So we ‘re under way and the journey begins the first 92 pages cover a lot of ground a brief intro ,some wonderful sonnets about the hero and knights in general ,then we finally meet Don his book laden house book about knights .Then he sets forth and rides and ends up at an inn .Wants to be made a knight by the innkeeper ,who refuses but relents in the end ,back home people worried but to no avail he enlists his neighbour sancho Panza a farmer to be his squire .the meet some people already on the road to the adventures .
Well so far ,so good we got a feel of Don Quixote a sort of 16th century billy liar ,the book reads as thou it was written yesterday ,the footnotes enlighten the text so much ,and things like explaining the meaning of blanco is dual so both used in translation .The mean of Panza is belly or paunch thus leading to the image in my mind .
Also Rachel of catalan cooking is hopefully going to give us some great recipes from spain at the time of Don Quixote
WHAT DID EVERY ONE THINK ?
WHAT YOU THINK OF THE TRANSLATION ?
A great book Stu, thanks for getting me involved – it would have remained on my shelf for another five years without your prompting.
I’ve published my thoughts here
It is wonderful ,thanks for being involved tom ,all the best stu
It does seem like it’s written just yesterday. Or today even. It’s very accessible, even if Don Q likes to speak chivalrous English. A comic rampage: every page rammed with comedy. An effort at a pun. 🙂
My general thoughts are about translation.
thanks rise ,it is wonderfully modern ,all the best stu
I was surprised at how funny this book is! It’s already made me laugh out loud several times. And it’s really much more readable, more accessible than I expected it to be.
it has me too emily ,don quioxte seems so real and a little mad ,all the best stu
agree with emily the humour and the style is not what you expect from a book of this age it’s very easy to get into and the characters are great. Make me a knight Inn keeper!
it is monty python esque in a way
Yes, it certainly does feel like it was written yesterday. You’re absolutely spot on about the footnotes, they do add a lot to the text. It’s nice that she hasn’t put too many of them in.
Hopefully, I should have a quiet day at work today- armed with my trusty copy of DQ I shall embark on a quest for a quiet spot out of the way to do battle with the second batch of 92 pages.
Forward, Sancho!
wonderful so far ,hope you get a quiet place for the next stage ,all the best stu
Valiantly striving to catch up, but shouldn’t be too hard, the writing is entertaining and easily accessible. Agree with everyone about the footnotes; the right balance is struck, providing illuminating information without distracting overmuch from the text. The translation is working very well for me. I have heard reports of earlier translations which did not sound at all appealing.
it is great isn’t it ,I did try years ago with a wordsworth version just didn’t work plus book wasn’t marvelous felt as thou it fall apart half through ,all the best stu
Really enjoying so far, particularly as I would never have read it if it were not for this readalong. I have to echo others comments about the freshness of the text and although I did find the footnotes quite useful I did find the list of books and publication dates not particularly relevent (for me at least).
Opening chapters felt a bit familiar, but I suspect Mitchell and Webb have read Don Quixote too (possibly NSFW):
Apologies for the still youtube has selected!
great video grace ,yes every one seems to agree it is very modern ,all the best stu
Argh! Our crazy weather has left me a few days behind. I’m catching up son!
thats ok ,read your post about storm and blackout hop you are ok ,all the best stu
Hi Stu, I’m trailing behind this bunch, but determined to catch up. I actually have two translations now, one by Samuel Putnam, and I just downloaded Edith Grossman’s translation on my brand new Nook a couple of days ago. I sort of skimmed though the preface and raced through the sonnets because I want some story! I will post about the read-along sometime in the next few days…
thats ok few people fell behind plenty of tim,e the story is very readable ,all the best stu