Quixote: The Novel and the World

by Ilan Stavans

A groundbreaking cultural history of the most influential, most frequently translated, and most imitated novel in the world. The year 2015 marks the four hundredth anniversary of the publication of the complete Don Quixote of La Mancha ―an ageless masterpiece that has proven unusually fertile and endlessly adaptable. Flaubert was inspired to turn Emma Bovary into “a knight in skirts.” Freud studied Quixote’s psyche. Mark Twain was fascinated by it, as were Kafka, Picasso, Nabokov, Borges, and Orson Welles. The novel has spawned ballets and operas, poems and plays, movies and video games, and even shapes the identities of entire nations. Spain uses it as a sort of constitution and travel guide; and the Americas were conquered, then sought their independence, with the knight as a role model. In Quixote , Ilan Stavans, one of today’s preeminent cultural commentators, explores these many manifestations. Training his eye on the tumultuous struggle between logic and dreams, he reveals the ways in which a work of literature is a living thing that influences and is influenced by the world around it. 8 pages of illustrations

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Literary Criticism, Classics, Spain, Spanish Literature, Humanities

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2015

About the author

Ilan Stavans is the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. An award-winning writer and public television host, his books include Growing Up Latino and Spanglish. A native of Mexico City, he lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Tamara Agha-Jaffar · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love Cervantes’ Don Quixote, you will enjoy Quixote: The Novel and the World by Ilan Stavans as a delightful companion to Cervantes’ masterpiece. Stavans divides his exploration into two parts: Section 1 focuses on the novel; Section 2 focuses on its reception, contribution, adaptation, and influence on Western literature.

Stavans explores Don Quixote from all angles. He includes biographical information on Cervantes and the publishing history of the novel. He engages in literary criticism, character analysis, and compares translations. He discusses the many literary and artistic expressions it has influenced. He cites prominent writers and artists throughout the centuries who engaged with the novel, many of whom gushed in their praise of it. There is analysis, facts, and opinions. Stavans also delves into the fundamentals by exploring the various spellings of “Quixote” and their significance. The novel's impact on the Spanish language and culture are also explored as are the various adaptations in visual arts, musicals, operas, ballets, and movies.

The thread running throughout is Stavans unabashed passion for the masterpiece. His gushing enthusiasm is reflected in his willingness to go wherever the novel or its offshoots take him. The organization of his book is somewhat haphazard as Stavans jumps around and changes direction at a breathless pace. But throughout this very personal exploration, Stavans is informative, entertaining, and serves a veritable feast for lovers of Cervantes’ Don Quixote.

Recommended.

My book reviews are also available at www.tamaraaghajaffar.com

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Don Quixote is the universe, Stavan's examination is A Brief History of Time. Stavans is an avid student and lover of all things Quijote: the book itself, all its translations, the cultural apparatus that has been assembled around it, and its vast influence. The basics of a literary critique are here -- some biographical notes, some character analysis -- but the soul of the book is Stavan's love and quasi-obsession with Don Quixote. It's a much better and more inspiring account than his Modern Scholar lectures, and a pleasantly informal companion to El Quijote itself.

[Andres · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's nothing better than reading a classic, and if you can find a book that has that classic as its main subject---hey, even better!

Books about classics are like concentrated goodness for me and I usually wait to read the classic being discussed before I read the book about that classic. I say usually because some classics I won't get around to anytime soon (or ever) but I still want to read about the book to learn whatever I can about the author, plot, characters, and whatever impact it may have had on literature, history, or the world.

Quixote: The Novel and the World does exactly that: gives you a look at the life and legacy of Don Quixote as book and character. The author has spent a lifetime reading and teaching the book so he knows his Quixote very well. We learn a little about a lot of things: Cervantes, the book's publishing history, the various English translations over the centuries, its impact on the Spanish language and subsequently on the cultures of Spain and its colonies, and even the various adaptations of the knight errant and his sidekick.

So there's a lot of territory this book covers, but at the same time I felt like there were many points that didn't quite come together for me. At least a few times each chapter the point of the discussion at hand gets a little hazy and then the text goes off in another direction. Some conclusions aren't made as fully as I would've wanted (not giving more proof or context) or, in one case, a long long passage from Dostoevsky is quoted (4 pages worth!) with only the briefest of analysis afterward before moving on to the next point. I know it's a short book that can't possibly go into more detail on everything it discusses but more often than not I felt an example would've made a point more concrete than just a general statement alone.

I wouldn't say the text meanders or rambles, it's much more precise and controlled than that in its various discussions, but I would say it can change direction quickly and doesn't always fully explain ideas or conclusions. It's a very informative and entertaining, yet idiosyncratic and personal, exploration of Don Quixote as cultural icon.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is even remotely interested in Don Quixote. I found it a little frustrating at times but its a rewarding read for the knowledge gained. I'm this much closer to reading Don Quixote because I read this book.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

As another reviewer said below: "Stavan’s book begins with an asteroid and ends in a Japanese convenience store, both named for one of literature’s greatest characters. That’s reason enough to read it, in my view."

Agreed!

Also as others have said, if you haven't read the novel and don't have a basic background about Quixote criticism, you won't get as much out of this wonderful book.

I am a huge Ilan Stavans fan. In fact, I think he might be the most interesting writer I have discovered in my old age! His memoir, On Borrowed Words, is a really compelling read for anyone interested in translation and the mutability of the self. (on translation as a metaphor for the human condition)...I wrote about it here http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksda... Anyone interested in translation or fellow translators will just love it.

This book was something like his book on Columbus. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Like with Columbus ("the Don Quixote of the Ocean") he explores the myriad of ways people around the world have engaged with the book. My own favorite parts of this incredibly rich story were, first his examination of English language translation and why it is that the novel holds so dear a place in the English speaking world... he has a great comparison between Spanish and English sensibilities when it comes to the novel. The other chapter I particularly loved was his exploration of Dostoevsky and Unamuno's Christian interpretation--contrasted with that of Nabokov. It is inspired!

[Jeffrey (Akiva) Savett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice book of essays about one of my new all time favorite books. In terms of a recommendation, I have a few caveats:

1. If you haven't read Don Quixote, this book doesn't serve general interest.
2. If you've studied the book and criticism quite thoroughly, you may find this a bit superficial. I didn't; but I'm new to Quixophilia.
3. Not every essay is interesting, but the ones that are interesting are dazzling. I recommend the Preface, "The So-Called Normal," "Madness and Method," "A Modern Novel," "The Conjuror of Words," "The Ebullient Bunch," and the Epilogue.
4. Some essays/chapters, like "Flemish Tapestries" are just plain duds. That one for instance, takes an in-depth look at differences between some landmark translations of the novel. While the section which looks at one specific paragraph six or seven different ways provides some passing coolness, you're not missing anything. If issues of translation is really what you're after, see point #2 here…it goes into enough depth to bore ME, but not enough depth to engage someone knowledgeable of those issues.

[Cynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book aids those who are familiar with Quijotismo and hispanidad as they read Don Quixote. This is not the book for scholars or serious students.

Here can be found various overviews, including
* The character and nature of Don Quixote.
* The social commentary of the decline of the Golden Age of Spain.
* The novel's continuing to fire the imagination of writers, movie makers, artists.
* The translations and their significance.

I read this book as I reread Part One.
Next year I plan to reread Part Two. At that time I may borrow from Hoopla the ebook The Novel that Invented Modernity: Don Quixote de la Mancha also by Ilan Stavans.

[Michael Gannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little read for Don Quixote fans, which is as light and easily digested, as it is insightful and valuable.
The author is a lifelong Quixote connoisseur, but as the book proceeds, we see that he himself even doubts the authenticity of his lifelong obsession, a narrative which he wraps up wonderfully in the epilogue.
The "meat" of the book consists of the history of the novel itself, the art, the adaptations, and the influence it has had not only in Spanish speaking countries, but all of the world, perhaps most of all in the USA.
In short, my takeaway from the book is that it is one man's experience with and interpretation of The Novel (El Quijote, as he refers to it) of all novels, which is a novel open to infinitely many interpretations, all of which may be correct, but all of which may also be entirely wrong.
Is there any way to really "nail down" the meaning behind Don Quixote's quest? Well, the whole world has been trying for over 400 years, and as it seems to only become more and more relevant as time goes on, it seems at this point fair to say that there never will be.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice overview of the history of DQ's reception and criticism on it. Stavans' writing gets kind of hokey at points--a lot questions posed as page-turners, yet left unanswered and unfulfilled. It seems that he wanted to write a book of lit. crit. that would become a mainstream bestseller.

But, overall, it's a very "accessible" read for Cervantistas, and its sweeping view of DQ's circulation is a great way for readers to find out particular theories of the novel and specific writers who've written about it that would worth researching further.

[Joe Cummings · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us who like or love Miguel de Cervantes' The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha also known in English as Don Quixote, Ilan Stavans 2016 book Quixote: The Novel and the World is a real treat. This brief work is filled with facts, analysis, and thoughtful opinions about El Quijote (as it's called in Spanish) and its contribution to the Western canon and civilization. Between its cover, readers and fans alike will learn among many other things: the name of Sancho Panza's donkey; why the preferred spelling of gallant knight's name is Quixote in English and Quijote in Spanish: that poet W.H. Auden was originally slated to write the lyrics to The Man from La Mancha: and there's a really cool-looking Don Quijote chess set available for fans.

Originally I thought that I was going to give Quixote a five star rating, but it seems to me that this book could have been more complete. To his credit, though, Stavans does tells interested readers were they can look for more about Cervantes and literature. Still, I wish there had been more. In the Chapter Ten "The Flemish Tapestries," for example, the author seems to lose interest in his otherwise great bibliographic essay on the English translations. After discussing earlier translations to Smollett (1755), he jumps to Grossman (2003) without discussing the translations published in the intervening period-including Ormsby (1885) which appears to be his preferred. (We never learn why he prefers Ormsby except that it was the first translation that was made available on the Internet.[Additionally, I have since learned that Stavans writes and introduction to an Ormsby translation in a new series called Restless Classics]) He also does not discuss the at least two translations since Grossman.

While acknowledging that Grossman's translation has become a best seller, Stavans doesn't seem care for Grossman's "decisively modern and unadorned style" and says that it "sounds too streetwise." (This from a man who has published some of El Quijote in Spanglish graphic novel.) Ironically, Chris Welch the book designer for Quixote has created a cover that makes Stavans book look like a companion piece to the Grossman translation. Indeed sitting on a shelf side by side, they look like Quijote and Sancho in red. This is a very entertaining book about a great novel-the first modern novel. For people interested in understanding Cervantes contribution to the Western canon, Western civilization and popular culture, Stavans' Quixote is a great place to start their quest.

[Trevor Seigler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read "Don Quixote" a few years back, in the Penguin Black Spine edition (naturally), and I fell in love with the sheer modern-ness of the book. It's arguably the first real "novel" in Western literature, but it reads like a series of episodes that portray Spanish life in all its complicated, hilarious fullness. And so when I came across this appreciation of the novel and its impact on the world, I had to read it.

"Quixote: The Novel and the World," by Ilan Stavans, is a fun look at the ways in which Miguel de Cervantes' classic book shaped the world we live in and the ways in which we navigate life. It begins, of course, with the novel itself, a send-up of the romances of Cervantes' day, and how a wealthy don read himself into a frenzy and embarked on a Quixotic quest to right the wrongs he saw around him (all while deluding himself into thinking that he was a noble knight on a glorious steed). It then examines questions of sanity, translation, Cervantes and his life, and how the novel has been received in the world at large since it first appeared at the dawn of the seventeenth century.

Stavans, a critic and professor, does a masterful job of conveying how beloved "Don Quixote" is and why it continues to have an impact on the culture centuries after it was published. He also goes down some interesting tangents about who has loved the novel (and who has loathed it), the ways in which the novel's various translations have differed from one another, and the impact of a Spanish novel on the Latin American literary scene (and the complicated legacy of Spanish colonization in the wake of those former colonies breaking away). This is a fascinating book about a book that I loved when I read it, and which gives me great pleasure in recommending to anyone who has never read "Quixote" or anyone who has read it multiple times. This is a winner.

[J_BlueFlower · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is short, and already at 76% the Epilogue/Chronology/Sources starts.

I did not find it that interesting. I had hoped for more insights in the book Don Quixote, not all other sorts of things. A shop in Japan named Don Quixote: Ilan Stavans spends three pages on how he tried to find out why it was named Don Quixote. Waste of my time. Also the long chapter on English translations. Yes, Ilan Stavans’ book is in English, but that does not mean that the reader read Don Quixote in English or is interested in English translations at all. The most interesting part was the short mention of a French translation:

”France is notorious for having produced one of the most fraudulent of all translations …[the translator] deliberately sent the book to the printer without the last chapter because … he himself dreamed of writing a third part”

Here are some of my highlights:

"El Quijote has a total of 22,939 different words. This number represents the author’s verbal reservoir in his magnum opus. Shakespeare, in contrast, used slightly more: a total of 29,066 different English words in the sum of his plays."

Borge wrote a short story: Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote .... suggests that Don Quixote is a fixed text but that no two readers of it look at it the same way

Steinbeck also began a novel titled Don Keehan, resetting Cervantes’s classic in the American West, but he left it unfinished.

I 1982 British novelist and Catholic polemicist Graham Greene publishes the novel Monsignor Quixote.

[Stephen Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-paced introduction to Cervantes' massive influence on literature and culture. As a fanatical reader of Dostoevsky and a fan of Don Quixote, I was happily surprised to find that Dostoevsky loved Don Quixote as well, calling it the kind of book given to humanity once every few hundred years.

This book is full of entertaining vignettes and colorful characters, but it does tend to bog down a little towards the very end. In addition, it has that certain, self-conscious Qabbalistic/Yiddish/Hebrew literary critic feel which keeps me from giving the final star to all of Harold Bloom's otherwise excellent work.

Books like this make me realize that there are people for whom literature or art in general is a religion...a fascinating but ultimately pathetic phenomenon. Very intelligent people who can't bring themselves to follow a faith and really believe it, but who are willing to entrust themselves and the world to literature which they themselves proudly demonstrate as being open to all kinds of subjective interpretation.

[Brian Li · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice companion piece to read as a follow-up to Don Quixote. Decently organized overview of the major themes of the book itself as well as its effects on Western Culture. I think the amount of detail is just right for someone casually interested in the novel like myself, but agree with some reviews that it may not have much new to offer to someone of a more scholarly bend.

I appreciate that in spite of the author's obsession with the book, he is fairly up front about its flaws. The aspect of the book that was most surprising to me was when he discusses how different people and cultures have engaged with the text and interpreted it in different ways, which really goes to show that people can see whatever they want to see in a book like this.

[Joann Calabrese · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to read Don Quixote after reading a Biblio Books review explaining that Cervantes had changed the way people thought of novels. For some reason I'd never had to read it in high school or college literature classes. So here is the thing - I am plodding my way through Don Quixote (with what Biblio says is one of the best translations by Edith Grossmann). It is a bit of a challenge because many of the jokes are mean spirited and almost like something from a Three Stooges routine.

However, this book, "Quixote: The Novel and the World" is wonderful. It provides historical and cultural background for the novel and also includes lots of insight from other writers through the ages. I enjoyed it much more than I am enjoying the actual Don Quixote!

[John Crippen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book was great to read while El Quijote (turns out that's what the cool kids call it) was still fresh on my mind. Stavan's love for the book shows on every page and reading his thoughts about the book and its role in our world over the last 400 years and today have me thinking about reading El Quijote again later this year. Yes, I see the irony in re-reading a novel that warns of how reading too many novels dries up your brain...

[Kevin Schafer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book #6

Gearing up for reading Don Q. Like many a work it is fun to see when an author loves something and just wants to share that love with the world. Ground breaking book? No but a good introduction to the novel, its many translations and its larger impact in the world.

[Vilo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating history of the book and the influence it has had. At one point the author compares and contrasts Shakespeare and Cervantes, who died within a day of each other.

[Remy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

One scholar hispanique takes on The Novel and tis effect on the world in the last 400 years. Full of stories and arcane facts as is the original on which it is based.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comment soon

[Jason Furman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This excellent appreciation of Don Quixote is written with the reverence and appreciation of Harold Bloom but a more granular and broad set of insights. Ilan Stavans is a self-proclaimed Don Quixote lover with over 500 volumes of alternative translations on his shelves. He waited a long time to finally write about it and it shows. The first part of the book is "The Novel," which is more of a literary analysis of how Don Quixote is the first modern novel, how it shows all of its characters from different perspectives, the language it uses (including the punctuation), etc. The second part of the book is "The World" which covers its reception, adaptation and interpretation--in Latin America, Shakespeare (possibly but not likely), the United States, and in translation. In the course of this he covers the visual art, operas, musicals, ballets, movies, some the novels based on it, but does it all in a broadly integrated way that does not seem simply like a list of derivative products.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ilan Stavans discussions of the novel and its afterlife provided excellent after-the-fact grounding for my recent reading of Don Quixote. It's basically a biography of the novel written by an academic for an audience of lay readers, and it covers the novel's conception, reception and afterlife. Stavans' writing is concise, interesting and injects just the right amount of personal anecdote. I wish he had added something about how his undergraduates at Amherst react to the novel, but it's unfair to ding him for what the book isn't.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stavan’s book begins with an asteroid and ends in a Japanese convenience store, both named for one of literature’s greatest characters. That’s reason enough to read it, in my view.

But it also provides an impressive overview of the influence Don Quixote has had on the imaginations of some of the world’s greatest authors — and a few that weren’t so great.

Like Tabitha Gilman Tenney, who wrote “Female Quixotism, Exhibited in the Romantic Opinions and Extravagant Adventures of Dorcasina Sheldon” in 1801 as a warning to ladies that novels can warp the mind.

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stavans traces the history of Don Quixote on world culture. There's the occasional fascinating passage (and I appreciated his mentioning Kathy Acker's take on the subject), but the book never quite came together for me. Too much of it struck me as vague where I wanted more detail, or meandering where I wanted concision. There's certainly enough of value that anyone interested in the history of literary characters, or in Spanish literature, would benefit from examining it.

[Joanne Gass · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I liked this book; I'm sort of fan of Ilan Stavans, especially his translation of the opening of Don Quixote into Spanglish. The book follows the publication, reception, translation, and more than 400 year influence of Don Quixote. I liked the history of the translations into English and the discussion of the novel's influence in Latin America. This book is really not for the average reader, whether he/she has read the novel or not.

[Ben Lokey · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you haven't read Cervantes' Don Quixote, this excellent history of the book may not be as appreciated as it should be. On the other hand, reading Ilan Stavans' superb book first will lay the groundwork for a better understanding of just how successful the original was and is and to what degree, and why. Either way, Stavans' work is a marvelous compendium to the original.

[Merry Rabb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really enjoyable book if you are, like me, a huge fan of the novel in question. I only just read Don Quixote in 2015 and immediately went looking for books about it. Well worth reading if you are a fan - probably not of any interest if you have not.

[Jim Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely compelling cultural history of the novel

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

worth reading just for the chronology of translations

[Bobbi]

Couldn't finish this but enjoyed what I read. I'll come back to it after I've finished the novel.