Don Quixote (Lathrop translation)

by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra, Tom Lathrop (Translator)

Overview

The epic tale of Don Quixote and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, and their picaresque adventures in the world of seventeenth century Spain, form the basis of one of the great treasures of Western literature—a book that is both a hilarious satire of the chivalric code and a biting portrayal of an age in which nobility can be a form of madness. This brand-new, thoroughly modern translation, and the extensive introduction and footnotes, make Cervantes' masterpiece more delightful and accessible to English readers than ever before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451531810
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/05/2011
Pages:	1072
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra was born in Spain in 1547 to a family once proud and influential but now fallen on hard times. His father, a poor barber-surgeon, wandered up and down Spain in search of work. Educated as a child by the Jesuits in Seville, the creator of Don Quixote grew up to follow the career of a professional soldier. He was wounded at Lepanto in 1571, captured by the Turks in 1575, imprisoned for five years, and was finally rescued by the Trinitarian friars in 1580. On his return to Spain he found his family more impoverished than ever before. Supporting his mother, two sisters, and an illegitimate daughter, he settled down to a literary career and had hopes of becoming a successful playwright, but just then the youthful Lope de Vega entered triumphantly to transform the Spanish theatre by his genius. Galatea, a pastoral romance, was published in 1585, the year of Cervantes’ marriage to Catalina de Palacios y Salazar Vozmediano. But it did not bring him an escape from poverty, and he was forced to become a roving commissary for the Spanish armada. This venture, which led to bankruptcy and jail, lasted for fifteen years. Although he never knew prosperity, Cervantes did gain a measure of fame during his lifetime, and Don Quixote and Sancho Panza were known all over the world. Part I of Don Quixote was published in 1605; in 1613, his Exemplary Novels appeared, and these picaresque tales of romantic adventure gained immediate popularity. Journey to Parnassas, a satirical review of his fellow Spanish poets, appeared in 1614, and Part II of Don Quixote in 1615 as well as Eight Plays and Eight Interludes. Miguel de Cervantes died on April 23, 1616, the same day as the death of Shakespeare—his English contemporary, his only peer.

What People are Saying About This

J. M. Cohen

One of the best adventure stories in the world.

Thomas Mann

What a unique monument is this book!... How its creative genius, critical, free, and human, soars above its age!

Carlos Fuentes

Don Quixote is the first modern novel, perhaps the most eternal novel ever written and certainly the fountainhead of European and American fiction: here we have Gogol and Dostoevsky, Dickens and Nabokov, Borges and Bellow, Sterne and Diderot in their genetic nakedness, once more taking to the road with the gentleman and the squire, believing the world is what we read and discovering that the world reads us.

Editorial Reviews

What a unique monument is this book!...How its creative genius, critical, free and human, soars above its age!”—Thomas Mann

From the Publisher

The highest creation of genius has been achieved by Shakespeare and Cervantes, almost alone.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A more profound and powerful work than this is not to be met with...The final and greatest utterance of the human mind.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

What a monument is this book! How its creative genius, critical, free, and human, soars above its age!

Thomas Mann