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Don Quixote (Penguin Classics)
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3836.Don_Quixote?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Don Quixote (Penguin Classics)" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165365211m/3836.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3836.Don_Quixote?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Don Quixote</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2601.Miguel_de_Cervantes_Saavedra">Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/32851208?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars There are many books out there that you're "supposed" to read. You know, the books that were assigned to you in high school, or the books that were popular in their day, or enormously influential for the history of literature. I usually have a large list of these in the back of my mind that someday I'll get to. Cervantes Don Quixote has been on that list for some time; after all, it's often claimed to be the original modern novel. It's difficult to be more influential than that! Anyway, I taught a writing class in which we read parts of the work, but I just never felt like sitting down and reading the whole thing. Well, I did that this past month.
 
 And you know what, like other books that you're "supposed" to read, it turns out to be a really amazing book. The curious thing is that it reads like a postmodern novel, and in this respect it reminds me a lot of contemporary Italian fiction. Not bad for a work written in 1605. For instance, look at the complexity of the narrative: in the ninth chapter Cervantes presents the work as if it was the product of a translator who copied it from an Arabic original version by Cide Hamete Benengeli, who probably lied and distorted the truth. But what "truth" is being distorted if it is actually a work of fiction that is being written by Cervantes? There are even further levels of fiction in the book, since characters themselves tell stories that contain stories, and so on. The complexity of the narrative levels underscores the farcical nature of the work, and makes it seem rather postmodern in the way it deconstructs truth. 
 
 The work is also a farce in terms of its subject matter. The basic premise of the story is that Don Quixote reads so many works of fiction that he begins to believe them, and wanders out into the world as a knight errant seeking to save maidens and defeat knights. But as the story repeatedly emphasizes, there are no such things as knights errant during Don Quixote's day, and so nearly everyone in the book thinks the hero is completely mad. And even though there may be some “real” precedents for some of the things Don Quixote does (after all he does have a suit of armor in his house, and some of the stories in the work are understood to be "real"), they are in the far distant past. This gives Cervantes the opportunity to reflect on a previous genre of literature, in much the same way that postmodern authors take apart the works of modernist authors. And he carries out some of this criticism with ridiculous detail.
 
 One thing that is certain is that Don Quixote is a long book: 982 pages in the English translation. I admit that sometimes I needed to take a break from it. But I always went back. Highlights that come to mind from the first part of the book include the opening with the famous windmill scene (1-8), Sancho's amazing deconstruction of the literary form (Chapter 20 - maybe not everyone's favorite part, but when you hear his story, think about what you’ve been reading throughout), the Tale of Inappropriate Curiosity (Chapters 33-35), the amazing cadenza to the first part when the travelers go to the inn (Chapters 32-52). In the second part of the book the story of Camacho's wedding (Chapters 19-21) The adventure of the bray (Chapters 25-27), the fact there is a jet-propelled horse (Chapter 41), and Sancho's governorship (Chapters 44-53). Anyway, a lot of these won't be as much fun without the context and development, so the work really is one that pays reading from the beginning. If you can't make it to the end of the whole work, at least make it to the end of the first part (479pp). The way all the plot lines come together at the inn is really overwhelming.
 
 I'm sure the work is even better in the old Spanish. Perhaps someday I'll make it through that. In the meantime, the story is sophisticated and creative enough that the genius of the work is apparent even in an English translation. I wonder what it was like in the original Arabic? :-)
 
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/150198?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

John's review
rating:

recommended for: anyone who appreciates postmodern narratives.
status: Read in September, 2008

There are many books out there that you're "supposed" to read. You know, the books that were assigned to you in high school, or the books that were popular in their day, or enormously influential for the history of literature. I usually have a large list of these in the back of my mind that someday I'll get to. Cervantes Don Quixote has been on that list for some time; after all, it's often claimed to be the original modern novel. It's difficult to be more influential than that! Anyway, I taught a writing class in which we read parts of the work, but I just never felt like sitting down and reading the whole thing. Well, I did that this past month.

And you know what, like other books that you're "supposed" to read, it turns out to be a really amazing book. The curious thing is that it reads like a postmodern novel, and in this respect it reminds me a lot of contemporary Italian fiction. Not bad for a work written in 1605. For instance, look at the complexity of th...more There are many books out there that you're "supposed" to read. You know, the books that were assigned to you in high school, or the books that were popular in their day, or enormously influential for the history of literature. I usually have a large list of these in the back of my mind that someday I'll get to. Cervantes Don Quixote has been on that list for some time; after all, it's often claimed to be the original modern novel. It's difficult to be more influential than that! Anyway, I taught a writing class in which we read parts of the work, but I just never felt like sitting down and reading the whole thing. Well, I did that this past month.

And you know what, like other books that you're "supposed" to read, it turns out to be a really amazing book. The curious thing is that it reads like a postmodern novel, and in this respect it reminds me a lot of contemporary Italian fiction. Not bad for a work written in 1605. For instance, look at the complexity of the narrative: in the ninth chapter Cervantes presents the work as if it was the product of a translator who copied it from an Arabic original version by Cide Hamete Benengeli, who probably lied and distorted the truth. But what "truth" is being distorted if it is actually a work of fiction that is being written by Cervantes? There are even further levels of fiction in the book, since characters themselves tell stories that contain stories, and so on. The complexity of the narrative levels underscores the farcical nature of the work, and makes it seem rather postmodern in the way it deconstructs truth.

The work is also a farce in terms of its subject matter. The basic premise of the story is that Don Quixote reads so many works of fiction that he begins to believe them, and wanders out into the world as a knight errant seeking to save maidens and defeat knights. But as the story repeatedly emphasizes, there are no such things as knights errant during Don Quixote's day, and so nearly everyone in the book thinks the hero is completely mad. And even though there may be some “real” precedents for some of the things Don Quixote does (after all he does have a suit of armor in his house, and some of the stories in the work are understood to be "real"), they are in the far distant past. This gives Cervantes the opportunity to reflect on a previous genre of literature, in much the same way that postmodern authors take apart the works of modernist authors. And he carries out some of this criticism with ridiculous detail.

One thing that is certain is that Don Quixote is a long book: 982 pages in the English translation. I admit that sometimes I needed to take a break from it. But I always went back. Highlights that come to mind from the first part of the book include the opening with the famous windmill scene (1-8), Sancho's amazing deconstruction of the literary form (Chapter 20 - maybe not everyone's favorite part, but when you hear his story, think about what you’ve been reading throughout), the Tale of Inappropriate Curiosity (Chapters 33-35), the amazing cadenza to the first part when the travelers go to the inn (Chapters 32-52). In the second part of the book the story of Camacho's wedding (Chapters 19-21) The adventure of the bray (Chapters 25-27), the fact there is a jet-propelled horse (Chapter 41), and Sancho's governorship (Chapters 44-53). Anyway, a lot of these won't be as much fun without the context and development, so the work really is one that pays reading from the beginning. If you can't make it to the end of the whole work, at least make it to the end of the first part (479pp). The way all the plot lines come together at the inn is really overwhelming.

I'm sure the work is even better in the old Spanish. Perhaps someday I'll make it through that. In the meantime, the story is sophisticated and creative enough that the genius of the work is apparent even in an English translation. I wonder what it was like in the original Arabic? :-)

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