Goodreads | Don Quixote (Penguin Classics)

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John rated it:

04/03/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in March, 2008

recommended to John by: Ted Hoagland
recommends it for: Classics readers, knights-fiction readers

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

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

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

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

The opening was insufferably cheeky, a...more

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John rated it:

(review of isbn 0060934344)

03/11/08

bookshelves: novel

Read in March, 2006

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 of mysel...more 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 of myself. Grossman's translation certainly adds some accessibility for the the American sensibility, but what struck me most was Cervantes' ironic self-awareness and societal critique, and his playfulness with the novel form that wasn't even technically a form yet. Quixote, whose heroes exist only in his mind at the novel's beginning, eventually meets and argues hilariously with some of them as well as plenty of third parties that stand in disbelief at his lunacy.

It would be impossible to write a comprehensive book review of this book without writing a book myself, so I think I'll just comment randomly:

I laughed and thought hardest when Cervantes brought in the ladies, both real and imagined, to continually check Quixote's romanticization of the female persuasion. His lady Dulcinea of Toboso seems to be a man-like wheat-shocker, but you'd never know it from his visions of her angelic graces. But Quixote seems to be just a worst-case scenario of all the male impulses the other characters display; pretty much all the men objectify women to superhuman levels, and many of the women are either affronted or jilted by the men's fickle imaginations.

I've heard the second book is quite a bit darker and even more self-referential as Quixote waited 10 years between books, and I have agree. Especially in the second book, I wasn’t sure what to think of the "royalty" DQ and Poncho ran into along their merry way. Either the irony was too subtle for my radar, or Cervantes seemed to be in on the arrogant, mean-spirited, sadistic jokes the landed gentry played on the deluded duo. Some of the jokes (the flying horse, for example) were laugh-out-loud funny, but some were just, well, wrong (Altisodora's feigned love for Quixote, practically starving Sancho after giving him his insula governorship). And then some, like the 3000 lashes Sancho had to give his own sweaty buttocks to make Dulcinea pretty again, were both, but mainly because of Sancho's ingenious ways of avoiding delivering the lashes.

The ending really sucked. The episodic nature of the novel I guess prevents any climactic closure, but without giving anything away, Cervantes ends the novel so apologetically that he seems to go ideologically against every previous chapter. I would have stopped reading with ten pages to go if it hadn't been such a long trip to the end.

To my pleasure, the novel was much more violent overall than I expected. If you took out and strung together all the lumps, cuts, bruises, tramplings, beatings, and lashes Quixote and Sancho took it would rival The Passion of the Christ. And be a hundred times more enjoyable.
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Steve rated it:

(review of isbn 0060934344)

01/15/08

Read in January, 2008

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 romantic ta...more 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 romantic tales. One day, he snaps, believes himself to be Don Quixote, knight errand, and, after talking a neighboring farmer called Sancho Panza into being his squire in return for an island (insula) to govern, leaves his village to seek adventure and to rid the world of evil in the name of his beloved Dulcinea of Toboso, who happens to be some local farm girl that he has built up as this object of impossible beauty.

What follows next are a series of beat downs, misunderstandings, and adventures of a sort. The famous assault on the windmills happens early and from there we are lost in the imagination of Don Quixote and the reality that keeps butting in. As time moves on, and as a commentary on the first book, which was a mad hit, the sequel was made ten years later only to quash the “unauthorized” sequels. The adventures become more adventurous and end in the only real way they can.

What surprised me was how modern it is. The writing style is not out of place today and his use of meta narratives was not only unexpected but also good. And it did make me laugh. The first book is funnier than the second but what is lost in situational comedy is gained in character development.

That is where these books stand the test of time. The stories themselves aren’t out of the ordinary, at least until the second book, but the relationship between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza is. The book lives in the conversations between them; a true believer and a lost soul that wants to believe but has to be the buffer with reality.

Don Quixote has had such an influence that the name Quixote has become an English word (quixotic) meant to define an impossible quest based on romantic notions. And that’s why Don Quixote is loved. He is the guy tilting at windmills because, even though he sees a dragon, he’s trying to live up to an impossible ideal of what life could be. His motivation isn’t bad. We all act out of love when it really comes down to it and his actions are no exception. Only in his mind do his goals manifest, but unlike most of us, Quixote goes after them irrespective of the world might think because the only world that matter is the one he is living.

And Sancho sees what we see. Critics have argued that these novels are really about Sancho and his attempts to reconcile the real world with that of his master and that it is Sancho’s journey that most reflects the human condition. Don Quixote is simply the vehicle.

Either way, this is a must read. It is long, but surprising. Invest your time in the Man from La Mancha. You won’t regret it,
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Belarius rated it:

02/06/08

bookshelves: fiction-finished, literature

Read in April, 2004

recommends it for: The Literati And Pseudoliterati

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.

Did I love Don...more 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.

Did I love Don Quixote? I wouldn't go that far. Does it deserve to be called the greatest novel ever written? I'm willing to put it on the short list.

Here's the thing: Cervantes published Don Quixote in the early 17th century, while Shakespeare was still working through his "tragic" phase (Hamlet & whatnot). By rights, it should be like so much other "classic literature:" dense, slow, utterly irrelevant to modern life, and soporific. Instead, it's dense, slow, engaging, and surprisingly relevant. Cervantes manages, almost continuously, to be clever in ways that transcend the 400-year gap and resonate with us now. There's no question that adapting to the writing style of that era is a challenge, and Don Quixote will be slow going to readers accustomed to modern pop fiction. But most intelligent readers will consider this a price worth paying.

Why Don Quixote still works stems largely from its having taken the formulas of "heroic knighthood" (which we are still vaguely familiar with as legend today) and showing it to be cartoonish and absurd. Despite the cultural gap, modern readers will still get the gist of the parody, even if they haven't read the chivalric literature that it is an explicit parody of.

The other reason the story works is because, strangely, we find ourselves continuously at odds with the author over the character of Don Quixote himself. We are told, at every turn, that Quixote is a fool, a madman, and a sinner. Cervantes breaks from the traditional role of a passive narrator to make constant judgment on Quixote's failures and flaws. And because we see Quixote so maligned by both his own author and everyone in the book, we as the reader fall in love with him. By writing a book about a dreamer with unassailable ideals but using the narrative voice of a vitriolic cynic, Cervantes forces us to stand up for the nobility and purity that Quixote achieves. Cervantes has, in effect, martyred his own protagonist in such a dramatic way that it falls to the reader to elevate Quixote to the status of saint.

And any book that can pull that off is worth the difficult prose....less

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Nicholas rated it:

03/30/08

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: Everyone

This book took me a long time to read. It is over 1,000 pages long! I had been wanting to read it for a long time, because it is considered the first novel and because the Spaniards are so proud of it and of Miguel Cervantes (the author). There are streets, libraries, buildings, etc. all over the place named after him or his book.

The thing that amazed me about this book is how entertaining it was, even though it was so long. It is usually difficult for long books to hold my interest but this...more This book took me a long time to read. It is over 1,000 pages long! I had been wanting to read it for a long time, because it is considered the first novel and because the Spaniards are so proud of it and of Miguel Cervantes (the author). There are streets, libraries, buildings, etc. all over the place named after him or his book.

The thing that amazed me about this book is how entertaining it was, even though it was so long. It is usually difficult for long books to hold my interest but this one did. It tells of the various misadventures of an older Spanish gentleman who believes that he is a fearless traveling knight. He searches for adventures with his trusty squire Sancho Panza, and they certainly find their fair share.

The back of the book says "...life is an unending dialogue between a knight of the spirit who is ever striving to soar aloft, and a squire who strives with might and main to keep his feet firmly planted on the ground."

A lot of Don Quixote's initial adventures didn't seem to fit this description to me. In fact, the first part of the book was often exasperating, because Don Quixote would embark on "adventures" that would end up being real disasters. One of the worse was when he freed a group of prisoners from a chain gang, most of which were justly imprisoned. He caused damage and loss of property in other situations, and he really injured some people for no good reason. This didn't seem to me to fit the "noble spirit" part of the book's description.

In the second half of the book though I came to feel a bond and a connection with the crazy characters. By then, Sancho Panza is just as crazy as his master, if not more so, but when people played tricks on him for their own amusement, I got really upset at the nerve those people had.

Finally, besides being entertaining, there are little nuggets of great wisdom throughout the book, much as there were in Les Miserables which is so often quoted. For example, "consider what you are and try to know yourself, which is the most difficult study in the world." Don Quixote then goes on to describe how knowing oneself and one's origins can help keep one from pride and from sin. There are many, many sage bits of advice throughout the book, which I should have written down, but did not.

In short, this book is great and I recommend reading it. Don't be worried about finishing it, just savor a little each day until it is done. ...less

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C F S R rated it:

07/14/08

bookshelves: classics, humour

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 Shakespeare's lost play of the same name. Very funny - slapstick, toilet and more subtle humour, with lots of factual historical and chivalric detail as well, but it doesn't feel especially Spanish to me. Certainly long, but I don't understand why, supposedly, so few people ma...more 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 Shakespeare's lost play of the same name. Very funny - slapstick, toilet and more subtle humour, with lots of factual historical and chivalric detail as well, but it doesn't feel especially Spanish to me. Certainly long, but I don't understand why, supposedly, so few people manage to finish it. Some of DQ's delusions hurt only himself (tilting at windmills), but others lead to suffering for his "squire" Sancho Panza (tossed in a blanket) or reluctant beneficiaries of his salvation (the beaten servant, beaten even more once DQ departs) and bemuse people (mistaking inns for castles, sheep for enemy armies and ordinary women as princesses) and are used to justify theft (the golden "helmet"/bowl) and non-payment to inn-keepers. His resolute optimism in the face of severe pain and disaster is extraordinary. Meanwhile, Sancho wavers between credulity (wishfully thinking the promise of an island for him to rule will come true) and pragmatism. Reading it whilst Tristan and Anders repeatedly watched and quoted Monthy Python's Holy Grail was amusing!

Part II starts with Cervantes' response to the unknown writer of an unofficial sequel to part 1, though DQ, Sancho and others also critique it in early chapters. The following story presumes that part 1 is true, and shows how DQ's resulting fame affects his subsequent adventures. A very modern mix of "fact" and fiction. Some characters doubt his exploits, others pander to them, especially the duke and duchess who go to great lengths to treat him in knightly/chivalric manner, and provide new adventures (for their amusement, at the painful expense of DQ and Sancho). Sancho gets rather more scope for lengthy meanderings of jumbled and largely irrelevant proverbs. Less slapstick and more pontificating than part I - both DQ's advice to Sancho on how to govern his promised insula and when Sancho has intriguing disputes to resolve.
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Alison rated it:

(review of isbn 0060934344)

03/05/08

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Alison by: Jorge Luis Borges

Woo-hoo, Brooke owes me a beer (which I'll feed to Karl)!

I don't know if it was because I was tired (I only read it in bed before going to sleep at night), but after 6 months I'd gotten through only the first 100-odd pages. But then it (or I) started flying. The first thing that got me was the cat joke (im in yr cavalcade saturizing yr litrary deloojuns), then the rapidly escalating violence, and by the time Sancho got tossed in a blanket, I was laughing out loud every few pages.

Nothin...more

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Tucker rated it:

06/10/08

Read in May, 2007

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 main charac...more

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Papershredder rated it:

02/22/08

Well, third time was the charm in this case. I'll spare you the personal history this book and I have.

I read the book on my own, not part of school. Both volumes, to the last word. I just read a modern fantasy novel that was about 900 pages, in about 1.5 weeks. This book (about 1000 or so pages)took me nearly 1.5 years. I read about 50 other books in this period as sometimes I dreaded the DQ. This is not a book to try to read in bed, unless your doing late fall trail work in the remote wild...more

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Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0060934344)

10/08/07

bookshelves: happyendings-, wish-i-owned

Read in January, 2004

recommends it for: knights errant; the sorrowful-faced

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 stressful ...more

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Paul rated it:

02/02/08

No question - finishing this book is a triumph. There are some real comical parts, and obviously Cervantes is mocking ridiculous literary romances. More so than remembering all the little instances in the book, one remembers the characters - Don Quixote - the idealistic, bumbling, adventure-seeking, crazy (?) knight, and his earthy, not-so-intelligent, practical squire, Sancho Panza.

But the question is, as it is in Hamlet, is Don Quixote really crazy. And I think the answer, as it is in Ham...more

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Jamie rated it:

01/13/08

Read in January, 2008

What can be said about a book of this scope that has already been said. I'll give mine in brief.

I'm still working on this one. This is my second 800+ book in a row. So it has taken me longer than I had hoped. I've become emotionally attached to all these characters.

With Rutherford's translation it is hard to believe it was written so long ago. I've become emotionally attached to all these characters. With such ease Cervantes creates such depth to each of his characters no matter ...more

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Matt rated it:

02/29/08

Read in September, 2006

Reading this book will open another door in your appreciation of all subsequent literature. The man from whom the phrase "tilting at windmills" originated, Cervantes created in his mock epic one of the first critical satires of chivalric romance. But more than that, he gave readers a daringly new psychological portrait of a man undaunted by reality in his quest to emulate the heroics of knight-errantry. Following the tradition of Amadis de Gaul, Don Belianis, and Reinaldos of Montalban...more

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Sean rated it:

11/11/07

For a four hundred year old novel, this one was both hilarious and entertaining. Parts of it certainly drag (there's an entire novella unrelated to Don Quixote's adventures), and it is 1050 pages, but I thought it was overall more than worth the effort.

Don Quixote, driven mad by reading "books of chivalry", sets out into 17th century Spain as a knight errant, calling himself the Knight of the Rueful Figure. To him, inns are castles, windmills are giants, and a milkmaid in a neigh...more

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Stephanie rated it:

(review of isbn 0060934344)

04/17/08

bookshelves: 1001-books

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: scholars

Finally finished! Took me I'm guessing 12-18 mos. to read this. I set it down a couple times for long periods of time, and have read countless books since I started this one.

I really had hoped that this would just grab me. I love that song, "The Impossible Dream". I have to say now that the meaning of that song and the show it was written for may have been gleaned from the source material the writers, but I myself didn't get anything like that directly from the source material....more

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Joanna rated it:

(review of isbn 0060934344)

04/03/08

bookshelves: classics

Read in March, 2008

I've wanted to read this book since 1996 when my friend Becky introduced me to the musical Man of La Mancha with Peter O'Toole, which I loved. I started reading the book shortly thereafter, but I didn't get very far. (This is a a tome of 940 pages, after all.)

This time I finished it, and, although I don't plan to read it again, I did enjoy it, or most of it. The first half was a bit dark, with Don Quixote unwittingly wronging more rights than he righted wrongs. The second half was...more

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Scott is currently reading it (review of isbn 0060934344)

02/15/08

bookshelves: currently-reading

Read in June, 2007

the elixir of fierabras does not, apparently, heal all wounds. this book is chock full of such inane morals, and it is mostly very slow, if not boring (warrior lists), trite (fake sonnets), or excessively ridiculous (so there was sancho shitting himself!).

that said, the myth of DQ has clearly outpaced the gaunt knight of the sorrowful countenance and his decrepit nag. it is then more (culturally) important to know about quixoticism than it is to know about DQ and read the book. with this ...more

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Greg rated it:

(review of isbn 0060934344)

01/09/08

Read in July, 2006

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 t...more

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