( 37 reviews )
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Posted: Jun 3 2009
As you stare at the 940-page mass that is Edith Grossman's translation of Don Quixote, you might wonder if reading this Literary Classic (TM) warrants several weeks of your readerly devotion. The answer depends upon what you value in a text. If you require a story with a set group of characters who move in a straight line from plot points A to Z, then you should reconsider spending your hours on the famous "knight errant," for as he wanders into various adventures, so does Cervantes, who rarely allows a chapter to pass without another side story featuring pairs of starcrossed lovers composed unfailingly of beautiful ladies and brave but unfortunate gentlemen. However repetitive, this storytelling device highlights the surprisingly modern metafictive elements of the novel. Although Don Quixote the man lacks the capacity for honest self-examination, the text achieves another superior level of existence via its self-awareness. Beginning with an Aristotelian book burning and proceeding to warp the distinction between fiction and reality, Don Quixote the novel embodies those characteristics that we have so simply reduced to the word 'quixotic'. It is this brilliant trick, over which I suspect Cervantes is still laughing somewhere in the ethereal land of deceased authors, that delighted my twenty-first century palate.
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Posted: May 4 2009
Edith Grossman is clearly the superstar of translators of Spanish language literature. She has opened a rich literary tradition to monolingual anglophones. Reading this literature can't but help raise the cultural level of our country.
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Posted: Apr 16 2009
I started but never finished Don Quixote way back in high school. Now that I have a long commute to work each day, I thought I would get back into this old classic. I don't need to tell you that Don Quixote is one of the greatest novels ever written, but I will anyway. It is one of the greatest novels ever written. One of my professors of Spanish literature based his academic career on this novel as have thousands of other scholars in the past 400 years. It is deep and rich, tragic and comic, adventurous and philosophic. This piece of literature prefigures literary traditions that would come into being centuries after its publication. All of this while being an immensely enjoyable novel, even now. Now to comment on the audioversion that I have listened to. The translation is superb. I have not read all of Don Quijote in the original Spanish, but just a few chapters. The tone, the rhythm, and the richness of the prose is closely replicated in this traslation. It is easy to listen to and I find myself being imersed in the world of the novel. The reading is of the finest quality. The deep, resonant voice of the narrator shifts to accomodate the personalities of Sancho Panza, Don Quixote and the other characters, but it never seems strained. This comes on 35 disks, but the packaging is not the best. I bought a sturdy, hard case for the disks and keep this in my car. I suggest that you do the same. The recordings are split into 3 minute tracks in order to easily find your place. I give this 5 stars. You have many hours of enjoyable listening with this audiobook.
