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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Don Quixote is the tale of a man so engrossed in books of chivalry that he decides to embark on his on journey as Don Quixote. Grossman’s translation allows for all of the wordplay, irony, jokes, and physical comedy to shine through. A delight.
*
When I asked a college professor if any comedy can stand the test of time, she mentioned this book and this translation. If your not laughing when Sancho gets tossed around in a blanket, you clearly aren't reading. This book is hilarious.
Get the Edith Grossman translation.
*
When I asked a college professor if any comedy can stand the test of time, she mentioned this book and this translation. If your not laughing when Sancho gets tossed around in a blanket, you clearly aren't reading. This book is hilarious.
Get the Edith Grossman translation.
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First 300 pages were great but then it got really repetitive. It was the same “oh it’s enchanted” over and over without adding any additional value. I tried to keep reading but eventually decided to call it quits with 200+ pages left. I liked the first part, but second was superfluous
Welp, I got two CDs in (out of like . . . twenty-seven, I think?) and just . . . stopped. I was bored. Sorry, Don Quixote! It's just that the jokes weren't THAT funny, a lot of the stuff went over my head (I think because it was topical? I can't be sure as it went over my head) and he broke the fourth wall too many times. Oh well.
Also I was waiting for the line "they might be giants" but I guess that was from a different translation. Bummer.
Also I was waiting for the line "they might be giants" but I guess that was from a different translation. Bummer.
I will not make this a long review - although as I say that it probably will be - nor will I even attempt to write it in a formal style as with previous goodreads reviews. Even attempting to interpret this book is a daunting task. Its sheer breath and depth leads me to think one may require 10 or more separate reviews which interrogate its multiplicities and various narrative resonances to even come close. As Harold Bloom perceptively noted, the book acts as a mirror to the reader because the various interpretations of it do not resemble one and other.
Above all though, Don Quixote is a remarkable story and remains the single greatest treatment of the relationship between fiction and narratives on the hand and reality on the other ever conceived. Don Quixote and Sancho allow fictions to shape their perception of reality, but in doing so transform their reality into fiction. Sancho is acutely aware of this; in his own words, he knows "that I and my master are playing a role". Tragically, Don Quixote is not.
This central conceit operates on so many levels. It is at once both timeless and profoundly modern. The principles of Knight Errantry which consume Don Quixote are themselves a totalising belief system. A set of ideological precepts through which the world is refracted that both infuse his life with meaning, providing him with a guiding orientation and bringing about his destruction. Don Quixote's well-intentioned and unyielding commitment to destroying injustice is a tragic tale we are doomed to repeat. One in which inflicting our intentions on others, and even the notion of good intentions themselves, have unintended consequences and those who "wander the world righting wrongs and rectifying injuries" usually do more harm than good.
Yet, his descent into madness, which can very plausibly be characterised as the visionary attempt to achieve greatness and immortality, possesses real nobility. Don Quixote seeks to bend reality to his will and in doing so achieve lasting fame. Cervantes dissects the very notion of greatness itself. This seems, at least to me, to be the object of the Sorrowful Knight's quest. And Cervantes, it seems, posits that greatness itself, that desire to transcend, to be remembered, to be something more, is absurd, but it is nonetheless worthwhile and profoundly human.
And Don Quixote IS great because he takes the reader along for the ride. He believes so strongly in his reality that he wills it into existence. We come to believe it too. We want him to pursue it. The more self-referential and playful Cervantes becomes, the more real his characters begin to seem. By the end of the book it is no longer clear where belief ends and reality begins. Cervantes makes Quixotes out of all of us: fantasists who are no longer sure about the ground on which we stand.
Finally, it is impossible, after reading this book, not to comment on characterisation. Don Quixote and Sancho represent different ways of being in the world. The contrast between Sancho's grounded, pragmatic skepticism and Don Quixote's lofty, high-minded nobility/egotism lies at the core of everything. Their affectionate, ironic, and ultimately harmonious relationship, in its totality, is a probing examination of human nature and how we relate to those we value. These characters will live rent-free in my mind forever because they are more than dramatic personae. But it is in Sancho, and particularly Don Quixote's description of him as he is dying, where I think the core of this all may lie. Don Quixote says of Sancho that "he doubts everything and he believes everything". Sancho, it seems to me, is not only each and every reader of Don Quixote, but that thing which exists inside so many of us, that constant struggle between believing in something and questioning its value and veracity, which remains a defining feature of the human experience. To be human is to be Sancho, to want, desperately, to believe in things and people we love, but to know, all too often, that they are fatally flawed or misguided.
I will refrain from commenting at any length on style, structure, narrative techniques and so on because they are utterly brilliant and there's a reason which this book is considered the first modern novel.
Ironically, given what I said at the start of this review, what I have written may well tell you more about my character than it does Don Quixote and that alone is what makes this book one of the greatest artistic achievements there is.
Above all though, Don Quixote is a remarkable story and remains the single greatest treatment of the relationship between fiction and narratives on the hand and reality on the other ever conceived. Don Quixote and Sancho allow fictions to shape their perception of reality, but in doing so transform their reality into fiction. Sancho is acutely aware of this; in his own words, he knows "that I and my master are playing a role". Tragically, Don Quixote is not.
This central conceit operates on so many levels. It is at once both timeless and profoundly modern. The principles of Knight Errantry which consume Don Quixote are themselves a totalising belief system. A set of ideological precepts through which the world is refracted that both infuse his life with meaning, providing him with a guiding orientation and bringing about his destruction. Don Quixote's well-intentioned and unyielding commitment to destroying injustice is a tragic tale we are doomed to repeat. One in which inflicting our intentions on others, and even the notion of good intentions themselves, have unintended consequences and those who "wander the world righting wrongs and rectifying injuries" usually do more harm than good.
Yet, his descent into madness, which can very plausibly be characterised as the visionary attempt to achieve greatness and immortality, possesses real nobility. Don Quixote seeks to bend reality to his will and in doing so achieve lasting fame. Cervantes dissects the very notion of greatness itself. This seems, at least to me, to be the object of the Sorrowful Knight's quest. And Cervantes, it seems, posits that greatness itself, that desire to transcend, to be remembered, to be something more, is absurd, but it is nonetheless worthwhile and profoundly human.
And Don Quixote IS great because he takes the reader along for the ride. He believes so strongly in his reality that he wills it into existence. We come to believe it too. We want him to pursue it. The more self-referential and playful Cervantes becomes, the more real his characters begin to seem. By the end of the book it is no longer clear where belief ends and reality begins. Cervantes makes Quixotes out of all of us: fantasists who are no longer sure about the ground on which we stand.
Finally, it is impossible, after reading this book, not to comment on characterisation. Don Quixote and Sancho represent different ways of being in the world. The contrast between Sancho's grounded, pragmatic skepticism and Don Quixote's lofty, high-minded nobility/egotism lies at the core of everything. Their affectionate, ironic, and ultimately harmonious relationship, in its totality, is a probing examination of human nature and how we relate to those we value. These characters will live rent-free in my mind forever because they are more than dramatic personae. But it is in Sancho, and particularly Don Quixote's description of him as he is dying, where I think the core of this all may lie. Don Quixote says of Sancho that "he doubts everything and he believes everything". Sancho, it seems to me, is not only each and every reader of Don Quixote, but that thing which exists inside so many of us, that constant struggle between believing in something and questioning its value and veracity, which remains a defining feature of the human experience. To be human is to be Sancho, to want, desperately, to believe in things and people we love, but to know, all too often, that they are fatally flawed or misguided.
I will refrain from commenting at any length on style, structure, narrative techniques and so on because they are utterly brilliant and there's a reason which this book is considered the first modern novel.
Ironically, given what I said at the start of this review, what I have written may well tell you more about my character than it does Don Quixote and that alone is what makes this book one of the greatest artistic achievements there is.
I myself did not know I was going to give this book 5 stars until its final pages. It's wildly long and filled with insane digressions. Things happen that might be variously characterized as "highly unlikely," "kind of cruel," and "almost certainly unnecessary." And yet! It's a sprawling, wonderful mess, and I was not prepared for the upwelling of goodwill and affection that filled my heart when saying good-bye to these characters I had followed for hundreds of pages.
This is a book which is gargantuanly famous, and it obviously feels like an achievement, both to read and to have written. It is literally weighty when you hold it -- it's massive. But the content is not that of a stiff and stodgy classic (a lot of classics aren't all that stodgy, I guess, when you get into them). With the irrepressible gusto of Don Quixote tilting at his windmills, Cervantes takes aim at the entire tradition of medieval romance that came before him (a tradition grown stiff and stodgy, might we say?) and absolutely skewers it. In doing so, he paves the way for every novel you've ever read.
Ok, so that obviously deserves some major credit. But I didn't know how funny it would be! Or how meta! In this book, there's a narrator, but he's often translating the work of another (invented) author, who originally wrote the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in Arabic, and that author is looking critically at the research he's doing into the main characters and trying to decide which bits are apocryphal or not. There are so many layers! There are so many places for narrators to be unreliable and bits of story to be added in or taken out! Not to mention that the characters themselves are dealing with the reliability of story and the printed word, constantly discussing what they've heard or read about Don Quixote -- the whole second half is a giant middle finger to the (real-life) author who wrote an unauthorized sequel to the first half of Cervantes' work, and the number of times characters come across and/or discuss and/or burn copies of this false work! Don Quixote goes on an entire leg of his quest just to prove that he is the real Quixote, and not the fraudulent one (who maybe also exists as a character playing the role of Quixote within the narrative???). It's a level of complexity that you maybe don't expect from Europe's first modern novel but that maybe also makes a weird kind of sense when you stop to think about it? It's just so wild and great, ok, and I love it, and I want to take a class on it, because I could ramble on forever but I don't know what I'm talking about! People have written dissertations on this stuff!
This review got away from me. (How could I help it?) The moral of the story is, Cervantes changed the face of literature and also entertained me; well done. I can't necessarily recommend his book to everyone, because it's really a lot. But I think that if you make your way through it, you'll find something in it worth your while.
This is a book which is gargantuanly famous, and it obviously feels like an achievement, both to read and to have written. It is literally weighty when you hold it -- it's massive. But the content is not that of a stiff and stodgy classic (a lot of classics aren't all that stodgy, I guess, when you get into them). With the irrepressible gusto of Don Quixote tilting at his windmills, Cervantes takes aim at the entire tradition of medieval romance that came before him (a tradition grown stiff and stodgy, might we say?) and absolutely skewers it. In doing so, he paves the way for every novel you've ever read.
Ok, so that obviously deserves some major credit. But I didn't know how funny it would be! Or how meta! In this book, there's a narrator, but he's often translating the work of another (invented) author, who originally wrote the adventures of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in Arabic, and that author is looking critically at the research he's doing into the main characters and trying to decide which bits are apocryphal or not. There are so many layers! There are so many places for narrators to be unreliable and bits of story to be added in or taken out! Not to mention that the characters themselves are dealing with the reliability of story and the printed word, constantly discussing what they've heard or read about Don Quixote -- the whole second half is a giant middle finger to the (real-life) author who wrote an unauthorized sequel to the first half of Cervantes' work, and the number of times characters come across and/or discuss and/or burn copies of this false work! Don Quixote goes on an entire leg of his quest just to prove that he is the real Quixote, and not the fraudulent one (who maybe also exists as a character playing the role of Quixote within the narrative???). It's a level of complexity that you maybe don't expect from Europe's first modern novel but that maybe also makes a weird kind of sense when you stop to think about it? It's just so wild and great, ok, and I love it, and I want to take a class on it, because I could ramble on forever but I don't know what I'm talking about! People have written dissertations on this stuff!
This review got away from me. (How could I help it?) The moral of the story is, Cervantes changed the face of literature and also entertained me; well done. I can't necessarily recommend his book to everyone, because it's really a lot. But I think that if you make your way through it, you'll find something in it worth your while.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Genuinely looney toons!