Ranks 3rd on The Fictional
100
The following books will introduce you to Don Quixote, who
said these words in Cervantes' Don Quixote (Charles Jarvis, Trans.). To order a book, or for more information, follow the book
title links to Amazon.com,
then return home to browse other
characters.
- Cervantes, Miguel de. Don Quixote
(Edith Grossman, Trans.). Harper Perennial, 2005.
- The latest translation to enter the fray, this attractive version has been well received.
- Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. Don
Quixote de la Mancha (Charles Jarvis, Trans.; E. C.
Riley, Ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
- This handy paperback in the World's Classics
series features the venerable Jarvis translation
updated for modern readers. Enjoy Don Quixote to
the fullest in this unabridged text which is
readable, portable, and delightful.
- Riley, E. C. Don
Quixote. London: Allen & Unwin, 1986.
- Best companion text for appreciating the novel in
the context of its times. Illuminating comparison
of Part I (published in 1605) and its sequel
(Part II, 1615), tracing changes in the
character.
- Durán, Manuel. Cervantes.
New York: Twayne, 1974.
- Shows how Cervantes' novel and his treatment of
the character transformed prose fiction.
- Auerbach, Erich. Mimesis
(W. R. Trask, Trans.). Princeton University Press, 1953.
- This classic work on the changing face of realism
in Western literature contains a wonderful
chapter, "The Enchanted Dulcinea," on
Don Quixote's and Sancho's mutual
illusion-making.
- Close, A. J. Miguel
de Cervantes, Don Quixote. Cambridge University
Press, 1990.
- Another excellent commentary, especially the last
chapter on the novel's influence.
- Flores, Angel, and Benardete, M. J. (Eds.). Cervantes
Across the Centuries. New York: Gordian Press, 1969.
- Collects articles on Don Quixote by distinguished
commentators. Highlights include a surprising
number of musical versions and the novel's'
cross-cultural reception and influence.
- Ortega y Gasset, José. Meditations
on Quixote (E. Rugg & D. Marín, Trans.). Norton,
1983.
- Includes a comparison of the Don with Madame
Bovary, another romantic whose life was refracted
through the novels she read.
- Turgenev, Ivan. Hamlet
and Don Quixote (Robert Nichols, Trans.). Folcroft,
1972.
- This Russian novelist contrasts these two
divergent character types in an incisive essay.
- Nabokov, Vladimir. Lectures on Don Quixote
. San
Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983.
- Not surprisingly, Nabokov's insights into this
character are both original and opinionated.
- Unamuno, Miguel de. The Life of Don Quixote and Sancho
(Homer P. Earle, Trans.). Knopf, 1927.
- Unamuno's tour-de-force is somewhere between a
commentary and a retelling of the novel from his
own unique perspective.
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