Don Quixote (Classic, HighBridge)

Review by Daryl Anderson for Don Quixote (Classic, HighBridge)
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Note: Amazon.com seems to have a hard time linking reviews to specific editions – it makes a difference. This review is of the Modern Library edition, ISBN-0679602860, translated by Samuel Putnam. I am reposting it, hoping it will link correctly this time).———————————————————–When you approach reading (or rereading) a “classic” work you really, mostly, don’t have to think about whether to read it — that decision was either made by someone assigning it to you or, more wonderfully, by you, yourself deciding to swim contra-current against the cultural waters… following Neil Young’s advice to “turn off that MTV.”So. You are going to read it. And, if you are paddling the Amazon.com, here, you are going to buy and OWN it. The question really becomes which edition you should own.This is the one.Its a fine translation – surprising in its avoidance of archaic language. It has a nice structure – the inevitable notes are available but not obtrusive.This edition, the Modern Library hardback edition, translated by Putnam, is also a nice book to own. It isn’t one of those pretty faux-leather “shelf-candy” copies that’ll break your wallet first. This is a hardworking book – the essence of the Modern Library idea. But it is a wonderful packaging of the whole 1000+ pages that is both readable and shelvable. No thousand-page paperback will survive an actual reading as anything you would want excepting as backup next to the latrine.Did I mention that it is a great book, great story? Well, others over the years have managed that . But I will loudly agree. I’m rereading it only now after a 35 year hiatus (yes, indeed, classics can be lost on the young – thats why you want books that last. In 35 more years, when you turn your lance back toward targets you thought you left behind, a copy will cost you [a lot of money]). It is just plain startling in its innovations and story. I always thought Bruce Willis and Cybil Shepard were the first to break down that “third wall” and talk to the audience – yet here is Cervantes doing so five centuries back ! Wow.Even if you’ve been made to buy it and to read it, buy a nice copy. Read the “Cliff notes” if you must, but someday you’ll be a crazy old coot like Don Q. (or me) and want to toss something more meaningful than Palahniuk (or even Rushdie) at the cobwebs that cling.

Review by E. Brandom for Don Quixote (Classic, HighBridge)
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The paper-back modern library edition (NOT what one reviewer commented on below) is a translation by Tobias Smollett first published in 1755. If you’re going to read a book as talked-about and deeply ingrained in our collective mental universe as this one is, you have a very wide range of translations to choose from. Smollett was a major writer in his own right, and 18th century English prose is much closer in flavor to the original Spanish than anything written these days could be. There is a certain violence about the vocabulary and the constructions Smollett uses that fits very well with Cervantes. This books was first and foremost successful because it was rudely, bloodily, enthusiastically *funny* and Smollett is quite as up to the jokes about belching (which we learn is more politely termed ‘eructing’) and whipping as he is to Don Quixote’s elevated speeches on knight-errantry.

Carlos Fuentes’ introcution is wonderful and learned (like most everything Fuentes writes). Read the novel first, though. It really needs no more introduction than all of the bits and pieces one has already heard.

My only complaint about this version is the layout or the notes (hence 4 stars, rather than 5). Since this translation was itself made 250 years ago, some of the vocabulary and usage is a bit strange. Not that this really hinders the read, but it would be nice to be able to flip back to the notes when something of particular or peculiar interest pops up. The notes, however, are labled by book and chapter. There are two parts to the novel, and each has several books containing many chapters. It can be hard to find the note you’re looking for without a lot of flipping around. This is a relatively minor gripe.

Altogether, I strongly recommend the modern library paper-back edition. Smollett is an excellent translator, and Fuentes provides erudite commentary. Modern Library makes very solid books, and since this one is 1100+ pages, it’s especially important that the pages at the front don’t start to fall out by the time you get to the ones at the back.

Go forth and read!

Review by WAT(firuliche@hotmail.com) for Don Quixote (Classic, HighBridge)
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Don Quixote De La Mancha is a long book which many people nowadays wouldn’t stop and read. Where’s the time? But it is nonetheless a story everyone knows. Who hasn’t heard of that crazy man chasing after the windmills with his partner Sancho Panza? It is work of art that has universal appeal due to it’s clash between reality and idealism…something with which we all deal with in our lives. I read Don Quixote while in college and aside from it being a portrait of decadent Spanish society at the height of Spain’s glorious empire, the book is often vulgar and downright hillarious. A true work of comedy. I recommend this book to everyone. Give it a chance even if it is so long. It’s well worth it. You’ll not only laugh out loud, you will have educated your mind with what is called the first novel and one of the masterpieces of world literature.