Don Quixote

Don Quixote

By

3.9375
(16 Reviews)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Published:

1615

Pages:

1026

ISBN:

0142437239

Downloads:

107,760

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Don Quixote

By

3.9375
(16 Reviews)
Translated by John Ormsby.
One of the earliest novels in a modern European language, one which many people consider the finest book in the Spanish language.

Book Excerpt

brown, spring out of the thicket with a goatherd after it, calling to it and uttering the usual cries to make it stop or turn back to the fold. The fugitive goat, scared and frightened, ran towards the company as if seeking their protection and then stood still, and the goatherd coming up seized it by the horns and began to talk to it as if it were possessed of reason and understanding: "Ah wanderer, wanderer, Spotty, Spotty; how have you gone limping all this time? What wolves have frightened you, my daughter? Won't you tell me what is the matter, my beauty? But what else can it be except that you are a she, and cannot keep quiet? A plague on your humours and the humours of those you take after! Come back, come back, my darling; and if you will not be so happy, at any rate you will be safe in the fold or with your companions; for if you who ought to keep and lead them, go wandering astray, what will become of them?"

The goatherd's talk amused all who heard it, but especially the canon, who said to him, "As you live, brother, take it easy, and be not in such a hurry to drive this goat back to the fold; for, being a female, as you say, she will follow her natural instinct in spite of all you can do to prevent it. Take this morsel and drink a sup, and that will soothe your irritation, and in the meantime the goat will rest herself," and so saying, he handed him the loins of a cold rabbit on a fork.

The goatherd took it with thanks, and drank and calmed himself, and then said, "I should be sorry if your wo

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Readers reviews

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Average from 16 Reviews
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Amit, the two main characters in this book and the different features within their personalities live, at times, in every human being. In splitting them, the author provides contrast and color, while walking the thin line between madness and down-to-earth sanity. This is universal, and is what makes this book a classic. Granted, it is not light stuff, though.
Yes, parts of the book are boring (e.g., lengthy poems), but the majority of it is hilarious. Don Quixote is such a loon but at times sounds perfectly normal. My favorite incident is when he paranoically destroys a puppet show. Sancho Panza is unfailingly funny. I love this book.
I could never understand the claim that this is a good book. I have read it first time while I was 14 years old and did not like it. At the age of 40 I have decided to give it yet another try, assuming that possibly I was too young when I first read it. Alas - same boredom. I am keen reader of books, in many literary styles and periods, and yet I could not find what was so good about it. What is it that make people think that this is a great book? I wander... maybe I will retry it at 80 if I am still around...
I could never understand the claim that this is a good book. I have read it first time while I was 14 years old and did not like it. At the age of 40 I have decided to give it yet another try, assuming that possibly I was too young when I first read it. Alas - same boredom. I am keen reader of books, in many literary styles and periods, and yet I could not find what was so good about it. What is it that make people think that this is a great book? I wander... maybe I will retry it at 80 if I am still around...
Appears to be complete two volume Quixote; it'sa 900 kb download. But has no index, which is awkward for this size of book. Consider going to source: PG.
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pkiula
1
Don Quixote may be a god book, but this book here -- at least the ePub download -- is a long long long piece on how the author has translated the original. WHERE THE HECK is the book itself? I'm on page 50 of 192 pages and the book hasn't even started.

This is NOT the Don Quixote by Cervantes. It's about the "Writing of" that book.

Please mark clearly and correctly so we don't waste our time downloading.
5
Don Quijote is the best book ever written. It beats Dostoievsky and Tolstoy. Even Shakespeare. The best work of fiction ever created.
3
A book written with a such a boldness. The author critises the monarchy. He loads the don with all the madness of humanity. By making us laugh at the don, he makes us see our reflection in his great work of prose.
Get this book and read it. It's everything that everyone says--and more. There are not only the famous windmill and flock of sheep episodes, but there are many stories within stories. Everyone that Quixote and Sancho Panza meet has a story, and they're more than willing to tell it. And even as Cervantes "mocks" the fantastic tales of chivalry that have addled Don Quixote's mind, he nonetheless puts more than enough such tales in the mouths of the characters who tell their own histories.

It's funny and poignant. Best of all, it's episodic. So if you don't want to read the whole thing straight through, don't worry about it. Just get to a major division and stop. The rest of the novel depends only a little on what went on before.