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    Don Quixote
    Don Quixote
    Don Quixote
    Audiobook36 hours

    Don Quixote

    Written by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

    Narrated by Roy McMillan

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Don Quixote
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateJun 30, 2011
    ISBN9781843794103
    Author

    Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

    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.

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    Reviews for Don Quixote

    4/5

    4,303 ratings138 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I am flabbergasted at the amazing selection of books here on Scribd. Amazing that this audio book on Amxxxn is 41.00 but can be listened to here as part of the membership! WOW!

      4 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Amazing story, filled with humor and woven with profound reflections and wit. The audiobook was one of my favorites I’ve ever listened too.

      3 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      One of the most widely read stories in human history. Pretty cut and dry. He is a lunatic.
    • 2/5
      Sheer torture really. Except the ending I suppose, which I fully understand why most 20th/21st Century readers simply can’t persevere to. And there’s those windmills again on the cover, which is just -the- most typical evidence of my assertion.
    • 1/5
      Nothing in this book ends up mattering and it goes on too many nonsensical tangents.
    • 5/5
      A pleasurable experience. I now understand why this book was front and centre on my grandfather’s bookshelf.
    • 5/5
      A very excellent reading of the Don Quixote. It is hard to imagine that this book is 400 years old.

      The reader reads the characters well. I don't believe it can be improved upon.
    • 4/5
      It's been 20 years since I've read Don Quixote, so I was due for a refresher. This was the perfect format. The art wasn't ground-breaking, but it was fun, and the story fits the episodic nature of comics perfectly. This is worth the read if you need a Don Quixote refresher, or if you just don't want to tackle it in large novel form.
    • 4/5
      Despite being published over 400 years ago, I found Don Quixote to be an enjoyable read. While some of the descriptions and character dialogue may have been excessively detailed, (For goodness’ sake man, occasionally leave out the kitchen sink!) I never found myself bored. There were even moments that made me laugh out loud. Overall, I appreciated Cervantes' commentary on the power of storytelling and the blurred lines between fact and fiction.
    • 4/5
      jousting at windmills - my favorite metaphor!
    • 5/5
      Such a beautiful story. My heart felt like breaking when the story came to a close and Don Quixote showed such tenderness towards the friends of this magical journey. I was deeply deeply moved by this great masterpiece from the pen or de Cervantes.
    • 5/5
      Very clever .. loved the absurdity, plot and writing style!
    • 5/5
      Grossman has successfully brought the best of the humour out to make this the defintive translation of the misadventures of literatures first chivalric gentleman. I was laughing out loud by the end of the first chapter.
    • 2/5
      Don Quixote probably was a great book during Cervantes' time, but I found it to be slow, boring and uneventful. In my (humble) opinion most modern readers, used to more concise, faster paced books, will not enjoy this one.
    • 5/5
      Everyone knows about Don Q's adventures. Thoroughly enjoyed this (35 discs) audiobook based on the edition translated by Edith Grossman. Wonderful companion on 3000 mile road trip. In awe of Cervantes language and knowledge (in circa 1500).
    • 5/5
      Beautiful reading! I enjoyed it plenty, it was a pleasure.
    • 3/5
      I have a feeling I would have liked Don Quixote a lot more in some other translation. I've wanted to read it for a while, but this translation (Wordsworth edition, P. A. Motteux) just didn't work for me. I didn't actually finish the whole thing, because I really, really didn't like the translation. One day, I will find a translation I prefer and have another attempt at it.

      I don't really feel like I get to write a proper review about the book now, but I'll jot down the impressions I got. I did get about halfway through, at least. The translation was a problem for me because it was very dry and dated. I feel like when you're translating books, the point is to make them readable to a new audience. Obviously, Cervantes shouldn't read like Stephen King, but to make the book accessible, it shouldn't read like a textbook. I feel like maybe the translation is too literal. It doesn't help that in this edition the writing is tiny and cramped together. I had a look at the Penguin edition at one point, and I seem to remember it being easier to look at, and the translation a little easier -- although of course I only read a couple of pages.

      In terms of the story, I love it. It's become so much a part of cultural background that it's a little ridiculous not to ever try it. I mean... "tilting at windmills", anyone? It is funny how early in the book that most famous part happens. I found the book rather tedious to begin with, but it was actually somewhat easier when I got to the story of Cardenio -- partly because I've read a book just recently that focused on the Cardenio story and Shakespeare, and that had been what prompted me to actually buy Don Quixote. At that point, I feel, the story does get easier, but I really couldn't cope with the translation anymore.

      I love some of the scenes and ideas, and Quixote's delusions, but it's kind of difficult for me because I get so embarrassed for delusional characters. It makes me rather uncomfortable. I also have a bit of difficulty with books that meander about and have so many stories-within-the-story, without much of a driving plot themselves, but my main problem was that I couldn't get into it and reading it felt like an awful drag.

      Please note that my rating is not for the book as a whole, nor the book in general, but for this specific edition.
    • 5/5
      An absolute delight to listen. The narrator has done complete justice to this masterpiece.
    • 4/5
      Don Quixote can be riotously funny, boring and repetitive, and troubling. Cervantes' strength lies in the repartee between Sancho and the Don. The pastoral and romantic tales embedded in the novel are somewhat generic and the characters vanilla. Cervantes might be satirizing these stories, juxtaposing them with the rough realism of Quixote's adventures - pointing out that these idealized stories don't happen in the real world without a whole host of mundane associated problems (what does one eat? where does one defecate? what happens when two men hit each other with lances?)

      There is a lot of melancholy and cruelty here, as noted by Nietzsche, Kafka and Nabokov. I also understand why Dostoevsky was so influenced by this story - the Knight of the Sorrowful face represents the Christian ideal of taking on suffering for the good of the world, as seen in his novels by Sonya Marmeladova and Alyosha Karamazov.
    • 4/5
      Although it is a bit repetitive in places, I was surprised by how easy to read this was in general. I liked Starkie's translation & he provided plenty of footnotes to explain various aspects of the text.
    • 5/5
      Wow! What a book! Such a fun read, following in the steps of the greatest knight ever, Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza. The book will have you laughing out loud, sad, angry, confused and every other emotion you can think of. Definitely a book to remember, with so many writing techniques used, but not over the top or boring. Don Quixote is the most intelligent madman ever to be written about. Some highlights for me were the advice that Don gives to Sancho when he leaves for his "leadership" position. Advice that survives through the ages. Kudos also goes out to the translator of the book from Spanish, Edith Grossman, a monumental task indeed, but creates a thrilling story that would probably make Cervantes proud. Although, this is the type of book that makes me want to learn spanish, just so I can read it in the original format that Cervantes wrote it. I also loved Sancho's constant usage of proverbs, and how much it pissed off Don Quixote. The relationship between the two is worth the read on it's own. Definitely a keeper! It's long, but oh so worth it.
    • 5/5
      Awfully meta for the 1500’s. Delightful.
    • 5/5
      Many people have heard of Don Quixote (or Don Quijote in this translation), but to read both volumes of the book takes some reading commitment. It was the next book on my shelf and although not unread; I had read it such a long time ago I had only a vague impression. Reading today a revised translation by Diana De Armas Wilson with its introduction by the original translator Burton Raffel was very much in keeping with Miguel de Cervantes claiming that his Don Quijote was a translation from the Arabic historian Cide Hamete Benengeli, which put me in tune with the meta fictional aspects of this book. It has been labelled as the first novel ever written, (first volume published in 1605), but I can vouch to the fact that this is not true having read novels from the previous century. It's claim to be the first modern novel bears more consideration, as from my reading experience it shines like a beacon of light, a sort of lighthouse beacon which lights the way for character development and interior reflections, authorial interventions, open ended interpretations, and endless discussions on the aims and objectives of the author. The dark side of the lighthouse beacon is its disparagement of the subject matter of the popular fiction of its time, the books of chivalry: knights in armour riding out to do fantastic deeds. These are the very books that caused Don Quijote to go insane. He was of the opinion that all the stories written on chivalry must be historically accurate, because they were printed in books. Why would anyone write about things that were not true, that did not happen. There is a scene very early on in the first volume when Don Quijote has returned exhausted from his first adventure and the priest and the barber go through his library throwing out of the window all the bad books on chivalry that they intend to burn. The basic premise of the novel is that a rich landowner Don Quijote has become infatuated and addicted to books of chivalry and takes it upon himself to revive the whole idea of knight errantry. Cervantes says:"Indeed his mind was so tattered and torn that finally, it produced the strangest notion any madman ever conceived, and then considered it not just appropriate but inevitable. As much for the sake of his own greater honour as for his duty to the nation, he decided to turn himself into a knight errant, travelling all over the world with his horse and his weapons, seeking adventures and doing everything that, according to his books, earlier knights had done, righting every manner of wrong, giving himself the opportunity to experience every sort of danger, so that surmounting them all, he would cover himself with eternal fame and glory"Don Quijote recruits an employee of his Sancho Panza to be his squire and saddles up his old horse Rocinante, puts on some old armour and together they ride out; Sancho Panza on his beloved donkey, looking for adventures. Not only is Don Quijote insane, but he also suffers from hallucinations, seeing wayside inns as castles, windmills as giants, and herds of sheep as a marauding army. He also dreams of an impossibly beautiful woman who will be the love of his life and to whom he will dedicate his conquests: the matchless Dulcinea del Tobolso. Tobolso is a town near where Don Quijote lives and he might have caught sight of a pretty girl there.There have been many interpretations of Don Quijote. A ribald, knockabout, slapstick comedy; there are certainly many funny incidents along the way that can make the reader laugh out loud. A loveable idealist who follows his heart and an unflappable optimist. A tragic hero figure in the best traditions of a romantic interpretation. Christians might interpret him as a Christ like figure, or that it is a cabalistic Jewish text. Some may think it is an allegory of Spanish politics or an attack on romantic chivalry that Cervantes claims it to be. It is in my opinion primarily a novel about insanity, self delusion and how other people handle, care for, or make fun of people who are insane. Don Quijote's sanity comes and goes, in book two his periods of lucidity increase until he returns home almost cured of his delusions. During his adventures people are often surprised by his educated response to questions, he gives Sancho Panza excellent advice on how to be a governor of a municipality. Don Quijote's insanity leads inevitably to mood swings, he is easily angered and in fact twice tries to kill Sancho Panza.Many classic works are infused with thoughts and ideas about writing and literature and Don Quijote is no exception to this. The prologue of the book addressed to the idle reader written by Cervantes talks about the difficulties of writing the prologue, reminding readers that he is only the stepfather to the book not its parent. He then tells of a conversation with a friend who tells him shortcuts to write a successful piece of literature. Throughout the actual novel there are pauses where Cervantes reflects on the art of writing. The two volumes were printed nine years apart and in the second volume the metafictional aspects take another turn. We are told that Don Quijote has become famous, because people have read about his exploits in the first volume. He starts to be recognised and some people take advantage of his fame. He complains however, that there seems to be two Don Quijote's riding around; one who is a bit of an idiot and one who is accomplishing good deeds, one book is poorly written while the other can stand up as a piece of literature. This together with authorial interventions, perhaps by the parent: Cide Hamete Benengali or perhaps the step father Cervantes himself adds further to the innovations that are introduced by the author.The two volumes together make a superb reading experience. There are Don Quijote's sometimes rather puzzling exploits, there are stories within stories. There are two tremendous characters in the knight himself and his proverb loving squire Sancho Panza, who develop characteristics from each other. The stories are funny, sometimes violent, sometimes contemporary to that period of Spanish rule: the expulsion of the Moors and the jews feature heavily. Of course the reader rides along with Don Quijote sucking up the atmosphere of Spain in the early 17th century wondering about the next adventure that will befall the insane duo and caring about the health of the duo as well as despairing about the damage they cause. The Norton Critical Edition contains an excellent introduction and a beautiful translation. The criticism section however, leaves something to be desired. I know it is difficult to come to a conclusion about the main theme or thrust of this novel, but most of the extracts focus on individual stories. Some attempt at an overall impression would have been welcome. It is a book that one can return to and enjoy individual stories and exploits, with the whole scope of the book firmly in mind. Wonderful and a five star read.
    • 4/5
      Laugh-out-loud funny. Touching. Educational without pedantry. Far more readable than I'd expected. Exotic glimpses of Greece, Algiers, Constantinople. Romance, betrayal, war, secret identities, slapstick comedy, dangerous sea voyages, serendipitous reunions. Tremendous fun. Interminable, but fun.
    • 4/5
      I did it, I read this long classic novel. It has a lot of parts that were funnier than I expected. Don Quixote and Sancho indulge in a lot of witty banter! There is even some potty humor. Some parts are long "stories within the story" where they run into another person and then he or she tells them a long story of their exploits. Of course the main premise is that Don Quixote wants to be a knight errant just like in the books he has read so he dresses up like a knight and looks for adventure, most of which are in his imagination. He thinks a flock of sheep is an opposing army and that windmills are giants, for example. He is like a modern day cos-player but he's from the 15th or 16th century. And the book is really long, it's like a soap opera that went on for several seasons and then was all written down. It's a fascinating look at life back then, and one of the first "novels" ever written. The audio version is a great way to experience it. But I'll totally understand if you' don't make it all the way to the end - it does get long and I maybe got a bit tired of it by the end.
    • 5/5
      This was my third read, but I quit before the end of the first part. I was taking too long to read it.
    • 5/5
      In my humble opinion, this is one of the greatest works of all time, but I will provide a different kind of review here. I was lucky enough to read this while traveling in Spain for a few months. I attended a Department of Medicine lecture at the University in Salamanca on the medicinal herbs collected by Don Quixote. If ever you can read a relevant work while traveling in the country of origin, I highly recommend it. I bought the book at a bookstore in Fuengirola where they were giving a reading in English. We toured the Don Quixote trail (there are sign posts of places mentioned in the book). It's a fun way to have a greater cultural and historical appreciation.
    • 2/5
      Didn't make me laugh. It's a jumble of unconnected stories and if there's something to be read in-between the gags then I have failed. The main characters are worthy of their iconic status but the stories themselves are joyless.
    • 2/5
      Finally finished! Such a long book, and the small compact print in my copy did not make reading any easier. It took well over 200 pages (i estimate) to really feel comfortable with the writing style (or translation, really). Likely it is the decision of the translator, but I did feel there was many thematic and stylistic similarities to Shakespeare's plays.
      All of the adventures play into classic knight folklore, primarily maiden misled by rogue and separated lovers often by fathers. A lot of long-winded narratives that are truly boring in our current era, even one slowed by a corona virus.
      Reading this unabridged version was my own mad determination or enchantment. I am now free, without suffering lashes. Just a sore hand from holding open such a large thick book.
      Perhaps the only time I will say this, but do yourself the favour: Read an abridged version.
    • 3/5
      Long, originally published as two books.