Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Don Quixote
Book Review: Prof. Harold Bloom is Wrong
Summary: 3 Stars
Prof. Harold Bloom of Yale, America's reigning literature guru, says that "Cervantes and Shakespeare...are the central Western authors, at least since Dante, and no writer since has matched them..." Bloom's elevation of Cervantes to near literary sainthood to the contrary notwithstanding, I found "Don Quixote" boring, tedious, and nothing more than the supreme test of a reader's ability to persevere in an exercise of sheer willpower to complete a task that never should have been undertaken, a task which was assumed only because an eminence like Bloom touted it. Even a power as great as Bloom's had its limits: I read only part 1 of "Don Quixote" (452 pages), and abandoned any thought of trudging though the 488 pages of part 2. I'm willing to accept an "F" in Prof. Bloom's literature class; anything to not have to read any more Cervantes.
Book Review: Quest for the Impossible Dream
Summary: 5 Stars
This great Spanish classic "Don Quixote" written by Miguel de Cervantes in 1605 is a must-read, must-own beautiful book about the adventures and misadventures of an old country gentleman Alonzo Quixana who fantasized himself as a noble knight-errant Don Quixote de La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza roaming the sixteenth-century Spanish countryside. Most of us would be familiar with the musical and the film "Man of La Mancha" and love the story of the quest for the impossible dream. If you still haven't yet owned this great literary classic and savoured its delightful details, you are really missing out on a great deal.
If you are a collector and a connoisseur, the 400th Anniversary edition published in 2005 also translated by the award-winning Edith Grossman with the Picasso picture of Don Quixote y Sancho Panza as its cover, is the one to get.
Book Review: REALLY FUNNY ... and then Cervantes tries to make a point.
Summary: 3 Stars
I haven't laughed at book this much since Superfudge. I actually laughed out loud. This is pretty much slapstick comedy that is popular today... except that it was written around 1600. I only gave this book 3 stars because there are 52 chapters in this book but only the first 31 are really good. The last 21 chapters Cervantes starts to drone on trying to make some point about chivalry. Maybe he was getting paid by the pound at this point. New characters are added every chapter and each one tells their history (a few pages each) and then there is usually a debate about something where each debater professes for a paragraph/page (they become one and the same at this point). And then back and forth. I actually started to skip through towards the end and I don't really think I missed much. In conclusion, I think that this book is worth it for the first 31 chapters.Book Review: Read for Details
Summary: 5 Stars
By now, just about everybody knows the basic premise of Don Quixote: Man goes mad from reading too many books and goes on a rampage with his buddy Sancho. For years I couldn't get past the first 20 or so pages of this book--by many considered to be the greatest novel ever written. This time, though, I found myself entranced, as though under the influence of the "enchanters" that the Knight of the Woeful Countenance keeps claiming is messing with his mind. If you read Quixote for the plot, you'll find that after 400 years it has become trite and predictable. What you have to do is read the novel in sections, paying attention to the details and Cervantes' subtle observations on life, love, and literature. This time, for example, I was struck by the brutality the two adventurers were subjected to as time after time their actions were misconstrued by the people they met. Unlike modern-day cartoons, Quixote and Sancho are not just boinged on the head, recovering in the next frame; Cervantes describes read wounds and the loss of blood; vivid and horrible violence. Very few people make concessions to our delusional knight's mental condition and abuse him without mercy. Sancho, meanwhile, acts as his master's only exposure to sanity. Cervantes relates in a humorous way exactly how people with romantic imaginations are punished by a society that looks down on creativity and exalts "the way things really are." Many people will find the humor antiquated and not ha-ha funny. But read the novel as sort of the diary of a madman, but a lunatic with the very best intentions: to right wrongs and to live a life of intensity and passion. Quixote encourages us to take a chance, to strive for our dreams, even if others think us mad and even if the outcome is likely failure. Basically, Quixote can be interpreted in two ways: romanticism is dangerous and causes great damage in the real world or romanticism is chancy and precarious, but it's better than sitting at home reading about life instead of living it. I think maybe Cervantes wants us to make our own judgment about his immortal character.Book Review: Remarkable, with Excellent Reading by George Guidall
Summary: 5 Stars
Don Quixote is everything you could want from fiction. Edith Grossman reveals Don Quixote's madness in full glory, and her Sancho Panza walks a wonderful tightrope between simpleton and savant. This amazing book crosses all literary genres - satire, political/social commentary, epic, grand romance. Cervantes' humor has a timeless quality that translates very well into today, and Grossman's translation nails his irony and wit right on target. Grossman's Don Quixote made me laugh out loud often.
I listened to Don Quixote unabridged on audio narrated by George Guidall. Guidall's performed hundreds of audiobooks. This reading is his best of many I've listened to. His Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are incredibly expressive and so different from one another it's hard to believe one actor is voicing both. Cervantes and Grossman have combined for a masterpiece, and Guidall matches them with a terrific reading.