anything from.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2007

W rated it:

My goal was to read the book at an age younger than was Cervantes when he wrote it (70). Barely made it. If you are interested in the wind mills, it happens in the first few pages; and Broadway is right--you can reduce the point of the book to that one scene. However, now that you are old and have read everything, it's worth coming back to read the first novel ever written. Cervantes was a contemporary of Shakespeare (who read Cervantes, if not the converso). In prose, he writes an endless comed More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Aug 28, 2007

Chris rated it:

What can I say that hasn't been said? If literary fiction is a long and winding river, Don Quixote is the melting snow feeding the headwaters; if the novel were a state, Don Quixote would be the glorious revolutionary.
What most impresses me, is the story of Miguel Cervantes himself, his defeats and life as a hostage, prisoner of war, and debtor until age 60, which makes his magnificent late-life success and this wellspring of literary talent all the more inspiring. This book is a testam More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

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