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adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
I read through Part I and have decided that is enough. It is pretty decent story most of the time, but I am bored with Don Quixote and his story. I don't see how I can finish the rest of the book, it's just too long. Maybe one day I will pick it back up and finish the other half.
Translation by Edith Grossman, introduction by Harold Bloom. I'm not sure what to say about this nearly 1,000-page book that's more than 400 years old except that it stands the test of time. Grossman's translation is wonderful and easy to read, and the introduction by Harold Bloom puts it in historical context and clarifies some of the themes about the decline of Spain in the early 1600s and Cervantes theories and feelings about literature. My only regret is that my Spanish isn't good enough to read in the original, because some of the puns and wordplay don't come through and you have to read a footnote to get the gist of them in Spanish.
DQ is so embedded in pop culture that most people know he's a self-proclaimed and slightly deluded knight who has a squire named Sancho Panza and that he tilted at windmills. The windmill adventure actually happens pretty early in the book, and there are lots of other adventures. I read "The Decameron" earlier this year and they are alike in a few ways, namely that there are many mini-stories within the larger wrap-around story. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza have little adventures as they travel the countryside, and they hear the stories of the people they encounter. There's even an incident where a novella is found in manuscript form in an inn they stay at, and you get to read that story too. Cervantes and Shakespeare were contemporaries, and apparently Shakespeare admired one of the short stories in DQ enough that he based a (now lost) play called "Cardenio" on it.
The book is very silly, but it's also pretty sad in a way. Don Quixote is a gentle soul who just wants to do good in the world, and Sancho is simple but wise (and full of ridiculously inappropriate aphorisms and proverbs), but they constantly get beat up, teased, wounded, imprisoned, and otherwise maltreated for trying to make the world a better place. It's likely that was Cervantes view of the world, since he was a war hero who tried to do good but twice wound up in jail. An interloper wrote and published a part 2 of Don Quixote as well, and Cervantes, in response, finished Part 2 of his own book just a year or two before he died. There's a lot to like about the book, but it's very long, so it's a bit of a commitment.
DQ is so embedded in pop culture that most people know he's a self-proclaimed and slightly deluded knight who has a squire named Sancho Panza and that he tilted at windmills. The windmill adventure actually happens pretty early in the book, and there are lots of other adventures. I read "The Decameron" earlier this year and they are alike in a few ways, namely that there are many mini-stories within the larger wrap-around story. Don Quixote and Sancho Panza have little adventures as they travel the countryside, and they hear the stories of the people they encounter. There's even an incident where a novella is found in manuscript form in an inn they stay at, and you get to read that story too. Cervantes and Shakespeare were contemporaries, and apparently Shakespeare admired one of the short stories in DQ enough that he based a (now lost) play called "Cardenio" on it.
The book is very silly, but it's also pretty sad in a way. Don Quixote is a gentle soul who just wants to do good in the world, and Sancho is simple but wise (and full of ridiculously inappropriate aphorisms and proverbs), but they constantly get beat up, teased, wounded, imprisoned, and otherwise maltreated for trying to make the world a better place. It's likely that was Cervantes view of the world, since he was a war hero who tried to do good but twice wound up in jail. An interloper wrote and published a part 2 of Don Quixote as well, and Cervantes, in response, finished Part 2 of his own book just a year or two before he died. There's a lot to like about the book, but it's very long, so it's a bit of a commitment.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was an excellent book, and a must-read for any fans of literature. It does drag a bit in the first half, but the second half more than makes up for it.
3/5stars
God this was so long - there was a lot good about it, but overall it just wasn't for me. Glad I read it as it will definitely come in handy in my literary studies as I go into my PhD, but it wasn't for me.
Full review, videos, annotations and discussions saved for my patrons! - https://www.patreon.com/katepfeil
God this was so long - there was a lot good about it, but overall it just wasn't for me. Glad I read it as it will definitely come in handy in my literary studies as I go into my PhD, but it wasn't for me.
Full review, videos, annotations and discussions saved for my patrons! - https://www.patreon.com/katepfeil
This was so funny, at times i was really laughing out loud. I listened to the audio book, and somehow I was reminded of Monty python many times - just googled now that yes this book was an inspiration to the writer of that movie. Amazing.
One of the strangest books. I wanted to read the "first novel." I listened to it on cd. It is very, very long. At first I thought I wouldn't like it, but I definitely got hooked. Wonderful characters. Interesting historical setting--especially sideline plots about the Moors being expelled from Spain, the way Spanish surnames were developing (including women's names), etc. Really interesting. A slapstick and sort of mean sense of humor sometimes that doesn't resonate with me. Amazing that he wrote this at that time. It read to me like two books, and I could have gotten by without the second, though I was glad to have read the ending, which is lovely.
La verdad que empieza flojo pero segĂșn avanza sobrepasa la primera parte