Don Quijote de la Mancha

Por Miguel de Cervantes

Una nueva edición de Don Quijote de la Mancha, obra maestra del mundo de la literatura internacional, de la mano de Francisco Rico, filólogo e historiador español. Incluye material adicional, bibliografías, textos académicos y referencias.

“En la época en que vio la luz, el Quijote estuvo lejos de gozar la veneración que hoy le tributamos. La popularidad del libro fue inmediata e inmensa, pero no parece que debiera gran cosa a las sutiles, matizadas virtudes que subrayan los críticos modernos. Una risa loca, una risa a mandíbula batiente, fue el principal homenaje que rindió a Cervantes la España de Felipe III. Llamaban la atención los rasgos estrafalarios: la pinta del pobre hidalgo, los momentos más toscos del escudero, la flaqueza hiperbólica de Rocinante… El énfasis en las dimensiones cómicas y en la comprensión de la obra como “invectiva contra los libros de caballerías” no significa que el siglo XVII no le apreciara otros atractivos, apareciendo el protagonista no únicamente como un tipo delirante y divertido, sino que en su misma locura encontró rasgos positivos, ejemplares.

El Quijote no es uno de esos libros compuestos unitariamente en un golpe de inspiración y luego revisados en una o varias etapas de labor minuciosa hasta ajustar impecablemente cada detalle al conjunto. Es un libro vivo, que se hace continuamente, que a cada paso crece y va a más.”

--Del prólogo de Francisco Rico

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: Random House Publishing Group
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 3 mar 2020
• ISBN: 9780593081433

Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes was born on September 29, 1547, in Alcala de Henares, Spain. At twenty-three he enlisted in the Spanish militia and in 1571 fought against the Turks in the Battle of Lepanto, where a gunshot wound permanently crippled his left hand. He spent four more years at sea and then another five as a slave after being captured by Barbary pirates. Ransomed by his family, he returned to Madrid but his disability hampered him; it was in debtor's prison that he began to write Don Quixote. Cervantes wrote many other works, including poems and plays, but he remains best known as the author of Don Quixote. He died on April 23, 1616.

Comentarios para Don Quijote de la Mancha

[page520 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I loved this book. I possess a great imagination and it was put to use in Don Quixote. I hope I have committed to memory so many of scenes that made me pause and smile. Part II Chapter XLVIII — “Jesus! What am I seeing?” Scene will stay with me forever.

[alanwpowers · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I have taught Don Quixote in a sophomore Norton Anthology survey of “World”/Western Literature many times, aided by this Spanish edition I got at Princeton in ’78. Larry Lipking led a post-doctoral NEH seminar on comparative Lit, on Poetry and Criticism, and my own Ph.D. had studied 17C criticism written in verse, before Dryden made prose the main form of poetic criticism. Fortuitously, the main chapter I read in Spanish was one omitted from Norton. After Señor Quijana is knighted by his landlord, swearing on “the book”—farmer’s accounts of grain purchases and sales—he falls from his horse. His injury results now in Don Quixote’s reciting whole memorized chapters from books of chivalry in his library. The priest and a barber, his friends, blame their friends’ accident on his reading such books, and planning to star in one. The niece urges them to burn those damnable books as though they were heretics’. After the Knight is carried in to his bed, and before he recruits a neighbor farmer, Sancho Panza, to abandon his wife and children to be his squire as he attacks the windmills, Cervantes lists the accused books in Ch. 6, which makes it a chapter of Literary Criticism. Dozens are cited. Amusingly, one of these books was written by Cervantes himself, “La Galatea de Miguel de Cervantes—dijo el Barbero” (41). The priest claims he knows most of the authors, as he does here: “Muchos años ha que es grande amigo mio ese Cervantes.” He holds Cervantes writes with great “creativity” (“invention” the Renaissance word for it), but he wishes Cervantes would finish the second half of the book he promised (41). The priest got on to defend the poet who translated Ovid, and wrote the best heroic verse in Spanish, in Castillian. “I would cry if such a book were burned,” lloraralas yo si tal libro hubiera mandado quemar."

[bookconcierge · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Audible audio performed by George GuidallWho hasn’t heard of Don Quixote fighting windmills, or wearing a barber’s basin as a helmet? Who doesn’t know about his faithful squire, Sancho Panza? Or the beautiful Dulcinea, for whom the Knight is ready to lay down his life? I’d read snippets from this work over the years but never experienced the whole thing. I’m sorry I waited so long to do so. It is a marvelous piece of fiction and is widely acknowledged as the first modern-day novel. Cervantes gives us a main character who has lofty ideals and a noble purpose, but who is fatally flawed (possibly insane). His attempts to replicate the feats of chivalry he has long read about and admired are met with scorn and ridicule, yet he remains faithful to his ideal. Certain that he will save the imprisoned Dulcinea and win her heart and everlasting gratitude. Sancho is the faithful servant, commenting frequently in pithy sayings and proverbs, trying, in vain to steer his master away from disaster, but gamely following and taking his punishment. My favorite section is toward the end when Sancho is “appointed governor” and asked to hand out judgment on a variety of disputes. His solutions are surprisingly wise, despite his convoluted explanations. This edition is translated by Edith Grossman, and was published in 2003. While I have not read other translations, nor the original Spanish, I thought it flowed smoothly and gave me a sense of Cervantes’ style. The audiobook of this translation is performed by George Guidall, and he does a fantastic job of it. I was fully engaged and recalled those long-ago days when my grandparents, aunts or uncles would tell stories on the porch on summer evenings, all us children listening in rapt attention. I particularly liked the voices he used for both Don Quixote and for Sancho Panza.

[brakketh-1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Just amazing, I can see why it is often described as a foundation of the modern novel. In many ways it reads like it was written last week rather than more than 400 years ago.

[browner56 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Some time ago, I sat through a series of art history lectures offered at our church. The minister giving the talks was the perfect person to discuss Renaissance-era paintings, having received a MFA in addition to a divinity degree. He was also someone I knew well enough to ask what I had always feared was a really dumb question: When you go into a museum and see two seemingly comparable paintings displayed side by side, why does one usually get a lot more attention (e.g. written descriptions on the wall, guidebook space) than the other? There can be many reasons, he said, but the simple answer is that the artwork getting all the love is usually the one that came first.I thought about that observation frequently as I was reading Don Quixote, which is widely hailed in critical circles as the first modern novel. (And, at just shy of 1,000 pages, I had plenty of time to think about a lot of things during the several weeks it took me to finish the book.) I have to confess that I was not even sure what being labeled the first modern novel even meant. However, the more time I spent immersed in the volume, the more sense that designation made. For as much as I enjoyed the inventiveness of the story, I think I enjoyed considering the historical importance of the work and the influence it has had on literature over the subsequent centuries even more.As I learned, the present-day version of Don Quixote actually consists of two separate novels that Cervantes wrote about ten years apart. Both parts of the book tell the same well-known tale. An aging Spanish gentleman becomes so obsessed with reading novels on chivalry that he goes “mad” and fancies himself a knight errant, whose duty it is to right wrongs wherever he finds them in the world. Pledging his chaste love and obedience to the lady Dulcinea—who, in reality, is a relatively ordinary peasant woman he barely knows—he sets out across the country on several sallies, eventually accompanied by Sancho Panza, a poor local farmer who serves as his squire. The myriad adventures the two men have tend to take on a similar form: in his delusional state, Don Quixote confuses an ordinary situation as a threat or a challenge that needs to be addressed (e.g., windmills confused for giant villains to be vanquished), which the simple but sensible Sancho tries to talk him out of. When the encounter goes badly for the heroes, Quixote is quick to blame the work of evil enchanters who are out to get him, rather than accept failure or the possibility that he simply misread the circumstances. This basic plot device is repeated over and over again—accompanied by a considerable amount of philosophical discourse between the knight and the squire—much of which is amusing and, occasionally, memorable.For me, the second half of the novel was considerably more interesting and rewarding than the first. It is also the part of the book where the “modern” label becomes more apparent. Indeed, the author himself (often in the guise of his Arabic alter-ego Cide Hamete Benengeli) becomes a third central character in the story in a very clever way. While on their adventures in this section, Quixote and Panza often meet people who already know them from having read the first half of the book and are only too happy to encourage their delusional behavior. Also, the author has the Don’s character berate another real-life writer who had produced an unauthorized plagiarism of the Quixote saga in the years between the two volumes that Cervantes himself wrote. That is not only modern, it is down-right post-modern!In summary, Don Quixote is an altogether remarkable and entertaining book that was also, at times, absolutely exhausting to read. I do not imagine that I will ever find the time or the energy to read it again, but I am so happy to have made it all the way through this once. There are some who rank it among the best novels ever written and I cannot argue too strenuously with that position.

[downtownlibrarian · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I read this back in the early seventies in my Great Books of the Western World class at UF, and I remember writing a pretty good paper about it. Sadly, I have no idea which edition or translation, but it is truly one of the great archetypal works.

[trinibaby9 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

This is a classic for a reason, extremely funny! I must say though that the trusty squire Sancho Panza steals the show. This book would be nothing without him. A good read if you need a laugh

[zommbie1 · Calificación: 1 de 5 estrellas]

I really didn't enjoy the book. The chapters were to short. It wasn't my sense of humour. I didn't finish it. I just couldn't. I just felt sorry for Don Quixote. He was clearly mad and Sancho was just annoying

[zoharlaor · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

This is by far the translation of Don Quixote I have enjoyed the most.I do not know if Ms. Grossman's translation does justice to the original Spanish version because I haven't read it but I enjoyed this book tremendously.I enjoyed that Ms. Grossman tried to capture not only the story, but also the prose, rhythm and style of writing of the era even it was long winded and somewhat tedious. Even Cervantes' self deprecating and self glamorizing humor is intact. The foot notes also help the non-Spanish speaker understand more of background to the stories, the prose and inside jokes.Even though this book was written centuries ago I found it contemporary, charming, hilarious and accessible. I believe that it is a great disservice to Cervantes that Don Quixote is being thought of as a drama only to disregard the story's comedic aspects.Among the 1,000 pages of the book, Cervantes weaves unrelated background stories of characters which the duo meets on their adventures. I found that to be an advantage in such a long book because I could put the book down for a few weeks, read another book, and come back without missing a beat.I believe that if you would take away the "classic literature" label from this book, which so many people find terrifying, you'll find a funny story, sometimes sad yet very modern even by today's standards.If you are not familiar with the story of Don Quixote then here is a very short summary: Alonso Quixano is a retired country gentleman in his fifties who lives in La Mancha with his niece and housekeeper. Quixano has become obsessed with books about knights and chivalry (very popular at the time the story was written) and believes that they are true to their words despite the fact that many of the events are clearly unrealistic. Quixano's friends think that he has lost his mind from too much reading, too little sleep and food depravation.From here the delusional Quixano sets out in search of adventure and takes on his nom de'guerre "Don Quixote de la Mancha" while announcing his love to a neighbor's daughter (unbeknown to her) renaming her "Dulcinea del Toboso".What follows are adventure of mishap occasionally occurring because Don Quixote has a habit for sticking his nose in matters which are none of his business, using chivalry as an excuse to pick a fight wherever he can - only to be defeated, injured and humiliated. However to be fair, Sancho Panza receives the brunt of those punishments.That is the end of part one.Part two, which was written ten years later, reintroduces us to the now famous Don Quixote and Sancho Panza which are the victims of cruel jokes by rich neighbors. Don Quixote gains back his sanity and proves a capable ruler only to be met, again, with disastrous results.He dies sane and sad instead of delusionary and happy.While part one is whimsical, part two seemed to me very melancholy and more philosophical

[dhollis_14 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

17th centurycervantesfictionspanish literature

[lexicographer_1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

I really liked this. And now I feel smarter. But I have nothing smart to say about it.

[ffortsa · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Somewhat harder to stick with than I had presumed, because Cervantes is playing with metafiction and similar situations come round again and again, as Don Q and other players change and grow. But worth the time. I think this is one book that is better studied than read casually.

[awasha_albadri · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

A great tale about a spanish Knight and his friend in which they embark in all sorts of fun and drama. A wonderful tale filled with imagination and laughter. A tale for children everywhere to read.

[benuathanasia · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

ZZZzzz.This was moderately painful to get through. Never again. This is probably the one text I would have preferred abridged.

[missizicks · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Much as I love Shakespeare, Don Quixote is a more accessible work of 17th century literature. This book has been waiting on my bookcase for almost 22 years. Finally I have read it, and it was worth it. Funnier than I expected. Charming in its telling of the story of a madman and his wise but foolish squire. I enjoyed the connection between the adventures, with characters returning for further encounters with Don Quixote, and people spoken of in travellers' tales eventually materialising themselves. I struggled with the last 200 pages, not because the story telling weakened, but because I felt fatigued with reading about the futile wanderings of Quixote and Panza.

[shanlizluv · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

One of my favorite stories. I never get tired of this story and this illustrated version is just lovely.

[miriamparker_1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Can you believe this was written in the 15th century? It is one of the most contemporary books you can read. Sally forth!

[endersreads · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Cervantes has a bit of Dutch humor in him. I am reminded of Sancho producing ejecta (I mean schijt) next to the Knight of the Rueful Figure in the dark who startled at the smell. Also, when Sancho is governing his "island" he writes Quixote and tells him he would send him something, though the only thing the island produces are enema tubes which are "curiously turned and mounted". I found the episode in which Don Quixote and Sancho vomit on each other after having consumed the magical elixir hilarious as well. I digress, I make the book sound perverse. It is far from it. Looking back on the 2 parts of Don Quixote, I must say that I believe the 1st part to be my favorite. Everyone knows the windmill scene. I am reminded of the windmill scenes in the old black and white Frankenstein movie and the one in Evil Dead. I could philosophize on this single adventure for an eternity. I will never forget Dorotea, Cardenio, Don Fernando, Luscinda, the Curate, Camacho... This book is one of the greatest--containing an occult knowledge of life. This is why men such as Voltaire carried it with them. Read Isaac Disraeli's essay "The Man of One Book" to understand me. This perhaps could be my "One Book". It has not only it's own wealth but also a wealth of past histories and chivalrous works within it. Take to the mountains and fields with this book, ye goat herders!

[sarah_rubyred · Calificación: 2 de 5 estrellas]

I feel I should have got more from this than I did. I will possibly try to read it again with cliff notes and put a bit more of an effort in. I liked the premise, but it just never caught my interest and I gave up at chapter 5, hardly any of the way in.

[bexaplex · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

Famous lunatic wanderings of a would-be knight errant and his trusty squire. The gentle humor (graphic knightly assaults notwithstanding) has fared well over the ages.

[flourish_leslie · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

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.

[cmbohn · Calificación: 2 de 5 estrellas]

Well, I'm finished. I'm so glad to say that. Actually, I skipped about 200 pages and went to the end. I may or may not go back and read them, don't care much either way at this point.I have been by turns engrossed and enraged by this book. My kids keep asking me why I am still reading it. I don't really know. Cervantes is an infuriating writer. For the first 200 pages, I didn't really care at all about Don Quixote. He was just this delusional guy that went around doing stupid things. But then I started sort of liking him. Yes, he's crazy, but he is a man of honor. He is completely mistaken in his actions, but he has a good heart.But it just goes on and on and on! I got tired of Sancho Panza somewhere during Volume 2 and almost every time he started talking, I tuned out. Cervantes was using him as the comic sidekick, but I didn't find him funny at all. There were so many long passages of pointless arguments about this and that.One thing I hadn't expected was an almost postmodern twist of Cervantes directly addressing the reader, in the guise of the author. That had a surprisingly modern feel. There was a sort of inside joke, with one of the characters early in Volume 2. Sampson, a neighbor, is telling Don Quixote and Sancho Panza all about this book he has read about them. That was kind of funny. But the humor was not enough to make up for all the long boring spots.I also had a hard time reading it because of the style. The translator of my edition was Tobias Smollett, and it was done in the 18th century. A more modern edition might look more the way we're used to, with paragraphs after quotation marks, and no more of this two or three page paragraphs. It made it even more difficult to read.All in all, I suppose I'm glad I read it, but I'm even more glad I'm done.

[technodiabla · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

I decided to delve into Don Quixote to prepare for seeing the play this August in Ashland, Oregon (Oregon Shakespeare Festival). I actually read a slightly abridged version (from Samual Putnam's The Portable Cervantes-- it was still over 700 pages). I only read Book I as the play only covered Book I. I think that reading the book greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the play and vice versa. The story itself is episodic in nature and I think it could have done without so many episodes-- they started to get a bit tiresome. I also found the love quadrangle around Cordenio to be confusing since the bits of it were separated so far apart. The play elucidated much of that. I am sure this is a novel that should be studied thoroughly and with full historical context to fully appreciate it. It was a fine read going into it blindly though and much easier than I expected (good translation helps). As I was reading it I was wondering how on earth they would stage it (battles with sheep herds, horses with personality, etc.) The production was brilliant and I HIGHLY recommend it! Book Rating 3.5

[janemarieprice · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

I am never sure how to go about reviewing a classic so I will just include here some random thoughts. I liked the difference in development between the first and second books – the first being more episodic and the second being more encompassing. The proverbs were delightful – some being the same as current ones and some different – some revealing a more logical origin. I loved it, and have reaffirmed my commitment to learn Spanish and read the original.

[mikebridge_1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

This is the best translation of one of the two or three greatest books ever. Everyone who puts some effort into reading it seems to come back with a deeper understanding of himself; yet everyone comes away with something slightly different. It is like a mirror in which each person sees himself more completely.What is Quixote's quest? What makes it so compelling? I am amazed at the answers that people give to these questions---they get answered in as many ways as there are readers. But for me, the quest is the drive to recreate ones' self and live one's life in a meaningful way. The excitement of the journey and the good companionship along the way make it seem significant. What does Cervantes have to say about Quixote? I don't know---the quest is ultimately doomed. It is a funny, yet sad trip.The brilliant translation by Grossman doesn't feel like a translation at all, and the dialogue between the characters makes them feel fully human. I look forward to reading it again when I'm five years older.

[soylentgreen23 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

10 weeks. That's how long it took me to read Don Quixote - 10 weeks. And I don't regret a single minute of that time.Granted, once I really started getting into it, and became more accustomed to Cervantes's style, the pages flew by at a rate of, oh, one every four minutes, and then it was only a matter of time until I turned the very last page.The intertextuality of the piece always makes me smile when I think back to it. Here is a book purported to have been written by Cid Hamet Benengeli, and only translated by Cervantes; between books one and two another is supposed to have been published (and was), and a great deal of time is spent discrediting the imposter; so how then could it be that book one ends with an account of Don Quixote's eventual death?The most famous of the good Don's adventures come early on - the warring flocks of sheep, the giants/windmills - and so I have a sneaking suspicion that most people claiming to have read this legendary volume actually haven't done so. However, those who believe Sancho Panza to be one of the finest creations in literary history - they are certainly correct. The Don's adventures are fine and interesting, but Panza is enormously charismatic, and his every outburst worth savouring.

[brose72 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

The humorous, fanciful adventures and the insightful observations of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are captured with such mastery of language that I am not able to name a novel ever written in which the author mixes such wit and beauty of expression. New joys and provoking thoughts encountered with every new exploit.

[ysar_6 · Calificación: 1 de 5 estrellas]

The only thing I find more absurd than the main character is the fact that this pointless tale is considered a classic. It is by far the worst book ever written. Forcing children to study this in school should be considered child abuse. Having survived the torture that is reading this horrible story, I am tempted to give the whole book burning school of thought further consideration. I am giving this 1/2 star for no other reason than because I can't throw rotten produce at it online.

[ritabk1966 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

BRILLIANT. I went to see the windmills in Spain after I read the book and stayed in Cervantes place of birth for a month. The Spanish are very proud of Cervantes. Spanish children know quite a lot about this author and book and can critique the novel's concepts in an intelligent way.

[mrslee_1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

A nice readable version to get you ready for the original. Illustrations are by Walter Crane. I found this tale of a man pursuing life as he sees it, not as others see it, both touching and funny.