Don Quixote

Resumen del libro

Edith Grossman's definitive English translation of the Spanish masterpiece. Widely regarded as the world's first modern novel, and one of the funniest and most tragic books ever written, "Don Quixote" chronicles the famous picaresque adventures of the noble knight-errant Don Quixote of La Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they travel through sixteenth-century Spain. Unless you read Spanish, you've never read "Don Quixote."

"Though there have been many valuable English translations of "Don Quixote," I would commend Edith Grossman's version for the extraordinarily high quality of her prose. The Knight and Sancho are so eloquently rendered by Grossman that the vitality of their characterization is more clearly conveyed than ever before. There is also an astonishing contextualization of Don Quixote and Sancho in Grossman's translation that I believe has not been achieved before. The spiritual atmosphere of a Spain already in steep decline can be felt throughout, thanks to her heightened quality of diction.

Grossman might be called the Glenn Gould of translators, because she, too, articulates every note. Reading her amazing mode of finding equivalents in English for Cervantes's darkening vision is an entrance into a further understanding of why this great book contains within itself all the novels that have followed in its sublime wake."

From the Introduction by Harold Bloom

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 seaand 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.

Biografía del autor

p MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA (Alcalá de Henares, 1547 Madrid, 1616) es un autor clave para entender la evolución de la historia de la literatura occidental. Su vida combinó periodos itinerantes con otros de asentamiento. Con su familia pasó por diversas poblaciones castellanas y andaluzas hasta asentarse en Madrid en 1566. Cuatro años más tarde se trasladó a Roma y, posteriormente, se convirtió en soldado. El 7 de octubre de 1571 participó en la batalla de Lepanto. Permaneció en Italia hasta 1575, fecha en que la galera en la que viajaba fue capturada por piratas. Permaneció cautivo cinco años en Argel hasta ser liberado. De nuevo en España, escribió diversas comedias y la novela i La Galatea /i (1585). Dos años después, fue nombrado comisario real de abastos y destinado a Sevilla, y más tarde se convirtió en recaudador de impuestos, un trabajo que le dio no pocos problemas. Tras un largo proceso de gestación, en 1605 apareció la primera parte de i Don Quijote de la Mancha /i . En los últimos años de su vida, además de la segunda parte del i Quijote /i (1615), también vieron la luz reunidas sus i Novelas ejemplares /i (1613), i El Viaje del Parnaso /i (1614) y las i Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses nuevos nunca representados /i (1615). Aún le daría tiempo a escribir la novela bizantina i Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda /i antes de fallecer en 1616.<br>