Book Title
Cervantes (Miguel se Cervantes Saavedra)
Originally written in 1605
Translated by Samuel Putnam
Viking Press, 1949. 19th printing, 1965
BZ's Private Library
Link to Book: Barns and Noble
Rating: 
Date Reviewed: Sept2006
Reviewed By: Foo
Comments: This book is known as the "first modern novel", and of course appelations like that always attract me. The story line, which everyone hase heard, is about an old man who reads too many books on medieval chivalry and goes a little mad in the head, believing he is a night-errant, and convinces a neighbore peasant (Sancho Panza) to travel around the country (Spain) righting wrongs. Well, you can guess that in the age of carbines, these two stumble into a lot of trouble, what with Don Quixote imagining that everything he sees is not quite what it appears (windmills are giants, etc). He and Sancho take a number of pummelings at the hands of maids and shepherds. But god favors the crazy, so in a number of instances they get lucky, or befriend people who humor them for their own entertainment, and so they manage to survive 3 adventures, gaining quite a bit of fame throughout the land. The story line is irresistable.
Unfortunately, the writing is from the 17th Century. In most cases the author rambles on, not just in the flowery chivalric language of Don Quixote (who turns out to be more a man of words than actions), but in the general telling of the story. I guess they didn't have TV's back then. Plus this is a translation from the original Spanish, and the best quote of the book comes on p.672:
Translating from one language into another is like gazing at a Flemish
tapestry with the wrong side out. Even though the figures are visible they of full of threads
that obscure the view and are not bright and smooth as when seen from the other side.
My edition was 800 pages. Most of it tedious. Little of it exciting. And thankfully, this edition skipped over maybe 200 pages by summarizing in italics. It could have been worse. The idea of this novel is uniqued, but the prose is finding less and less audience in today's speedy world.