Pick-a-Shelf discussion
Buddy Read
>
Don Quixote
i'm reading Bleak House right now - anticipate being done mid-April - so i don't really have the schlitz - but normally i would say yes - because its been on my list for too long
Mod
don't wait for me - i think we are probably thinking the same task - that is what i'm listening to Bleak House for - the golden oldies/big book ticket one?
Mod
Task 30.8
yup same one! i'm doing BH with a friend on Twitter - so don't wait for me
Mod
OK. Anyone else interested in doing this buddy read?
Me! I've been looking for a really long audiobook, and I've been meaning to read DQ for many years. I actually did a class project on DQ a few years ago centered on the quadricentennial of its publication (it was about the history of the book, not substantive criticism, so it wasn't cheating for me not to have read it—but it still feels like a grievous omission in my life thus far). And Cervantes led an interesting life worthy of its own novel.All that to say, I'd be interested, but I can do it whenever you get a suitable posse together.
Mod
Cool!
Mod
It'd be good if we can delay to mid-April please... I'll squeeze in as much of a break as I can between big books ha ha ha
Mod
Mod
*squeak* I don't really want to read it that fast lol
It's ok, I'll join in but I'll go at my own pace so I may match the pace or even pull ahead but it'll depend on how I like the book ;p
Anytime works for me, but I'll probably try to get an early start so I can also watch the Open Yale Course lectures (they do it on a 12-week schedule). They use the Rutherford translation, which I have a print copy of somewhere, but as there are limited options in unabridged audiobooks on Kobo, I ultimately got the Grossman translation to listen to.I'd be curious to know what translations others are planning to read.
Mod
Mod
Mod
I'm a very slow reader, with other reading obligations to contend with as well, so I was thinking I'd try to follow Open Yale's 12-week schedule (which would take me right to the end of May). That's about 2.5 hours of OYC lectures and 3.5 hours of audiobook per week. I might manage twice that and a 7-week schedule would prove very doable, but I won't know for sure until I've given it a week or two.I'm giving it a start this weekend just to get a "gauge." It may turn out I don't need a headstart at all. Or, I may need the full 12 weeks. :-D
If you want to devise a check-in schedule, though—preferably demarcated by chapter rather than page number—I'll certainly attempt to keep up.
Mod
I still have to get a copy so I'll let you know what translation it is when I get my hands on 1 ;)
Tien wrote: "Cluckingbell, could you post the Open Yale schedule here? Sounds like a good one to follow...I'm not sure I can link to it directly, but it's at this URL under "Sessions": https://oyc.yale.edu/spanish-and-port...
Now that I'm looking at it more closely, out of 24 lectures, 2 are purely introductory. Readings alone would be 11 weeks and look something like this. The approximate page counts are a bit uneven, though, possibly owing to assignments/exams and other required readings in the original class.
WEEK 1 (105 p.)
Don Quixote, Part I: Front Matter and Chapters I-X
WEEK 2 (82 p.)
Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XI-XX
WEEK 3 (63 p.)
Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXI-XXVI
WEEK 4 (110 p.)
Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXVII-XXXV
WEEK 5 (143 p.)
Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXXVI-LII
WEEK 6 (76 p.)
Don Quixote, Part II: Front Matter and Chapters I-XI
WEEK 7 (73 p.)
Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters XII-XXI
WEEK 8 (104 p.)
Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters XXII-XXXV
WEEK 9 (116 p.)
Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters XXXVI-LIII
WEEK 10 (111 p.)
Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters LIV-LXX
WEEK 11 (29 p.)
Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters LXXI-LXXIV
More evenly spaced reading over 11 weeks might look like:
1. Front Matter and Pt. I, Chapters 1-10 (94 p.)
2. Pt. I, Chapters 11-21 (93 p.)
3. Pt. I, Chapters 22-29 (94 p.)
4. Pt. I, Chapters 30-38 (90 p.)
5. Pt. I, Chapters 39-48 (89 p.)
6. Pt. I, Chapter 49 - Part II, Chapter 9 (94 p.)
7. Pt. II, Chapters 10-21 (87 p.)
8. Pt. II, Chapters 22-33 (90 p.)
9. Pt. II, Chapters 34-48 (92 p.)
10. Pt. II, Chapters 49-60 (91 p.)
11. Pt. II, Chapters 61-74 (80 p.)
Mod
I might try to join you all reading Don Q. I have a lot going on this spring, but I'm hoping to get it at least started. I may fall behind, though.
Mod
I am willing to follow the 11 week schedule. And, would like to start this week. That would allow for a finish before the end of May.
Mod
Not to worry, Lynn. We'll still be here to cheer you along :)
I may not keep up with this schedule either... I have other priorities ha ha ha
Mod
I'll start with you this week, Bea. That'll make my schedule look like:1-March 11. Front Matter and Pt. I, Chapters 1-10
2-March 18. Pt. I, Chapters 11-21
3-March 25. Pt. I, Chapters 22-29
4-April 1. Pt. I, Chapters 30-38
5-April 8. Pt. I, Chapters 39-48
6-April 15. Pt. I, Chapter 49 - Part II, Chapter 9
7-April 22. Pt. II, Chapters 10-21
8-April 29. Pt. II, Chapters 22-33
9-May 6. Pt. II, Chapters 34-48
10-May 13. Pt. II, Chapters 49-60
11-May 20. Pt. II, Chapters 61-74
What do you think about minimum frequency of check-ins and when spoiler tags should be used?
Mod
By my book, Chapter 30 begins on page 300...so that feels like a good rate of reading to me.
The schedule sounds pretty good to me. We'll see how I do on it! :)
Mod
The spoiler html thing is always useful. I just have to resist to click it open lol.
Do you know how to do spoiler html, Cluckingbell?
Tien wrote: "...Do you know how to do spoiler html, Cluckingbell?"Yep!
This is an interesting article on translating (specifically "anglicizing") Don Quixote: https://believermag.com/anglicizing-e...
A little bit about the author: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was born in 1547 in Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid, to Leonor de Cortinas and Rodrigo de Cervantes, a surgeon (a far less skilled or prestigious trade then than now). He began writing poetry in 1567 and in 1569 moved to Rome, possibly fleeing arrest for dueling, and became chamberlain to Cardinal Giulio Acquaviva.
Joining the military in 1570 with his brother Rodrigo, Cervantes fought in the brutal battle of Lepanto shortly after his 24th birthday and, shot three times, lost the use of his left hand. After months of recovery followed by several more years of military service, in 1575 he and Rodrigo joined a flotilla returning to Spain and were captured by Turkish pirates. His brother was ransomed in 1577, but Cervantes spent five years imprisoned in Algiers. Following four failed escape attempts, he too was eventually ransomed by Trinitarian friars and released in 1580, returning to Spain to seek his fortune as a dramatist.
During this time Cervantes had an affair with Ana Franca de Rojas, who bore him a daughter in 1584; later that year he married Doña Catalina de Palacios. He published the pastoral romance La Galatea in 1585, but still could not gain traction in his literary career. With his financial security as an artist elusive, he rejoined the Spanish Armada in 1587, this time as Commissary of the Royal Galleons in Seville, and later became a tax collector, leading to his imprisonment in 1597 when irregularities were discovered in his accounts.
Cervantes finally achieved true literary and financial success with the publication of Don Quixote in 1605. He published his Novelas Ejemplares in 1613, which "created the art of short story writing in Spain" (Aguirre, xiii). The second volume of Don Quixote was slower in coming, and in 1614 an apocryphal continuation of the story was published under the name Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda. Cervantes published his own completion of Don Quixote in 1615 and died the following year, less than a fortnight after William Shakespeare’s death.
Cervantes’s final work, Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, was published posthumously in 1617.
Finally, I recommend Googling Gustave Doré's illustrations of Don Quixote, which were commissioned for a French edition published in 1863. They're spectacular.
Mod
As I read the article, I kept looking for info on the translator of my book, Starkie. He was mentioned once but no comment was made on the success or failure of his translation...which leaves me free to decide for myself. I did find the article informative though.
Mod
Probably sometime next week... Thanks for the article, Cluckingbell. I was looking at Grossman anyway. I'm really judging by the cover. I love the Vintage Classics collection and I've a few of those at home so I'm sticking by this collection :p
Bea wrote: "...As I read the article, I kept looking for info on the translator of my book, Starkie. He was mentioned once but n..."This article compares the first sentence of the prologue (and one short phrase) of many translations: https://franklycurious.com/wp/don-qui... It's pretty interesting just to see how different they are.
Mod
CluckingBell wrote: "This article compares the first sentence of the prologue (and one short phrase) of many translations: https://franklycurious.com/wp/don-qui... It's pretty interesting just to see how different they are. ..."An interesting article. My library only has the Shelton and Grossman translations. I may need a trip to the bookstore!
Mod
Is it worth reading the Introduction or is there spoilers? I have no idea what's in store for me with DQ so I'd rather not be spoiled at all.
I just had to get out of the office today so I took a walk to the bookshop & got my copy :) The introduction in my book is by Harold Bloom... I think I'll skip it. I did, however, just now, read the translator's note. I got Grossman's & this is what she said;
his [Cervantes] writing is a marvel: it gives off sparks and flows like honey
Wow, she obviously loves this novel! She went on to say that if she did her job well then readers should smiling a lot & periodically bursting into laughter. Laughing out loud while reading is very rare for me so I'm a little cynical about her last point but we'll see!
Mod
Laughing out loud is rare for me too. But, I am willing for it to happen in a 1000 page book.
Mod
Mod
Unlike the usual book, my copy has numbered the pages starting with the introduction rather than using Roman numerals for the intro material. As such, I felt I had to read it since it is part of the page count. So I did.
Mod
Mod
Probably not; but, if it were dry and technical, I would at least consider it or scan it.
I decided to get the Grossman translation at the library. It's not available to me until Monday (if it's returned on time), so I've decided to do a quick read of it in graphic novel form (The Complete Don Quixote) "just because" while I wait. Don't know if this is a good idea, but it piqued my curiosity!
Mod
Also, I found, with graphic novels (I've read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) that they moved around some scenes to make more sense with the pictures and such. So, you may find certain scenes to be in different spots in the book than the graphic novel....
Tien wrote: "I saw the graphic novel on my library catalogue too. Unfortunately, they have only volume 1. However, I've decided to not read it before I read the actual book because if i know where the story is ..."Oh. Good points! I may rethink this ... I've only read to page 11 and got distracted by another book at lunch, so I may just stop the graphic novel.
I went out and bought the book...Grossman translation. For some reason a lot of people here seem to be reading this. The library copy has a reserve line-up and the bookstore has been ordering them frequently. It's a university town, so probably some class has it assigned, for once. (I gave up on the graphic novel, for Tien's reasoning.) Starting the intro tonight!
Mod
Something along the line of her translation is kinda contemporarised (that's probably not a word)... the reasoning is that the language Cervanted wrote the book in was contemporary to his time so it can/should be able to be translated to contemporary use of English? I'm probably messing up the explanation but basically, I'm trying to say that it's probably more readable.
I read maybe 2-3 chapters of the intro & skipped the rest lol
I've read chapter 1 of the actual book! And errr, I didn't realise DQ is a crazy old coot????! I obviously don't know anything about the book because I thought he was more like Casanova or something. oops! lol I'm so embarrassed :/
I think in the Open Yale Course he said that English has changed a lot more in the last 400 years than Spanish has, so the language of the original text has remained relatively "modern" and accessible to this day. A translation being readable shouldn't imply it's less faithful to the original. I've been listening to the Grossman audiobook (capably read by George Guidall), and it doesn't feel anachronistically modern, only comfortably so. :-)Years ago I read a feminist critique about the agency of women in DQ (noteworthy for the time and for male-authored works generally), and truly, as I was reading chapter 14 today, I wanted to start a cheerleading section for Marcela.
Mod
Mod
I'm not that much ahead of you, Bea. I read up to chapter 5 which means I read 4 chapters in 1 sitting, woohoo! I could probably read more as I was actually finding it a little entertaining but I had other books to finish (as usual for us challenge addicts lol). I am to read the next 5 chapters to meet the week 1 schedule :)
The way DQ did it though, it's like he's superimposed his view of the world over the real one. Made a shiny thing out of all the shabbiness. And err, I think he (subconsciously) knew that the 2nd helmet is just as bad as the 1st lol
I find that I didn't find it quite funny while reading it (lots of eye rolls instead) but am tickled pink discussing this ha ha ha
I just finished the Introduction, which I'm glad to have read. I feel it gave me insight into Cervantes as a man and as an author. I wonder if, in his years in Algerian slavery and in prison, this story was running in his brain and adjusting over time. (Don't many of us have long-time story lines/daydreams that run in our heads that we adjust over time?) In the monotonous life of slavery and prison, it may have kept him sane.And, yes, a nap time did occur mid-read. ;)
On to the Prologue...
Update: Just started the Prologue, where Cervantes says Don Quixote was "born" in his prison days. Yesh, I feel dumb. Guess I should have read further than I did!
Mod
Pick-a-Shelf
Books mentioned in this topic
Exemplary Stories (other topics)Cervantes' Don Quixote: A Casebook (other topics)
Imperial Spain, 1469 - 1716 (other topics)
A Perfect Spy (other topics)
Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: A Graphic Novel, Book 1 (other topics)
More...
But, then I started wondering if there is anyone who would like to read it with me. My copy is divided into 2 parts. The first part has 52 chapters and is 518 pages with the first 56 pages being introductory material.
So...would anyone be interested in tackling this Big Book with me?