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(More customer reviews)This review is intended for English speaking folks who want to read Don Quixote in the original Spanish.
When in my twenties I first read an English translation of Quixote in an undergraduate literature class. At the time I enjoyed how the book was arranged - stories within stories, the humor, Quixote's idealism and his reaction to the world. The professor told us that it is a book whose messages change as we age. She recommended that we read it again when we reached our 40s and 50s, and it would have a whole new set of meanings for us. So it does. Now - in my forties - when I read Don Quixote I see a man who has been disappointed by his lack of accomplishments and dismayed by the state of the world around him. I see myself.
I am re-reading Don Quixote slowly, one to three chapters per day. A pace, I believe, Cervantes intended. It is a pace that allows for reflection. I first read a chapter of the English translation, then I read it in Spanish. I began this project with the Don Quixote editions I had on hand: an archaic 18th century translation by Tobias Smollet left over from college, and an artsy tourist copy of Don Quixote I picked up years ago in Mexico and never read. By the fifth chapter it became apparent that this would not do. Relying on an inaccurate archaic English translation to help me understand Cervantes' archaic Spanish was not working out. Also, the Mexican copy, printed on brittle, acid paper, held together in a glued binding, was falling apart. I sensed a pretext to buy books!
For my modern English translation I chose Edith Grossman, and for the Spanish version I am reading this edition from the Real Academia. I selected Grossman for her modern, yet formal Latinate translation that suits Cervantes' Golden Age Spanish. I chose this Real Academia edition for it copious footnotes and glossary.
This being a Spanish edition, the footnotes and glossary are, of course, in Spanish. And while a footnoted archaic word, or antique expression is often explained in equally confusing and obscure modern Spanish, I still nevertheless find the footnotes more and more useful as I work my way along. In my opinion they alone double the value of the book. In addition to this, the physical properties of the book itself make it under-priced. The binding is textbook style, sewn, not glued. The pages are thin, yet not easily torn. This edition is for readers, not decorators. There are no illustrations by famous or semi-famous artists. And although the spine is attractive, it would be wasted as a decoration. This is an edition that welcomes being read, marked up, highlighted, and returned to again in twenty years.
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Launched simultaneously in Spain and the Americas, this work aims to divulge the great novel of Spanish Literature by means of a high quality, well-taken care of edition at a very reduced price. The book contains a prologue by Mario Vargas Llosa, an introductory text and complementary analysis by other academics, along with an extensive glossary of terms that will help readers get to know Cervantes' language. This beautiful hardbound edition is 5 x 8 inches, 1360 pages of fine biblical Italian paper, and will be sewn at the spine with fine vegetable thread. This work constitutes, without a doubt, the most complete, serious, high quality commemorative edition.Having an immediate success when first published 400 years ago, and with its experimental form and literary playfulness, Don Quixote has been recognized as the world's first modern novel. Don Quixote tells the story of a middle-aged Spanish gentleman who, obsessed with the chivalrous ideals found in romantic books, decides to take up his lance and sword to defend the helpless, destroy the wicked, and win the heart of hisbeloved Dulcinea. Seated upon his ever so lean horse, and accompanied by the pragmatic and faithful squire Sancho Panza, Don Quixote rides the roads of Spain seeking glory and grand adventure. Along the way the duo meet a dazzling assortment of characters whose diverse beliefs and perspectives reveal how reality and imagination are frequently indistinguishable.
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