Classics for Beginners discussion

Enjoy for December.

It's interesting, but I just finished reading this book and I had forgotten that we'd been nominating it for December until it popped up in my notifications feed!

I found it one of the most consistently entertaining book I'd ever read. Never boring.

I've "started" this book, but not really. Ha! Yeah, I'm reading the Easton Press edition of this one and it has about 80 pages of introductions, translator notes and notes about the author. I'm reading all that first. Cervantes actually had a pretty interesting life by the sounds of it.

That's the version I read also. He did lead an interesting life. 682 pages sound a lot better than 1500, as well. Though the EP tome can get cumbersome to hold.

My edition mentioned that he wrote Don Quixote while in jail, which I found very interesting. It's also interesting to note that many consider Don Quixote the prototype modernist novel in how it uses metalanguage and claims to have been written as a flawed history of Don Quixote...

Jonathon he was a prisoner of war for about 5 years. He also lost his left hand during a battle as well.

410 pages sounds about right. My version is 682 pages but has a lot of other stuff in it. The novel itself doesn't start until page 53 and then it has tons of notes on the text all through it.

At 410 pages, I think you might just be getting part one of two. My Penguin's Classic version is 971 p. and the prologue starts at p. 11.

Hmm maybe mines shorter because the pages are so huge lol as Squire said the EP version is large and cumbersome.

Hey Squire, did you read all the notes in the EP version? I'm thinking because his is my first time reading this the notes may be too distracting unless there's a passage I don't understand. Thoughts??

I've been making my way slowly through Don Quixote and following along with an open course (http://oyc.yale.edu/spanish-and-portu...). I'm really enjoying this! I finished book1 recently and am hoping to polish this off before the new year. :)

I read this book when I was a teenager (I think electricity was just becoming available to the public then), and I thought it was funny, but I also got bored very easily with long books; so, I am sure I only read about half of it then.

I forgot how funny this book is. It's hard to believe he had the courage to write this type of book, because people and literature were very, very anal and serious back then. You can see where the more modern authors with a quick wit are influenced by him, such as Mark Twain.

I´ve never seriously considered reading this book, this long, written in antique spanish book. And I have a copy and everything. This was an obligated read in middle and high school (which is the reason why I hate spanish authors) but it is not a bad idea at all, I will join for this and tell you if I succeeded. =)

I read DQ for the first time a year or so ago and while it's not one of my favorites, I did enjoy it. Instead of reading this one again so soon, I opted to read The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox. It's a parody of DQ published in 1752 (about 150 years after Don Quixote) and I really enjoyed it.

Knights Code of Chivalry
http://www.lordsandladies.org/knights...

I am enjoying this book so much I will not read anything in this discussion for fear of spoilers. I'll check back when I finish. I am almost halfway through.
:)

Remember this movie? I heard coconuts clapping the whole time I read this. LOL!